I 'met' Iggie Clark on Skype recently and just knew I had to capture more of who she is and what she's living as a student so that more people could see and hear what is possible whilst at university. Here's a short interview with this extraordinary second year student disciple who's leading in mission at home, online & abroad!
Where are you a student and what are you studying?
I’m studying German & Linguistics (with some Swedish thrown in for fun) at the University of Edinburgh.
How did you get your passion for mission and evangelism?
When I was 10 and on my first Scripture Union holiday, our dorm leader used to read us stories from a book called ‘Ten Girls Who Changed The World’ about incredible female missionaries… I think it was meant to calm us all down, but had the exact opposite effect on me and so as a kid I was like “Okay Jesus, this is what I’m going to do with my life!”. From then on I devoured every missionary autobiography I could get my hands on, joined in street evangelism in my city and told my year nine careers advisor that I was going to be a bible smuggler!!
What is BURN and what does your involvement look like?
Burn 247 is a global network of “furnaces” (citywide communities) which gather once a month for 12-100 hours of continuous worship & prayer, with the aim to unite churches, denominations and generations. The idea is that instead of each church having their own worship nights, we all get together and intercede for our cities, with the worship leaders swapping in and out every hour or so. It started in 2006 with a series of spontaneous all night dorm room worship gatherings on a university campus in America. Since beginning in a uni dorm room, Burn 247 has exploded to over 150 locations across the world and has pioneered several training schools and sent out dozens of missionaries.
I got involved in January 2017, when I interned for the European Director in Berlin during my gap year. I actually had no idea really what Burn 247 was, just that God was calling me to Germany and that was my ticket there! Since then the Burn 247 community and seeing God’s presence transform Europe has become my biggest passion!!
I’m now part of the European Core Team and I coordinate all of the short term mission stuff! That involves organising/leading outreach & mission trips and making all the practical arrangements for teams coming from other parts of the world to serve in Europe!! In the last two years I’ve been to eight European countries with Burn 247, and will add twelve more to that total by the end of 2019!!
How are you using your summer this year?
My biggest project over the summer is Burn Wagon Europe; basically we fill a minibus with the most fiery and passionate worship leaders / intercessors / revivalists we can find and drive across Europe for a month, connecting with churches/ prayer houses/ anyone who loves Jesus. We lead worship, organise prayer nights, pray for healing on the streets and follow wherever God leads!
The vision is to travel as family, forming deep friendships and community on the road and give Holy Spirit space to transform each of us as we go. Every day looks completely different - different cities, countries, hosts - but with the same aim to bless, encourage and spread the gospel!
It’s literally the most fun thing I’ve ever done; as well as travelling through a bunch of countries and having good sing-songs in the van, last summer 16 people gave their lives to Jesus and we saw physical healings almost every single day! There is nothing I would rather do!
If a student is reading this who thinks being a student is limiting and they can't really get on with 'real life' yet, what would you tell them?
I would say that there is sooo much opportunity as a student! Probably about once a week I get frustrated with having to be in lectures or stuck in the library, when all I want to do is go be off in a van seeing miracles all over Europe, and every single time God gently reminds me that right now my mission field is university. I’m surrounded by people who need to know the transforming love of Jesus in their lives. Flatmates, coursemates, friends on nights out. What other time in ‘real life’ do you live in such close quarters with people, getting to demonstrate how your faith impacts your day to day?
At the moment God is really challenging me about being faithful where I am, and not making “mission” something that is reserved for a few weeks in the summer, in another country. My 2019 challenge is to pray for at least one person on the streets every single day, and post a testimony on my instagram story!!! At the beginning of the year I was utterly terrified, but it’s getting easier by the day and I have so many people messaging or coming up to me in classes and asking if I will pray for them too, or if they can come out and pray for people with me!
Also spiritual disciplines don’t spring out of nowhere. There isn’t a magical thing which happens on planes where suddenly you know your bible better. I’m so thankful for the time I have during uni to build up rhythms of prayer and fasting and diving deep into my bible, and have those habits in place before getting on with ‘real life’!
If we want to know more about who you are, what you're up to and what BURN is about, where can we click next?
You can follow the Burn Wagon’s adventures on Facebook (Burn Wagon Europe) and Instagram (burnwagoneu). A quick Facebook search should also tell you if there is a furnace near you!
If you want to hear more about what I’m up to, I’m also on instagram (iggieclark) and you can follow my 365 street prayer challenge there too! Feel free to drop me a message if you’re keen to get involved in future adventures or just want to get excited about all that God is doing in Europe at the moment!!
This blog is the first in a new series redefining students, so keep a look out for more inspiring interviews every week.
