Well hello there! I have not wrote on my world race blog in some time! So what's been going on in my life? What has the Lord been doing? What am I doing next? Well let me just tell you all about that!
Lets start when I was still on the Race…Lets go back to month 8…South Sudan..Manistry…Team leader…That was the first and only month I got the privelage to team lead. It was a good month of true humilty…intercession for my men…my brothers…a month of speaking boldly….a month of inner healing…letting go of things in our past….getting rid of the orphan heart and walking in true sonship…owning our identities in Christ and advancing the Kingdom of God by force…for we are warriors…not cowards…it was a month of me learning the importance of being interdependent…instead of independent….to truly let people speak life and truth over me…and to call me out on things I was blind to…It was a month of men….playing poker…(fake cash)….a month of casting out demons…spiritual warfare…a month of ministry where you had to really make an effort to find something to do..My expectations of South Sudan were blown to pieces….we went into there thinking it was going to be some hardcore place, but besides random army men and landmines…it was one of the most peaceful places I've been to…They were so humble…and the pastor there had a beautiful vision on unity for South Sudan…That month the other team leader Evan Bates really poured into us about Intimacy with the Father…thats all he talked about…it was so good…we had some really good talks….and one day as I was worshipping on my bed…the Lord just spoke to me so clearly….The Bible says about 87 times to sing a new song to the Lord…and we are all called to be psalmist….we all have a groan that wants to be released across the Nations…so I started searching for my song…
As that month ended we were headed to Kenya for debrief…. it was about a 45 hour bus ride…and on the last 20 hours I got reallllly sick. And the whole time my prayer was "God please don't let me poop my pants!"…lets just say I became really good friends with the bus driver! …and also got the life experience pooping in a bush in the middle of Uganda and had the whole bus cheering me on! Haha! Sorry for those who can't handle a poop conversation…It is just a normal conversation us Racers have…so excuse me for the clear picture I posted for you…moving on….We reach Kenya and we are there for five days or so…I start getting bad fevers…headaches…chills…but my stubborn self didn't listen to the nurses on our team and didn't go to the hospital to get checked out…I thought I was getting better…and one morning our Squad was running a Milk and Cookie 5k…I wasn't gonna run it, but I thought I was better that morning…well…halfway through the run all my sypmtoms hit me…death hit me…but by that time…the clinic was already closed..so I said I'd get checked out in Tanzania… before we left I wrote in my journal…asking our Father "show me Your glory…heal me"
Now this point of the Race…..I don't remember to much…I remember staying in a hostel with my team for a few days in Tanzania and went to a goverment clinic and he told me I didn't have malaria but had typhoid…so I get all the meds for that…that night…I had to second worst chills of my life! I was literally bouncing up and down on my bed! And my prayer was "Jesus please calm my storm and give me some rest…I know if I get some rest I will be better"…well He gave that to me…the next morning I was able to eat which that was a big deal because I started eating less and less….( and thats a big deal for I was the garbage disposal on my teams)… Next thing I remember is reaching our contacts house in Tanzania…And one night I had the worst chills of my life..it lasted it seemed like hours…boucning up and down so much…and I thought that was the last of me…but again I prayed "Jesus please calm my storm and give me some rest …if you give me some rest I know I will get better" and He did..and that morning I was tired of laying on my bed sweating so I sat in the living room with the two teams….next thing I remember is handing the mother there my laundry…and apparently shortly after that I faint…Zack and some other people had to carry me down this big hill to get me to the hospital…next thing I know is I am soaking wet laying in a hospital bed and Zack is there next to me…Apparently in this hospital I tried to get up and use the restroom and when I reached the hall way my kidneys shut down and I urinated all over the floor..so I was laying there as they changed my clothes…another story about that place..Zack had to hold my hand for four hours just so I get have an IV in my arm….next thing I remember I was in the ICU in Kenya…I don't know all the details about all my hospital stay and all that jazz..Zack and my parents know more than I do….What I do know is…I was in a coma for two days…had black urine…Kidneys shut down…brain swelled up…and the Doctor in Kenya said I was a day away from dying…I had cerebral malaria..not typhoid… I lost so much strength…so much weight…had memory problems…I was a mess… I remember Zack asking me in the ICU what I was gonna do…"are you going home?" and I laughed…saying something along the lines of" NO!! do you know who I am? I am a fighter this is not gonna stop me!" Litlle did I know…. few days later as I got out of the ICU and was able to be in a regular room…and one night our Abba told me "Travis you cannot finish this Race….I am bringing you home"…At this time…my parents have reached Kenya…and how ridiculous that is! They have never left the country before this and their first place to visit is Kenya while im on my death bed… before the Race my dad said "Travis you better not get sick I am not going to come get you" hahah little did he know as well!!
