Festival of the Nations 2007 Report

A ‘Uni-multiplicity’ Festival

After Pentecost weekend, the tent city vanished even faster than it had sprung up on the outskirts of Herrnhut. But the Festival of the Nations will remain in the hearts and minds of the 800 participants for a long time to come.

‘These were the best days of my life!’ one young teenager enthused to his parents. ‘My favorite conference ever!’ said Lisa, the festival’s dynamic and versatile worship leader. ‘The best European YWAM event since 1985 in Randers!’ said another seasoned leader.

But how can you sum up these four intense (in-tents) days in one word? Braulia Ribeiro, colourful pioneer missionary and president of YWAM Brazil, introduced to us to the right word in her Saturday night address in the main tent. ’Uni-multiplicity’, she explained, described how God had made his creation, including the human race. We were one, yet so diverse! The Godhead was also a uni-multiplicity: the Three-in-One.

So too was the Festival: a uni-multiplicity of main meetings, worship stations, seminars, story-telling corners, children’s and teenagers’ programmes, workshops, tours of Herrnhut, art and photography exhibitions, information stands, concerts and 24/7 prayer.

Set in the grounds of the Wasserschloss (Water Castle), a grand five-storey building surrounded by rolling fields, tall trees and a large pond, the tent city was the focal point of the festival. Participants also lodged in pensions and hostels in the broader neighbourhood. Many of the 48 seminars and workshops were held in the town centre of Herrnhut, a 10 minute uphill walk through the woods where the first Moravian settlers had chopped down trees to build their houses in the 1720’s.

Object lesson
Tours conducted by local Moravians introduced the YWAMers to the story of a township founded by religious refugees who experienced a pentecostal outpouring in the local Lutheran church in 1727. The revived community lifestyle resulted in the first missionaries being sent out from this little town exactly 275 years ago this year. This fledgling mission movement became a major inspiration for more Protestant missions that began around the start of the 19th century.

Inspiration and impartation were key reasons why we had chosen Herrnhut for the Festival of the Nations, bringing together staff, students and friends of YWAM across Europe in this ‘little town that blessed the world’. Herrnhut was an object lesson in the way God used faithful minorities to shape history.

In his opening address, YWAM’s international director, Lynn Green, challenged his listeners to radical obedience to Jesus, calling YWAMers back to foundational values and right relationships.

Outdoor crowds at the story-telling sessions sprawled across a grassy bank in front of the castle (see photo) listening eagerly to veterans like Al Akimoff, Keith and Marion Warrington, and Romkje Fountain relating chapters from YWAM’s early history. As young pioneers they had stepped out in radical obedience to God’s word taking Bibles into Eastern Europe, crossing the Sahara on field trips, buying a houseboat to moor in an Amsterdam canal to start YWAM there...

Jan Schlegel, director of the YWAM centre in Herrnhut, enthralled his audience with more recent stories of how God had led and enabled him and his wife Ute to buy the Wasserschloss with cash for €250,000!

Hanging from the castle walls were Jan’s own giant photos taken on pioneer mission trips to unreached peoples, including poignant portraits of AIDS patients. These and other highly professional photo displays reminded participants of the needy mission fields both in Europe and beyond. Photos by Susi Childers highlighted the theme of gender injustice, portraying victims of prostitution, human trafficking, genital mutilation, forced labour, war, terrorism and other contemporary global realities.

Explosive
Pentecost Sunday began with all the festival participants, including the 150 children and teenagers, joining with 60 million believers worldwide in the Global Day of Prayer. Starting a few years ago in South Africa, this movement has snowballed to 205 nations this year, uniting Christians in prayer for justice and revival worldwide.

Following a prepared liturgy led by Ina Steyn, the prayer time burst into explosive corporate intercession as the four regional leaders of YWAM Europe–Kelly Hoodikoff (eastern), Carmelita Clarke (central), Alv Magnus (northern) and Stephe Mayers (western) led in prayer for the the nations of Europe. A strong drum beat introduced Loren Cunningham’s prayer for God’s glory to cover the earth, a moment some described as the festival highpoint.

Yet more was to come. That evening after expanding his listeners’ vision to see what God was doing and still wanted to do worldwide, Loren led in an offering that saw €72,000 pledged for missions - from a few hundred ‘poor’ YWAMers!

For the last time on Monday morning, the daily worship stations offered opportunity to taste various worship traditions: from Armenian and Catholic liturgical, Moravian losungen and meditation to ‘classical’ charismatic and children’s sessions. Wandering through the grounds and hearing these diverse expressions of worship was yet another experience in ‘uni-multiplicity’.

From Jeff Fountain's Weekly Word of 11 June 2007.

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