He looked me RIGHT in the eyes……..

If you follow me on facebook or twitter (@kokomoseven) you probably have noticed that I have been on the road for the past 4 weeks. I was home for a month and then packed up and left again. Hmm….I feel like I’ve done that a few times before….. Anyways, I am now safely home after traveling a triangular shaped route from Minnesota-Georgia-Texas-Minnesota.

This was all done by car and praise the Lord I made it thousands of miles without any car trouble and some great favorable winds to help my fuel economy. While the one of the purposes of this trip was to help with training camp, attend a wedding, and see friends and family, I was really just looking forward to spending time with the Lord…..ALONE….in my car. For this particular journey, my prayer closet as you may say was my car. I could worship as loud as I wanted and pray and just converse with God. Whilst most of my journey was solo, I had a great first officer on the way from Georgia to Texas…and even then we both had some great time together with each other and the Lord.

Here are some quick highlights of my trip: (If you want to get to the main reason of this blog….skip past all the bullets!)

·         Training Camp for C,D,E, Squads- January 2012

o   I was blessed with the opportunity to be on serve team for this particular training camp. It was held at the same location where I had my training camp about a year ago. I got to serve alongside with some other WR Alumni and we became great friends. I had a great serve team leader in Elizabeth and there were so many members from S-Squad that came to serve! I also got to meet some other Alumni along with AIM staff. Such a great group of people! We prepared meals, scrubbed toilets, cleaned cabins, etc. for the week. It was extremely hard work and exhausting, but it was so worth it!

o   My favorite memory was seeing all the future racers worship together. I remember the first night they arrived and I could just tell many of them had baggage and chains that were holding them down. But through some teachings and “secret World Race techniques” those racers that carried those burdens and locked down by chains had been set FREE! We had a worship night on Tuesday and everyone was jumping and dancing and singing all in the glorious name of Jesus. They had found their FREEDOM in Christ. The addictions, abuse, etc. had been broken off….they were no longer carrying the weight of sin on their backs. I stood in the back observing and all I could think to myself was “these kids are free!” It was such a proud moment to share that experience that with them and be able to pray and prophesy over each and every one of them. January 2012 is about the launch some AMAZING world changers!

 

·         Georgia

o   After training camp I went to hang with Dexter for about a week and half. I even got a bonus of being able to hang with Shannon at the same time! J I got to meet his whole family and we had such a great time! We did random southern stuff like drink sweet tea, fish, hang with his buddies, attend bible studies, etc. We spent a few days in Savannah and got a “haunted tour” of historic downtown….all while riding in a hearse! We also got a chance to speak at a youth gathering at Dexter’s church- Christ Chapel Sportstowne. Since it was Halloween we shared about how WE are like pumpkins and God is our carver. I was able to speak to the youth about how NOT to let the media be our carvers, but rather let the freedom of Christ be the one that carves us into how He wants us to look….not some supermarket magazine. Overall it was just great to spend “brother” time with Dex. God’s doing great things in that young man’s life and I’m excited to see it all unfold!

·         Texas

o   Yeehaw! My teammate Brandi Jo got married in her hometown of Abilene, TX. Dex and I hopped in my car and headed west to the Lone Star State. We picked up Greg in Dallas and then continued west to Abilene where we met up with the bride to be and my kid sister Becca! Becca was a bridesmaid in the wedding and it was just SO good to see her again! The service was beautiful and I am proud of have been there to witness the marriage of Scott and Brandi Jo!

