I finally sat down to process my thoughts around the eclipse. This is something that I’ve written multiple times in the 2 months since April 8th. Each time, to walk away from it, start over, put it back on the shelf. I honestly step back and look at this letter as probably just something that I’m communicating to myself via my blog, that I will be able to go back in read in future years. I’ve set it back down several times, with thoughts of whether anyone would actually be interested in hearing about the Eclipse and what I felt happened not just in natural realms, but spiritual realms as well.  

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In full disclosure, I felt this account would best be shared from the beginning. Some of you were with me from the beginning, while others may have come in during the weeks leading up to the eclipse. In November, I was in prayer (basically complaining) to God concerning some frustrations and uncertainties that I was experiencing. I felt like the Lord, rather than bringing me a solution, simply spoke and said, “Only focus, on what I put in front of you.” A little shout out to Matthew 6:34, everyone needs to hear that daily.  

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It was December 31st, when the Lord first spoke to me concerning the Eclipse. I sat with it for a couple of days, before I found the courage to share it with anyone else. Honestly, it was slightly terrifying, at that moment, because everything felt so BIG!  I then scheduled a zoom call with about 20 Pastors, church leaders, and friends that I felt I could share this crazy, audacious word that I was carrying. I remember sitting on a zoom with a pastor out in California, as I shared with her the vision, she brought great wisdom and encouragement to me. Her encouragement was not to shy away from the Prophetic. This was an opportunity for me to communicate the prophetic, in a natural and normal way. These words brought courage throughout the next four months, as I had opportunities to share what I felt like God had spoken to me via different media outlets from across the US and our state.  When it comes to the prophetic, we all too often make it "weird" and it shouldn't be. KEEP IT NORMAL!

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The projections from our city were for an estimated 100-120K people to come into the city for the eclipse. We were ground zero. What would it look like if we didn’t care who got the credit, but everyone got Jesus. In the vision, I had seen tents, worship, prayer groups, people being healed, baptized, and the land full of people. I saw cars at a stand-still on the Interstate. What the Lord would do in our city, would then spread out to the nations. The elders were super supportive. They allowed me to form a team, gave me all the financial and prayer support that I needed. Our first big investment was 12 porta-potties for $5000! I remember, having the bid from the company, sitting in a hotel room in Longview, TX. We had just shared the vision with some of the leadership at a church there, and I got back to the hotel room, and finally pulled the trigger! Spending that much on toilets can be a bit nerve-racking. (no turning back now, we have toilets!) 

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Slowly but surely, we continued to communicate with people what we felt like we had heard from the Lord. We met some of the coolest people from around our beautiful state. Prayer teams, that travelled from around the state, prayed over our city and church. Then I remember when we received our first reservation for a camper on the grounds. It was an older gentleman and his grandson traveling from Kansas. We would end up with about 60 campers, from California, 3 Germans (none related, not travelling together), Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kansas, Missouri, Georgia.  

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As I said earlier the projection was 100-120K based on what had happened with the earlier eclipse in 2017. In the end, we didn’t see these types of numbers. The hotels were all booked, but with the college shutting down for the eclipse, the locals were staying at home from fear of the traffic and crowds. Russellville actually saw about half of that estimation.  

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We ended up on Day 1, realizing that we weren’t meant to stay at the building, and sent teams into the city, where they prayed for hundreds of people, saw people healed, miracles, and 20 Salvations. One young lady was a practicing witch, and her and her boyfriend prayed for God to forgive them of their sins, to be Lord of their lives, and even took the crystal necklace she was wearing and gave it to the young lady praying for her.  

 

I’ll be honest, one question that I got dozens of times during the months leading up to the Eclipse, was what would be success? I had to reach that point in preparation for the Eclipse, that us being obedient to what we felt like the Lord calling us to do would be success. Faith + Obedience. So many times, though, it was a daily struggle for me personally. My prayer life sounded more like “What if no one comes? What if people think I’m crazy? What if the lack of response is because I missed it?” Luckily, I have a safe inner squad, that I could voice these concerns and be encouraged. The day of the Eclipse, I had text messages, phone calls, emails from Boston to the UK. 

