This one time at Burning Man....

Hmmmmm. Thank You Father! Where to begin?
Alright, I'm going to free-flow it: The first thing that occurs to me is that "write-ups" are written in first person, from the point of view of, in this case, me. So, I want to make it clear that anything good and perfect was the result of Holy Spirit, and that we were a team. I'll give first person perspective, but it is not to call any attention to myself. Luke did it, I'll try.

There was a marked difference this year in grace on the camp. The white dome tent went up quickly and (fairly) easily. At first it was a group of us girls and I was astounded. Then Shane came to help and it went even more smoothly. I just kept repeating, "There's such a grace this year!"

It seemed that there was a different flavor of ministry each day: The first day we started out with "Spirit Surge"--a drum circle and intercession. It was so powerful. People were drawn in, and shock waves went out. From processing each night in the RV with my new friend Amy, I learned that much of what we were experiencing was a fulfillment of understanding and proclamation by her intercessors in Minnesota. She kept repeating how powerful the Spirit and intercession was and that it was said in advance that we wouldn't see what a difference our presence made in the area as the sound and prayer and praise and dance was released.
As people would come and go, our team would connect with them and give them a picture, insight, blessing, prayer, etc.

That first morning a guy with a sheik headdress came and started drumming next to me. I asked Holy Spirit, "What is the treasure in this one?" and heard: "righteousness". How to deliver that word in non-christianese...? I grabbed Jesse (team member, father figure, make-and-fix-anything-guy) and asked this man what his name was. Justin. Confirmation.
He left with Father's blessing, an affirmation that he was created to recognize truth and live accordingly, and tears in his eyes.

Then Lita came in. Topless with a cool, hand-created utility skirt. Again tears mixed with beauty. The Spirit of Truth, and the Awesomeness of Creator coming and loving. The next time she stopped by, she was covered, and said that we were the most meaningful encounter she'd ever had at Burning Man. "The love, the depth of love...."

Time out here to expand on that. Both years, I've hungered for and prayed for crystal clear words of knowledge that will convince people that God sees, knows.... And yet, it always comes down to love. A little GB* who says it best:
"There are some very impressive religious activities: speaking in tongues, prophetic powers, understanding all mysteries, having all knowledged, mountain-moving faith....Yet they are all devoid of any value if they are not done in love. They are nothing more than religious noise--a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.
"We have perhaps heard this passage too many times to readily appreciate how utterly radical it is. Paul was saying the the only criteria that matters when assessing the value of any activity is this: Is it done in love? Does it ascribe unsurpassable worth to others, and does it increase people's capacity to ascribe unsurpassable worth to others?
"Christians are often impressed by miraculous powers, supernatural gifts and altruism. And there's certainly nothing wrong with these acts. But if they aren't motivated by love and don't promote love, we are to consider them altogether worthless."

This is what I felt the grace on: love. Throughout the week, and amongst our team, one for another. Because, you know, sometimes it's easier to have love for someone you don't know, but it was alive in our camp first. Thank You, Love, for dwelling with us.

Bethany, a gorgeous black woman from Australia, came in that first day too. I don't remember what it was I said to her, but she replied back to me: "Oh yes! I received my Nigerian name when I was 25. It means "God has done something good!" I blessed that all over, up and down, that her eyes would see and her spirit would recognize every time God was up to something good. Then she smiled and said, "And my real name is Bethany! You know, like....Bethlehem!"
(Funny on so many levels, but I found out later that she had told someone she was agnostic. She came back two days later and received much more).

Tamara came in, wearing very little and dancing very seductively. I saw a crown of light and truth for her. I approached, asked if I could speak to her spirit, and told her she was loved. Tears. Then I told her I sensed that Creator wanted to give her a gift. A crown of truth and light. And that if she would receive it, I would place it on her head and she could ask for the Spirit of Truth and Light to come and show her what He wanted her to see. She received it, and I believe she saw herself being held. I told her it was something she now had. That she could ask any time for Truth to shine on something. Later, Melissa introduced her to Creator, and she received the baptism of Holy Spirit.

A little aside here: The theme of Burning Man this year was "Evolution". And yet, to my knowledge, we never received any resistance when we spoke about Creator and what He had placed into these precious ones as treasures and gifts to be recognized, celebrated and released. Light in the darkness. That's where it's most notable, attention-getting, beautiful. I mean, c'mon, fireworks in the daytime? Creator shines at Burning Man.

