It’s late…but today deserves a summary if only just to stand as a mark in the sand for my own sake. 

The last few weeks have been hard.  I can’t say much more than that…the sad reality of blogging is you can’t always be as honest as you would like to be.  The truth is while there have been a number of things going on, no one single thing has made my life difficult.  A series of life circumstances and the seemingly unrestrained hand of Satan have combined to make life painful. 

Anyways, this blog is not about that.  This blog is about today.  Today actually started yesterday, believe it or not.  I stood in my office preparing for today but confessing to my wife how totally weak I’ve become over this difficult time.  After I was finished spewing everything in my heart out I made a wise decision to ask my wife her opinion.  She told me to stop working on stuff for tomorrow (today) and instead focus my time and energy on the Lord.  Have I mentioned how wise my wife is lately on this blog?  Oh, and beautiful, too.  Anyways, the time in prayer tweaked a few things in my heart that needed tweaking.  I went to bed, not feeling great, but not feeling horrible.  That was a good start. 

Anyways, today I had a chance to meet with one of my 50,000 coaches.  This one’s name was Ben Pickett.  Now, for those who are reading from a distance, Ben has long been a coach on my little pursuit of the glory of God.  He’s a little shaggier than he used to be but he’s still as powerful as ever.  Ben’s been stuck at home because of some surgery he’s had to endure.  As we’re sitting there talking about things that have been hard for Ben, he asks me how I’ve been.  What follows is me spilling my guts in a 30 second fashion.  I’m really not even sure that Ben got the full gist of what was going on.  I didn’t matter.  In a very Ben-like fashion, he simply reminds me of something he told me six months ago about who I am and what I’m called to do.  And within 4 to 5 minutes we return to discussing Ben’s life and the effects of his surgery.

I know that doesn’t seem all that powerful.  For whatever reason, though, that four minute conversation and the time of prayer the night before combined in my heart to create something I haven’t had in a little while–confidence in God and a vision for the future.  I spent the rest of the afternoon at work wrestling with new found implications of a heart re-aligned in God and a vision for where this thing is going. 

Mostly I’m in awe of God.  I don’t know what tomorrow holds.  There might be more pain and wrestling there.  That’s okay.  We’ll deal with that then.  Today, I’m thankful that He sees and He cares enough to both meet me personally and send others as messengers of His covenant with me. 

Just a thought for you comment on if you’d like–Has God broken into your life in a profoundly simple way?  If so, how?  Also, what’s the last “50,000 coach” spotting you’ve had lately?

As promised here are the first couple of clips from Uganda.  I may post a few more.  I didn’t realize how incredibly long it would take for me to post these to YouTube. 

This first video was shot during our crusade out in the bush.  The church that was hosting the crusade did all of their worship a capella.  There was so much joy in their simple worship.  I found myself ashamed of what it takes to get the American church to really enter into joyous worship.   Anyways, the only instrument they had for worship were these great African drums and the guys who played them could really play. So I shot this clip to show to the guys in the house church who love to play the djembe when we worship.  When I got these guys to play, they didn’t play as fast or as cool as they did in the worship service and it wasn’t until after I was done that I realized they may have been a little bit camera-shy.  Nevertheless, this was a fun little clip. 

This second video was shot during an all-night prayer meeting.  Every Friday night all over Uganda meetings like this happen.  The man preaching in English is named Paul.  He is an apostle that serves a network of churches in Uganda and a dear friend of John and myself. Paul is preaching about the necessity of taking the Kingdom by force and comparing those who do to Joshua and Caleb who believed God would give them the land He promised to them. The sound and even the video quality of this clip isn’t the greatest, but what I love about this clip is it reminds of the anointing that rested on Paul when he would preach.  The Lord definitely commissioned him to stir the people.  I’m hoping one day the Lord gives me authority to preach like this guy.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this.  Look for some more soon. 

Travis