 

o   After the wedding Dex, Greg, and I headed back to Dallas. Both the guys were flying home and I was continuing my journey to Amarillo/Dumas. Dex didn’t leave til Monday night so we spent the night at my Uncle’s house in Northern Dallas. I got to show Dex a little bit of life in the Big D! We had lunch near Cowboy’s Stadium and spent hours playing at Top Golf.

o   It was a huge blessing for Dex to fly home because not only did it save me time and money, but it allowed me to drive a few hours north to visit my family in the Texas Panhandle. It actually worked out really well because the day after I got there, my Grandmother had to be rushed to the Emergency Room. I was able to make it there just in time and spend time with her as she was recovering. She is doing well now, but she was dealing with some severe migraines that she had never felt before.

o   I got to visit the church I attended when I was younger and it was CRAZY to be back there. Dumas, TX is a hub for refugees for Burmese immigrants. Many of the refugees attend the church and I spent my Sunday morning the Burmese service. Yet again I was in a service where I didn’t understand the language. I guess you could say I’m pretty used to it. I also got many people coming up to me and speaking Burmese. I was having World Race flashbacks!

·         Minnesota

o   I’ve been home for about a week now. The biggest highlight so far was attending a Worship night with Hillsong LIVE! It was held at Grace Church in Eden Prairie. It was AMAZING to worship with thousands of other people all in one place. They even played my favorite worship song “With Everything.” It truly brought me memories of worshipping with S-Squad! My near and dear friend Ashley came down from Duluth to go to the worship night with me and we got to hang out all weekend. It was so much fun catching up and we shared lots of laughs and some great stories from the past year. What up Ash?! Thanks for an amazing weekend! Oh! And we got to meet up with her Mom for lunch on Saturday! Hey Sandy! J

So there you have it. My life in the past month. It was filled with lots of great memories and great God moments. As hectic as it sounds, I found joy and excitement through it all. But there was one moment over the course of this trip that tops all of these highlights. One moment that humbled me to the greatest degree I have ever felt. Throughtout all the time traveling and expenses that were spent….if all those things all lead up to this particular experience then my time was truly worth it. I NEEDED to have a moment like this that will forever change my life……

Like I had mentioned, after Brandi Jo’s wedding we headed back to Dallas so that Dex and Greg could catch their flights home. But being good Christian men that we are (just kidding!) we wanted to catch a Sunday church service together. We are all fans of Pastor Matt Chandler, and as luck would have it his church is in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area. We made the trip there and Cara Parker even met us there since she lived nearby! It was great to be at such a large church and to hear Pastor Matt Chandler speak. The message was great and the worship was great as well. But here is the moment that really caught my heart:

As we were worshipping a song came on and the verse was about Jesus being bruised and bloody on the cross. As I closed my eyes during that verse the Lord gave me an incredibly VIVID image. I remember it like I was actually there…..

I was there when Jesus was crucified. He was up on the cross bruised and bloody. With the crown of thorns and blood running down His face He turned His head and looked down at me….then He looked me RIGHT IN THE EYES……I can’t stress this enough but…RIGHT IN THE EYES and said, “Phillip, I am doing this for you.” I can truthfully say that I’ve presented the Gospel hundreds of times on the World Race, but this time it was PERSONAL. And as I was getting that image I just had to sit because I was about to lose it! I was overwhelmed with the Lord’s presence and I continue to think about it I still get very emotional. I can’t fathom WHY Jesus would die for me. HE LOOKED ME RIGHT IN THE EYE and told me He was doing this for me. That’s when I realized that MY salvation wasn’t just a story…..but that it was REAL and God showed it to me and made it extremely personal. Coming from a business background making eye contact is extremely important and during this particular moment, I had the King of Kings making eye contact with me.

 

This is EXACTLY how the vision looked like. At this angle and position is when He looked me in the eye and said, “Phillip, I did this for you.”

(@ The Cross in Groom, TX)

I am still learning about God’s love every single day. My heart becomes overwhelmed at the thought of someone dying for me….dying for my sins. I am forever thankful and grateful that my Lord would do something like that for me. I am humbled that God’s love is SO deep that it brings tears to my eyes everything I think about that vision.

He didn’t just look at my eyes the day that He lay on the cross. He looked into your eyes as well.

 

 

John 3:16

 

“The hands that cradle the stars are the hands that bled for me.”