The Burn Wagon 2022 was an amazing experience! For most of the journey, it was three men (myself, Craig Dempsey and Mark Lewellen – both from Lubbock). Our schedule was pretty intense and we had some unexpected but very fruitful encounters. On the right of this page, you will find the testimony highlights from each day of our trip, but read on for some details of the amazing things God did.
Our Burn 24-7 region is ”Mid-South” and covers Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri. The Burn Wagon would hit each of those states over the course of the week. We began our first day in Lubbock, TX at the local Revival Room community house of prayer. This is a space where the Burn and several churches and ministries from Lubbock share in lifting up worship and prayer over the city, region, nation and world. From doing a morning set of worship, we went directly to the Lubbock County Detention Center. The detention center is home for some as they serve their sentence, but for others it is a holding tank until they are sent to federal prison to serve their sentence. There are ex-cartel members, murderers, car thieves drug dealers (and addicts) and more inside the walls and I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. Fifty male prisoners filed into the room, nearly every single one giving a firm handshake and a hug as they came in. Most of them were already Christians and nearly half are super hungry for God. The worship was powerful and the men were very engaged. I had the opportunity to teach on faith and exercising our faith to transform our circumstances. At the end, we gave an invitation not only to accept Christ, but to receive healing. About twenty-five men stood up needing healing. Yikes! We began praying for each one – immovable shoulders, knee pain, toothaches, emotional trauma and more. At the end, every single one was healed!! I was blown away!! I’ve prayed for a lot of people to get healed and – I’ll be honest – it’s been pretty hit or miss, so to see 100% was incredible and really demonstrated the heart of God for these men. All of them were so grateful for our prayers and for our simple presence. I was deeply humbled by the experience and grateful to be a part. These feelings were a constant thread through our entire time. We ended the day at a local church for a six hour burn during one of their local children’s outreach events. It was a great time of worship, family connection and a great end to our first day.
Our second day was in Amarillo. The burn that day was at a local shop in the middle of the city. During one of the spontaneous songs, Craig gave a prophetic word over one of the youth there. God seized on the opportunity and within minutes, one of the lead worshipers gathered the children up front to pray over them and commission them into what God has for them. This young man who was just prophesied over began boldly praying and declaring over the other children. What a moment! To see this young man ministering to others his age brought many to tears. It was a powerful time of God demonstrating that He is no respecter of age – in the Kingdom, everyone is empowered.
In Oklahoma City we hit the streets in 100+ degree heat to minister to people along the river walk in Bricktown. It was a beautiful area and a beautiful time of ministering to people, including a man who was certainly demon-possessed. For most folks, this is probably not something you have knowingly encountered and maybe you don’t even believe in such things. But I can tell you 100% when you are staring into the eyes, you know who’s looking back at you. I would love to tell you that our prayers delivered that man and sent the demon back to hell, but that didn’t happen – at least in any way that we could see. We prayed and declared the love of Jesus over this man, but he left still bound and that was something with which I honestly had a hard time. Why couldn’t he just be free?! But there’s a lot more going on than I can see and one thing I know – God’s ways are not mine and He moves in ways I cannot see and frequently do not comprehend. And one more thing I know – that man may not have walked away in freedom, but he was one step closer. We ended our time in OKC with an incredible night of worship. The atmosphere was super intimate and the Spirit of God was heavy in that place.
The heartbeat of Burn 24-7 is a collision of vertical worship and the Great Commission. We are firm believers in putting His presence first and that out of the place of intimacy flows evangelism, discipleship and ministries of justice. That was central during our time in Bentonville, AR. A team of us spent much of the actual burn on the streets of the city praying and ministering to whomever God led us. I mentioned that God moves in ways we can’t see and He was definitely doing something unexpected that day. We ended our time of street ministry and headed back to the burn; as we were wrapping up, we stepped outside to a torrential downpour that ended up lasting several hours! There was no rain forecast for the day and the storm cell just hung over the city, breaking six weeks of drought!