Anyways…I became a true Jonah…I did not want to listen to Him…I did not want to leave my family….the people who I have grown so close to…and I was almost done just Nepal and India was left (since I was in the hospital during Tanzania).. But at the end of the day I will always want to be obediant…so I followed through with it…this brought me to many tears…I cried in Zacks arms…I cried in my moms arms….It broke my heart….my soul… And side note…I am forever thankful for Zack..he spent a whole month with me in Kenya instead of being with our team in Tanzania…he never left my side…truly helped save my life! After I went through with following His way of going home…I got a heavenly peace…and He started showimg me all the glorious things He was doing…how many people were praying for me and my family…so many World Race squads…so many Nations ….my community back home just came alive…and my church got to experience the Holy Spirit in Ways they have never experienced…I come from a Southern Baptist church…and for the first time many of them got to see a living miracle of God…a true Healing…not just something they read about…but they were apart of it! And I even got to share my testimony with my parents and the Father had some very direct things to tell my dad! So beautiful!
Something the Father told me after all this was "Travis I could have left you there dead on the floor in Tanzania…I could have brought you into my Gates to be with me, but NO, I am not done with you on earth, so get your butt up for I have great plans for you!"….now…thats not just for me…but for all of us! So recieve that!
When I came home…I was wrapped around love and support…a friend of the family put on a benifit at the bowling alley that raised my family $3000 dollars in one night! I truly got to be apart of a glory story for Him…I am forever humbled by our Father….
So I have been home since September 22. My transition was so harddddd. I felt so out of place…much less weak and exhausted… It took me about a month and a half to get to normal strength and a few weeks after that to gain my weight back. After the transition period I got in major slump…and my prayer was " God please help me stand…I am so hurt right now…so confused and lost…please pull me up" That lasted up until the last few weeks.
Something huge happened in my family. In my life…for privacy reasons I won't go into detail, but on that day, in my Spirit I got really confirmed that my life will be dedicated to human trafficking…I will see the 27 million drop…my life will make a dent to that…I will see a generation before my eyes seek His heart and His way…I will see men walk in their identities…in purirty! And it was time for me just to step up and get out of this silly slump that I was in and stand firm in my idedntity and FIGHT! Something that has been spoken over me so much is that I am a pioneer for Jesus and He is builidng something new in HIs Kingdom with me, but I had no idea what that meant for me….until I went to Project Searchlight.
Heading into project searchlight I got offered a operationg job at a refineray…that job would give me an amazing pay check…bless me and my family…but it never sat right so I didn't want to accept it until after PSL, but I really knew God was gonna give me something there…and HAHA He did! The very first morning Chase from D squad came up to me during worship and had something from the Lord for me and said "Travis you have to leave the things at home behind…you are a pioneer for Jesus…you will do things that noone has ever done and will go to places noone has ever gone to…so have confidence and walk boldly!!" Well that was an answered prayer! So I knew I wasn't suppose to go take that job so I was really asking the Father to give me something…show me what I was suppose to do….and He did…He showed me G42…which I will be doing in the near future, but first…on the second to last day I had a man come up to me that I have never met! His name was Johnathan Little and apparently I was on his heart for the past few days…so he wanted to sit down and ask me about my heart…where I was headed ect…so I shared with him…then he shared what he was doing…Which is…going on a PIONEER TRIP to Guatamala to start up a Mobilization Center…this will be a place where World Racers come…people of Guatemala…and it'll be a place of dicipleship..intercession…worship…the vision is to get people here and send them out to other countries…like Honduras…and Honduras sends people to the Philippines and then they send people to Thailand…and at all the countries a Mobilization Center will be placed! Such a beautiful vision! And that morning of worship our Abba told me it's time for you to go…go to Guatemala…its time to build!
So I am leaving on Febuary 15th and commiting until May…it's $850 a month sooo thatll be around $3400 all together! I don't have my account set up for donations yet…it should be up on this Friday! So I am just getting the word out there and asking you to consinder to donate to my next adventure!
My heart is filled up again…my heart is at home again…super thankful for this past year…for E Squad…the other squads…coaches…AIM staff…most of all…super thankful that we can dwell in His Presence….and that He is who He says He is…Healer….and I am still alive today to proclaim His Great Name! 
Thank you all for all the prayers and support throughout the World Race…SO thankful I got to go to PSL and have closure with my Race and see my beautiful family again…this past year was a beautiful…glorious journey…I am forever wrecked for His heart…to dwell in His presence….and I cannot wait to bring this to Guatemala with the others that come ( which right now we have a team of 10)…I hope this blog encourages you to go out and do what you are called to do…to do what you are passionate about…to not be scared…for even death couldn't stop me from what He has for me…so go..and do…bring Kingdom…and sing your new song to the Lord…we live in perfect love and perfect love cast out all fear! So live in freedom and be fearless! Love you guys! I am so excited for this new journey…new season… if you feel led to donate please email me and I will get in contact with you when my account is up and ready!
P.S. any future Racers or current Racers…GO TO PROJECT SEARCHLIGHT!