And there was Mary: "She loves words" tatooed on her shoulder. We gave her some words. And hugs, blessings, hope and healing.

And India: from Athens, GA, but part Creek Indian. Hmmm, Creek. "That's where I'm from! Montana!" She smiled and said yes. At the end of this encounter, speaking destiny words of inventions and problem-solving, I gave her a pendant I'd made with a picture of Amelia Earheart and the word "STRETCH". Then I asked her for a blessing, her being Creek, and me being from Montana. She said she would like to, but didn't know how. I told her it was a chance to stretch and she'd do well. She took my hands and said, "I bless you and your people with peace and with wisdom. And I bless your land with peace." I felt so honored, and pleased that she'd learned and been able to release what we'd modeled. I received peace. At the end of the trip, Marilyn gave me a hug and said, "Sonja, you're so serene." I laughed and said, "I like that! I think I'll begin repeating it! I am serene...I am serene." She said "Your playa name could be Serenity." Those who know me...

And April, who had team members coming over one after another, building and loving, prophesying and blessing. And those were the highlights of my encounters from day one.

When I met Amy at the airport, she was foreshadowing. She said, "You know, you can love someone just with your eyes." This jump-started a remembrance of a teaching I'd heard by Arthur Burk. You know how nature preceeds invention? Like how the Wright Brothers looked at birds to design the airplane? Arthur talks about fiber optics and the transmission of information wirelessly, and how this takes place in eye-contact, referencing the verse about how the eye is the lamp of the body, and if your eyes are good, the whole body will be filled with light.
(great teaching, order at plumblineministries.com)
So: I would look at people very intentionally, left eye to left eye (right brain to right brain), and tell them they were loved. Later, I learned how this played out in Amy's ministry.

On day two, during a trip to the banos, I sensed that there was a thing on dreams for the day. I love it when Papa shares something in advance so I can participate. I ministered to a beautiful girl named Charlie, from Hollywood. There was so much fear and wounding, she said she wasn't good at talking, and yet she had so much to release. When I prompted her to invite the Spirit of Wisdom, she said she couldn't do it out loud. She said she'd do it in her head and let me know when she had. Spirit showed up beautifully ("Beautiful" being another word I'd heard over the week and heard many echo), and Kelly came over and said she saw Charlie as a warrior princess with a dagger in her boot, using it to cut off evil and shine forth truth (Or something like that, sorry Kelly), regardless, this resonated with Charlie who let loose with several rare, shy smiles at Kelly as she went back to flagging and dancing on the dusty land. As I spoke of Creator, she said, "I know. I had a dream about Him. He was riding a big wave on a surfboard and smiling and waving at me. Later that day, I was behind a car with a bumpersticker of a surfer riding a wave and was reminded." I asked her who she thought it was in the dream. She said, "Well, I think it was, you know, Christ." I told her I thought she was right. She said (and I heard this so many times), "I think this is why I came to Burning Man. This was the most amazing encounter."

And then the village of Israelis.... Four beautiful girls from Israel and a doctor from Iran. Naomi came first, was touched and returned with the rest of them. They sang us a song called "Woman of Valor" based off of Proverbs 31.

Scott also came in that day. He'd had recurring dreams of wandering aimlessly, looking for something that would satisfy. Merry and I spent quite a bit of time with him, and I stumbled over some words and was able to say, "I don't think that came out right", but did get to clarify. He was blessed by Jesse, and then revealed that he had walls up with women. I did some "identification repentance", asking him to forgive for where he'd been hurt, used and manipulated by women. He was open to this and forgave. In the end, Merry and I agreed that maybe we should have just left it with the dream interpretation, as he was (admittedly) quite cerebral and not that open. The next day, however, I ran into him at the sno-cone stand. "Wow. You really gave me a lot to think about yesterday. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening just reflecting. I didn't even go out or drink last night. And I had diarrhea this morning. I really received a cleansing. Thank You." Goes to show you never can tell.

Another day, another revelation in the bano. This time, I felt Jesus was saying, there's a special grace on truth to be received today. Tell it like it is. Perhaps it's the political and economic climate, but people seemed to have less walls up against God this year. The encounters this day were deep and clear. Elisha came in, struggling with fibromyalgia and her head being in the way of her spirit. She wanted the blockage to go, and she received the Truth, forgiving herself and her father, and receiving forgiveness. She was healed of pain, and stayed for several hours as Melissa discipled her, explaining the other encounters that were taking place. Then she just wanted to listen to Caleb's music, so Melissa made a clean place for her to lay down under the speaker.