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Daystar Television ended up emailing me Friday night, to tell me they were flying in on Sunday & Monday to film the Eclipse. With over 2.4 million followers on social media, this felt like a door opening. One church that had expressed interest in participating, but when I quit hearing from them, I questioned whether they had changed their minds or thought I missed it prophetically. They would text me the day before the event, to let me know that they were sowing $6K into the Event. It was honestly these small moments, the texts, prayers, emails that gave me courage to keep pressing in.  

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The morning of the event, I was sitting on the stage, volunteers were eating breakfast, we had 21 people show up between midnight when I left and 6:30 AM when I arrived back at the church. I found a man, sleeping in the grass, with his car parked in the middle of our field. I met a group of 9 families from Colorado, in 9 SUV’s with about 40 people that had driven that morning to watch it from our land. I was praying, thanking God for his faithfulness, but as I sat there, I was looking at the baptism trough. We had baptized a sweet young lady on the first night from California. However, that was the only baptism to that point. I reminded the Lord that in the vision, he had shown me dozens of people being baptized.  

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On the day of the eclipse, we would keep our teams to lead worship, serve the people that showed up to the church. Hundreds of people would pull off the interstate, pull into our land, just to watch the eclipse. The eclipse was amazing, we had a sweet time of worship and prayer.  We received emails and social media messages from people from all over, some never even set foot on our land, however, had encountered the prayer teams in the City.

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As soon as it was over, the cars packed up and left. Then it was just the 80 or so volunteers that stayed as the worship team continued to worship. The feeling was pure joy. Then a brave young lady stepped forward to be baptized. Then another and another. Overall, we ended up worshipping for 3 hours and saw 26 people climb into the baptism trough. That afternoon, I felt like the Lord spoke to me and he said “If this had happened during the event, then you would have looked at it in remembrance. This is not an end of something it’s the beginning.” We’ve kept our baptistry full since April and have seen more than 50 people baptized over the last 2 months. All of this in a church that probably baptized 10-15 people in 2023.  

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I’ve been contacted by friends from all over, they all ask, “what happened with the Eclipse”. I apologize for the delay in processing, I honestly feel like it may be a long time before I fully process everything that I feel like the Lord spoke to me during those 4 months. One prophetic word spoken multiple times over the year, was that Arkansas was an unlikely Bethlehem. That we would feed the world, what flowed out of Arkansas the revival would spread throughout the world.  

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That’s a powerful word, that I believe will be the case, the significant thing about Bethlehem was really that while the Savior was born there, it would be decades before its significance would be recognized. I believe that the baptisms, the movement we are seeing in our city, is being seen throughout the world. Thousands were baptized on the West Coast last month in one day in an event that Ps. Mark Francey acted on based off a prophetic word he received from the Lord. Our friends in Corpus Christi have seen 5500 baptisms in their local church since 2018.  Revival is in the land.  I believe that it's a revival of repentance, much like what we saw in Asbury in 2023. 

For three days, we were able to mobilize over close to 80 volunteers, to flood the streets of our city, see healings, see lives transformed, and love our city and nation. I believe we will continue to see fruits of this for years to come.

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So, for me, what does it look like? Once the eclipse ended, I had to go back to the last word the Father spoke to me “Only focus on what I put right in front of you.” I will continue to press in to hear his voice, I can confirm that he has placed some exciting things in front of me. However, I will save those thoughts for another day.  

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Thank you to all of you who have reached out, prayed for, encouraged me over the last 4 months. Your prayers and encouragement meant so much to me. Thank you to City Church for buying in and coming out in full force to LOVE our city. My dear friends that came up to be a part and serve, I can’t list names, bc I may miss someone! CT Pasadena for sending your leadership to serve, Gateway Church for all of your support, Russellville First Assembly, Ps. Tony and your church for feeding the volunteers!  Also my wife, Stacy.  She was the one the listened to me, prayed for me, encouraged me, and walked this full journey of crazy, audacious FAITH out with me.  

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This Faith Journey is exactly that, a JOURNEY! Faith + Obedience