Along the way, we heard about a place called Eureka Springs, AR, touted as one of the foremost centers of New Age and witchcraft in our region. So, that was our next stop. We prayed through the city as we walked and felt a distinct lack of the heaviness we were expecting. We prayed over several people along our way and encountered another street minister named Michael who has been a resident of Eureka Springs all his life. He gave us some inside info on local witch activities so we were able to target our time and prayers very strategically in that area. We strongly felt the significance of our time there, especially since it was a ”bonus” stop along our route. The apostle Paul says in 2 Cor. 10:4 that “the weapons of our warfare…have divine power to demolish strongholds” and we definitely demolished a few things that day. I would expect some great testimonies to come from Eureka Springs in the coming days and months. Continue to pray for the people of that place, that the light of Jesus would break forth on them in power.
The theme of strategic prayer continued as we journeyed to Branson, MO. We spent the first part of our time there heading to various places of significance and declaring the love of Christ and the Kingdom of God over people, governments and the land. We followed up these points with a six hour burn that evening where people shared testimonies, spontaneous songs and a beautiful time of singing in the Spirit. The burn furnace in Branson is very new and so it also gave us an opportunity to impart some Burn 24-7 DNA into their community and encourage and strengthen them in the midst of their ministry. It was also a very blessed time of receiving for our team; it never ceases to amaze me how much the Lord blesses you when you purpose to bless others.
Our next stop in Whitesboro, TX, was also at a burn furnace fairly new to the movement. We were honored and blessed to take part in their first 24-hour burn. If you’ve never experienced worshipping through the night, I encourage you to try it. There is a sweetness to those wee hours of the morning when it’s just you or a very few of you pouring your heart out to the Lord. The sacrifice of sleep is richly rewarded and as we came to the end of the twenty-four hours there was such a wonderful mix of total exhaustion and excitement as we celebrated what God was doing in the area. The burn that day/night was able to host a father & daughter leading worship together and a girl who was suicidal just days before grabbing a microphone and worshipping Jesus!
We inserted a last minute stop at Frisco, TX, where we spent the night with some good friends and prayed over people during mall ministry. I would love to tell you of people getting delivered and healed and saved during our time at the mall. I’m sure some of that happened, but from our perspective it was just several very sweet times of loving on people, sharing the truth of Jesus and how much he loves them and seeing people be blessed by simple acts of kindness. You never know what state people are in when you approach them and it is consistently amazing how blessed people are to simply have someone pray for them. If we had more of that kind of connection, the world would be a different place.
The final stop of the Burn Wagon was in Corsicana, TX, where we kicked off 77 hours of worship, prayer and teaching. Andrea and I both had the opportunity to teach and that was a super great blessing to us both. With seventy-seven hours, we had three night watches and the youth of the community powered through the night each night. It was amazing to see kids and young adults from the community not just worshipping through the night, but not wanting to leave that environment, even to tears. Say what you will about this generation, but God is raising up a fiery, zealous remnant that will carry His presence through the night and to the nations. I truly believe they will ”school” our generation in pursuing the Lord. We didn’t do any ”official” outreach during the seventy-seven hours, but God brought people to us who were hurting and broken, giving us the opportunity to pray and release the healing Jesus paid for. Jesus is so faithful to care for his people and to be true to his word, ”when I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32).
The Burn Wagon was, by pretty much all accounts, a great success. It was a really great time of bonding with my brothers and sharing our lives even for a short time. Travel is awesome, as always, and getting to visit so much of our Burn family on their home turfs was a great blessing. The very first night, Craig asked what our expectations were of this trip. I honestly did not have a lot of set expectations, but I knew God was going to do great things and the word I felt He gave me was ”pivotal.” It was certainly pivotal for the lives we touched, the places we prayed over and, most assuredly us. Thank you for your prayers and support, they were most needed and certainly felt.
25 men healed of physical and emotional needs at the Lubbock County Detention Center!
Children commissioned as ambassadors of Christ during spontaneous worship.
Street ministry outreach including praying for a demon possessed man!
Six weeks of drought came to and end while we were worshipping!
Strategic prayer at one of the darkest locations in our region.
Twenty-four hours of worship released over the city & region!
Mall ministry and prayer over homeless.
77 hours of worship, prayer and training where there was the healing of trauma and emotional scars in at least three people!