Ed came in and Caleb heard much in the natural and in the spirit. As he helped bear the burden and bring Ed to a point of release of so much pain and sadness, the cry came forth and that was noted in the camps around us. In our tent, no eyes were dry, including both of Saul's, who had just come in. Jesse held Ed, blessing him with the heart of his True Father, as he released tears and cries of pain that had been inflicted on him by his natural father. Ed also stayed for hours that day, surrounded by love and with a clear understanding of the choice that was his to make.

Saul. Comes in with the words "Wine for Water" written on his torso and asking about healing through sound. Saul? Really? Marked for Transformation. Yes, indeed. He witnessed Ed's released and was touched to the core. The healing was tangible. Then He asked the Spirit to come and locked eyes with Amy.

[Aside....So, Amy and I had been processing nightly. She told me of her travels to Brazil with Randy Clark, the wild and undeniable impartation (fire and eyes) that she'd gotten there, and her trip to Haiti where she'd been used in deliverance, just through looking at people in their eyes. I'm so glad I had this background for a grid for what took place with Saul.]

So they were just looking at each other for maybe 10 minutes, but it seemed like longer. Intercessors everywhere, and Cindy doing prophetic acts (unlocking his heart, the cross over his mind) based on her spiritual sight, that he responded to. Amy said later that the demons were trying to intimidate her. Suddenly, she breaks into laughter and they are hugging each other. Cindy frames it. "You feel that? That is Jesus. Yes, you know? He loves you. He set you free."
Like I said, a special grace on truth that day. He got filled with Holy Spirit, has quite a Russian sounding tongue, and saw visions that reminded me of Akiane's painting of the pyramids. We sent him back to his camp hours later with 3 flats of water.

And then the Mayas. Again from Israel. 20 years old and just out of the army where they were teachers of what to do with tanks. One had a special revelation of Father. "I believe that what you are saying is true." The other had a problem with why God would allow evil things to happen. But tears, tears and tears as she heard about His love. They came back to our camp two times later the same day, 3 times total.

We prayed for Mike, our neighbor, the prey-er ("They thank ME to take a shower! They come, take their clothes off on top of my RV, let me take pictures, and they thank ME!"), and his eyes felt tangibly better. Heal his spiritual eyes, too, Father. This year our neighbors were different than last year. To boil it down, gay on 3 sides, leering porn-ish on the other. There was the "Paradise Motel" with the pink trailer and flamingos. They gave out sno-cones each day, with the flavor menu written on their butts. So we got showers (in our swimsuits), sno-cones, trampoline and Brazilian music. Light shines brightest in the darkness. Great Grace this year, thank You, Daddy!

And HUGE thanks to those who prayed and supported me financially. I'm asking Abba for a full reward for you, financially, in dream interpretation/prophetic evangelism and that your friends and families receive sozo from Jesus.

So I feel kind of like Hebrews 11...("And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about John-O, Iranian Guy, Other Scott, Miriam, Late Night Visitors, Woman in Yellow Skirt, Girl at Temple, Nico....) God blew my mind this year, through the uniqueness of encounters. I saw first hand the power of warfare/prophetic dance as Melissa and Kelly would literally change the atmosphere, "swatting demons away", and our guests would comment on the transformation/freedom in them. And the "deliverance without words" yet tangible! If learning not to speak "Christianese" has been a fun stretch, learning to minister without words totally blows my "verbal processing, wordsmithing, exhorter" mind. But, with the mind blown, it's Spirit to spirit. So cool, so much freedom to follow the Spirit. I'm thankful to Father and my teammates for showing me mucho. Much more than I can write now, but ask me about more sometime....

And lots of laughter! (thanks Hailey and Bethany) and Wonder (thanks Charlotte and wonder-woman herself, Cindy) and funky new clothes (thanks slutgarden) and SO MUCH thanks to all of you for your patience, your hard work, wisdom, fearlessness, songs, dance, freedom, sweat, dark chocolate covered potato chips, and above all things: love.

Much love, Sonja



*GB=Greg Boyd. From his book, "Repenting of Religion--Turning from Judgment to the Love of God" page 56. I highly recommend any of his writing.