Bailey Colorado Trip Epilogue and 2007

Epilogue from the Bailey Colorado trip into 2007

I feel like at various times God has called me to take trips and speaks to me at these places. I live in Nebraska and when I feel like he has called me to go up to Colorado and the mountains, it is important. I have to take time after these trips to fully let it all sink in.

If you need some background, you can read my original story on my Bailey Colorado Vision on my website, under About the Author:

www.tony4yhwh.com

I really feel like there was a major theme on the trip. It certainly was not what I was expecting and also not an enjoyable, pleasant subject.

My fiancé and I have gone to Colorado several times. This would be the fourth time together. I have always had family there and she lived in the mountains for eight years. We both have a heart there for God. Most of what I can say you can certainly relate to since it’s in the news and maybe God has spoken something to confirm this in your “everyday” life (God is Sovereign and does speak to his children). If so, I’d love to hear about it and maybe we can find more by searching together. I believe it’s important to be the “body” and to have unity and communication – Jesus prayed for it, so it must be!

When we were leaving Omaha Colorado had been in the news quite a bit for two horrible snow storms. Maybe it wouldn’t be advisable to head right into the storms for vacation, but if you feel called by God and have eight children between you, you take your chance at vacation when ever possible! So off we went. Living in Nebraska I’m used to driving in weather of all types. It takes about 8 hours “normally” to get from Omaha to Denver. This trip would be anything but normal. It was raining and then I noticed the rain turning into sleet. We only got into the trip a little over 2 hours when our car hydroplaned into the ditch. Not slid mind you, but hydroplaned – we simply were not making solid contact the interstate pavement anymore. As I drove in the median (and Kellie prayed out loud and fortunately it was clear except for grass and snow) my thoughts were simply that I didn’t want to get stuck there in the middle of the night, so I kept my momentum and looked in my review mirror to see about oncoming traffic. There were lots of vehicles coming and I’m glad my initial reaction was not to jerk back onto the interstate. I got control of the car and when I saw no headlights we reentered the interstate. God save us! Thank you Jesus! We were safe and prayed together for some discernment. Kellie had remembered her dad stopping at the next town mentioned on the green interstate sign and we decided to stop there for the night. I’m glad we did since the next morning as we were leaving the sign on the front of the hotel said “No Vacancies”. I guess God stopped us in time to have a safe dry place for the night.

Little did we know what was going on in the news. I did follow the Saddam trial and knew that the hanging may take place soon, but it all seemed to be happening rather quickly. Since we both knew it was significant and God had placed us here safely for the night, we watched and discussed the spiritual and prophetic significance to it all. This was a beginning to a theme for the weekend - death.

The next morning we took off from the town and I was anxious to try and make good travel time since we had lost so much due to the storm. The roads were horrible. They were icy and I couldn’t drive over 35 miles per hour. As we drove I know I said that it looked like “a graveyard” on the interstate. Everywhere you looked there were SUV’s, cars and Semi’s tipped, stuck and twisted. It was horrible. Kearney Nebraska looked like it was coated in crystal. I drove safe and was thinking that it would take hours if we would make it at all to Denver and then we were actually headed to the mountains outside of Denver. Would we even make it? What kind of a weekend was this going to be? Maybe it was a mistake. Finally we stopped for lunch. I was exhausted and discouraged. I tried not to let on too much to Kellie, but she can read me like a book and I’m sure she knew. After a rest and a full stomach we were off to face the road again. We pulled out of North Platte and within minutes it was so much better. I was able to pick my speed up to 65 miles per hour. Finally, we were making some time. We put some praise music on and sang some hymns together. I had bought a Randy Travis CD and we both love gospel country/blue grass music. It was a lot of redone hymns and newer contemporary music – very uplifting. It felt good to praise God with all we had already been through.

