Hillside Intensive – Galveston
The first weekend in October, I was able to take some friends from the YWAM base with me to a Hillside Intensive Weekend. Hillside is the Burn’s training geared for musicians (as opposed to Field Training, which is online training for Burn directors/aspiring Burn Directors). Check out both types of Burn trainings here. Traditionally, Hillside has been done as a month-long school, but recently different Burn cities have been experimenting with week-long intensives. This was the first weekend Hillside Intensive, put together by our awesome friends Ben & Lesley Fontenot, directors of Burn Galveston. Also teaching that weekend was our wonderful Mid-South Regional Director & OKC Burn Director, Liam Bernhard, and the great Chris & Alicia Humphrey from Burn Sacramento. Check these links to see more about Liam, or get Chris’s Book, The End Time Worship Army.
From the YWAM base, three others went with me – all are involved in the Burn on base, one of our awesome young friends from our SOSM class who will one day be burning again in Dearborn, MI (she’s burning for Muslims wherever she is!), and a newly married couple who will be heading up the next School of Worship on the base beginning in January!
I was so excited to get these peeps into an atmosphere where they could experience what Burn 24-7 does best – creating an environment of freedom, Presence and quantum growth in worship!
I can not say enough about the weekend. Not only did I get to see (and stay with) our great friend Pam Rose (who was with us faithfully in our first years of Burning in the San Marcos area), but I got to see people I love step out and experience instant growth in spontaneous worship – in a totally free and encouraging environment.
My favorite part was crying with joy and excitement while I watched those step-outs happen with the YWAM crew in an “everyone Burns” session, and realized that I couldn’t be any happier if I were watching my own kids. I think in that moment I began to fully embrace my “Mama” role in this little group, and maybe even for our ministry in general. Everyone commented over and over what a blessing the training was, how inclusive and honoring the learning environment was, and how they would definitely go again. Honestly, it was just exactly what I expected from our Burn tribe, because it was exactly what happens when we get in the same room. Joy!! We are amazed and blessed over and over again at the incredible culture the Burn carries, and at the deep honor we still feel to be running with this tribe after 9+ years!! It really excites me that the great stuff our YWAM friends picked up that weekend was taken back to base, where it can be taken all over the world!
