Two of my bigger take aways from the gathering:

1. Michael, a South Sudanese brother, said “You can not have church planting without trauma healing.”
2. Ommani, a Kenyan brother, who helped develop the trauma healing materials that I use, said “We were presenting trauma healing incorrectly to churches in Africa. We started communicating trauma healing as discipleship and pastors understood it more.”

I told both of them that we in the West have a lot to learn from them about trauma healing, church planting, and discipleship.

Here are some of the highlights with details below if you desire.

• Frank and Bibles – When praying for the 22 participants before arriving, God continued to put Frank on my mind. I did not know why. I thought I had never met Frank before. I also never thought I would talk to Frank about Bibles. But as Frank said after talking with him, “This is a God thing!” I agreed. So could you help with Bibles to Sudan?
• The Breaststroke – While getting ready Thursday morning and asking what does the Spirit want to show me, swimming came to mind. Then the breaststroke. So I googled “the breaststroke” and watched this video The Lord use this video and Part 3 to show me much about Him.
• Tracey – During a time of praying for one another, Tracey said that she had a vision to share about me. After sharing about a tangerine tree, she said I do not know what all of this means. I told her in that moment that I know exactly what it means.
• Provision for my flight – I was grateful and humbled to be invited to this gathering much less be asked to assist in the planning. Angela and I believed the Lord wanted us to be a part of this gathering even though it “did not fit in our budget”. While praying at the gathering, I asked the Lord to somehow cover the cost for the flight since all my other costs were already covered. Honestly, it was not a long prayer. Just asked for the cost of the flight to be covered. He answered.
• George the Uber Driver – As I arrive back in Nashville, Angela could not pick up due to kids sleeping. Also 3 of my friends who normally could help were unable due to various matters. I rarely to never take an Uber in the US but I needed to this evening. Since I am unfamiliar with the Nashville airport and the Uber pick up, it takes me a minute to navigate the area. By then my Uber app had to reset so now I am waiting a little longer. No worries.

Frank and Bibles – My friend and I are waiting to pick up another man at the airport named Jacob. My friend then says we are also picking up Frank. I tell him that’s interesting because of what I shared above. My friend shows me a picture of Frank and I say that I know him somehow. Frank sees me and says that he knows me. It takes us a minute or two but while riding the shuttle to get our rental car I remember that we met in Lebanon about 3 years ago for trauma healing equipping.

As we talk more, he tells me about his work with Sudanese and an immediate need to get Bibles in a particular language. I tell him that he needs to talk to my friend Mike. I text Mike at that moment to talk to Frank. This is when Frank says – “this is a God thing”. Long story short, they talk and in Frank’s words – “We are now committed to raising $120K before June in order to provide a container of Nuer Bibles to South Sudanese refugees.”

The Breaststroke – Did you watch that two minute video? If so this will make more sense. If not then it might still make sense. The breaststroke is one of the most complex and different of the strokes. It is about timing and movement (or position). The pull is short and quick. No point to continue the pull because little leverage, create drag and lose time. It is about creating as little drag as possible at every single stage. Time to get your hands together and push forward as fast as you can. Part 3 is about the glide and not going to fast or slow or working too little or too much but swimmer who master the breaststroke glide appropriately. Both of those videos spoke to me about God’s timing in my and Angela’s current situation. Timing as the wisdom of the snake and knowing when to strike. Rest, relax, alignment, swim fast, enjoy the glide, know when to let go.

Tracey – In November many of you prayed for my time in Louisville at GMHC. At the end of that gathering, my friend Carol texted me to tell him that she was at the conference. She and I sat together for the last session and spoke briefly afterwards. In that conversation, we discussed my upcoming time in Dallas. She immediately said that I need to invite her friend Tracey to this gathering. Since I know and trust Carol, I invited Tracey.

Provision for my flight – The next evening, I get in a car to go to dinner with supposedly 3 other people but 2 others rode with someone else. While driving to the restaurant, my friend says to me, seemingly out of the blue to me, “I would like to cover the cost of your flight.” I am stunned and even say that he does not have to do that. He says that he wants to do it. I do not tell him my prayer but thank Jesus for his generosity and being the answer to my prayer.

George the Uber driver – I see his name and face and literally think, “this is who God wants me to ride with tonight.” I get into the Uber and George immediately says, “I have excellent, great and good news to share with you”. What?? Who says that? Even more, when was the last time an Uber driver said that to you? He shares his stories which were excellent, great and good. A few minutes later I tell him that I have some good news to share with him. I tell him the above story and that I asked Jesus to cover my costs and He did. I then say, “thats pretty cool”. He says. “no that is not cool. That is awesome. We need to hear more stories like this. Thanks for sharing. This was encouraging to me”.

Through conversation, I tell him that I follow the Way of Jesus and learn that George does as well. Still more to the story . . .

George says that he was getting gas while watching “the surge” on Uber so he gets paid more. He drives around waiting but the surge never changes as he hoped. He then decided that he will go ahead and pick me up. He even says, “as God as my witness, I thought this is the ride that I should take”. We both were able to encourage one another.

Side note, George just happened to be in Nashville from Florida this past week helping his daughter.