The last hour into Denver we hit dense, dense fog. I couldn’t see ten feet in front of me. It was different than the ice, but just as treacherous. I drove slowly and we made our way through the city. Finally we made it to the foothills and the mountains. Guess what? This was our most clear and easiest driving the whole way. Who would have guessed? Hallelujah, we made it to Bailey Colorado. If Bailey sounds familiar you might remember seeing it on the news recently. It was the school that was hit first before the Amish community where some kids were held hostage and also killed. It was a horrible tragedy. Maybe you are already catching on to the theme of death. There’s more confirmation…

I am a huge Broncos fan and God many times has spoke into my boy heart and allowed me many joys and lessons through football. I enjoy sharing and teaching my children through the sport. Kellie and I had great tickets to the game. We got there early, soaked up the atmosphere and enjoyed the game. If the Broncos won, they would be in the playoffs – if they lost they were out. It’s fun to see games with a lot on the line. This game would be filled with drama. Jay Cutler, the Bronco’s bright new star rookie quarterback, was injured early in the game. He took many hard blows and had to leave the game with a concussion. He would later reenter the game and even lead the team on a last minute, game tying touchdown to take the team into overtime. Ultimately the Broncos lost. The Broncos season and playoff hopes were you guessed it – dead. Maybe you are not a football fan. Maybe not a Broncos fan, but let me continue…the next morning as I turned on the radio, I heard “…the most shocking news this morning is not that the Broncos were defeated and are out of the playoffs this year, but that at 2 a.m. Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was shot and killed in a limo hummer at about 2 a.m. in the morning.” Wow. I’ve followed football for a long time and there are certainly athletes that have died, but this was unexpected and certainly fit the theme I was beginning to pick up on. Believe me, this was a rare opportunity for Kellie and I to get to leave town and the last thing we wanted to ring in the New Year on this trip with was – “death”. I really had high hopes for this trip. If you reference my writings on the other trips they were all quite “rosy”. I had fully expected with 2006 coming to a close and 2007 on the horizon, that God may indeed do something amazing – maybe even the Rapture (always looking for the chariot ride, and I did notice so were all the hymn writers in some way or another).

Also, worth mentioning especially if you’ve read about the other trips is that we revisited the ranch and area that God gave me the original Bailey, Colorado vision (a land flowing with milk and honey!). We did see it and I was able to take and save pictures this time (last time I took pictures of this place in the summer and it was so, so beautiful, unfortunately they all got deleted – you guessed it, another death). The whole valley was covered with snow and ice, and while beautiful in its winter attire, it still is in a type of death before spring, which brings new life.

I’m not writing about death because it’s a popular topic for me to write about, which lets me bring up another unpopular topic – famine (which by the way leads to death in case you didn’t know it – hee hee…). Kellie and I had a joke on the trip between us. We are both “meat and potato kind of people, but I was taking it to a whole new height on this trip. I didn’t mean to but I was in a meal ordering groove and Kellie called me on it. Maybe this isn’t an advertising slogan across the country but it is here – “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner”. Anyway, it was a fun joke between us. I do bring it up though, because as I’m watching the news in Colorado now there is an epidemic and cattle are dying in the snow. Ranchers are working with the government as they take bails of hay to the cows in helicopters.

Death is a very depressing topic, but if you do study all of God’s promises there is a process. Birth (promise, vision), Death and Resurrection. I know this in my head, and it is still hard to accept in my heart. Decisions are made in the heart. Where I live here in Papillion, Nebraska the symbol for the town is the Monarch Butterfly. Papillion means butterfly. I believe God gave us the butterfly so that we would understand our purpose, development and metamorphosis in this life. At first a caterpillar is green, ugly and low to the ground with low sight and vision. A good caterpillar will eat everything around it. Then one day it’s time for the dark cocoon – a type of death. When it’s time to come out and it has truly changed on the inside of that cocoon, it begins to spread its wings. If you see a butterfly struggling and you help it break that cocoon, then you will damage it for life. It must spread its own wings, fully stretch them out and break the bondage and darkness of that cocoon, until it can fly. Once it can fly it is beautiful and has great and high vision. What an awesome living parable of our lives for Christ!

I am reminded of this passage in Revelation. We shall continue to watch and see what God has in store for us. So much is going on its hard to keep up with it all. I am so anxious for the next time God calls me on a trip!
Revelation 6
The Seals
1I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" 2I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
3When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" 4Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.
5When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart[a] of wheat for a day's wages,[b] and three quarts of barley for a day's wages,[c] and do not damage the oil and the wine!"
7When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" 8I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.