Day 5/6 Berlin, Germany

I am standing in the rain at the stadium, where in 1936 Jesse Owens, a black American Olympian  defeats a blonde German Olympian. This is not the dream, this is not how it’s supposed to be. This confronts the madman, enrages him, makes him determined more than ever to prove his point, to wreck the dreams of others to fulfil his own mad dream. How the mighty have fallen. I later stand over the spot where below me is the bunker he blows his brains out. The madman defeated.

I am standing in the rain at the Berlin Wall, forever a symbol of tyranny, oppression, division, gracelessness. The artists and poets have spoken into this space and transformed that pain into something of beauty, creativity, colour. The tourists (like me) come with their cameras and wonder.. and come they should. What better place to observe how art can see, art can speak, art can interpret, can process, art can transform pain into stories, books, songs, poems, and yes, into positive emotions and pictures.

I am standing in the rain at the Memorial To The Murdered Jews Of Europe where over several acres of land a labyrinth of tomb-like structures impacts the senses like a spike through a hand. These monoliths are confronting in an austere granite-like life-changing way. No photograph can do justice to the experience of walking these sombre halls. No plaques with names, just a profound silent witness. The horror of that time is brought slowly into the subconscious like a sinister virus, with the eternal unanswerable question tugging in your mind: Why Lord?

I am standing in the rain of the Holy Spirit in front of a church audience of many, in a large tomb-like church. The ringing acoustics are wonderful, my voice soars, the atmosphere electric. In such circumstances the Lord gives me the scriptures to quote, word for word, and the exact words to say. There is an economy of delivery and I sense The Anointing where I know hearts and lives are impacted, by silent and spoken witness. Why do I leave my home for long periods of time? For moments such as these, to see the revelation of the healing power of the Cross. Go you into the world. (Mark 16.15)