When a blog was born

July 2006 ►

Can anyone remember? No? Well, in fact, this is sort of a special anniversairy this year. In July 2006, when I started this blog I was just taking off to the United States to visit the International House of Prayer – aka IHOP – in Kansas City, Missouri. And this year I’m a “repeater”. Yes, I’m pleased to announce to you *drumroll* that I’m going to visit IHOP KC again

“European Immersion” ► dip deep, soak and steep

“European Immersion 2008″ that’s the name of the program I’m going to take part in. Sounds good, eh! I’m looking forward to getting some passion fueling teaching, to seeing again some nice people I got to know then and meeting a lot of new Jesus-hungry people and above all, I’m looking forward to sitting in the prayer room, talking to my Father, refocussing my life, my mind, my everything on Him, getting refreshed, refueled, recharged in His presence, having an awesome time of worship and devotion and receiving more and more revelation… aaahhh, I can’t stop… I’m soooo looking forward. There’s just nothing like being with Jesus and knowing God!

Why in the world IHOP in the States?

Why not! Okay, okay, it’s a sane question. Why can’t I simply sit in my room at home to do the things mentioned above. First, I would save a lot of money. Secondly, my peeps at church and at home would not complain about me leaving everything behind for 4 weeks . However, the answer is easy.
First, I want to go on holiday! But on a “Jesus-holiday”, meaning I don’t want to just hang out on a beach for some weeks to return physically relaxed, recovered and sunburnt (although that’s extremely attractive, I admit). I want to relax, recover and sunbathe my spirit as well, because I believe this is the one thing needed in this world, in this time. Spiritual things are more real, more important, more influential than physical things. That’s hard to grasp because we learned from birth on to walk according to what our senses tell us, to think based on what we can explain with so called sanity and science. That’s good of course. If only we would stop to exclude, negate and deny the spiritual reality. My point is, I need to feed my inner man, and a program like this is a great opportunity.
Secondly, I believe IHOP KC is a place God has exceptionally blessed. A place with people He has anointed to do what they are doing. They have got a great chunk of revelation about some things in the body of Christ which I haven’t found anywhere else in that measure. Of course there are more houses of prayer all over the world. The great advantage of such institutions in the States is simply the size or capacity and structure. Or have you ever heard of a House of Prayer in Germany holding such programs… (Anyway, we’re growing, aren’t we!) Well, I believe, it’s good to get around a bit and have the best teachers, to get the cream of the crop;) The head of my former music school used to encourage me comparing the learning and training process of an instrumentalist with the training of craftsmen in medieval times. After one or two years of learning from their master in their city they started to cross through the country to learn from masters here and there, develop their skills by getting trained various ways and approaches of manufacturing and to finally find out the best way in order to become the best craftsman. He wasn’t possessive or protective about me as his student at his school. Instead he encouraged me to take workshops and lessons wherever I could, because he wanted me to become an excellent musician. I think that’s a nice analogy to our spiritual learning and training. (Hopefully, you’re getting my point: I’m not supporting people who roam around from one christian camp to the next to get pumped without having roots in a church. Every christian needs to be planted in a local church!)
So IHOP KC… I’m coming:)