Adventure. Challenge. Fear. Wonder. Risk. Beauty. Pain. Transformation. Joy. God. Journey. And quiet Awe. Several years now into the thing that is Coracle, looking back, these are words that indeed reflect what we’ve experienced, and so many others now. And we’re as surprised as anybody that now there’s a short film about Coracle that captures it!

A little over a year ago, Kyle Schroeder, one of Tara’s friends from the earliest days of childhood, called to see if we’d be willing for him to use our story and the story of Coracle as the subject of his Master’s thesis in digital storytelling. It seemed good and right to do, a ‘God-thing’, and so over the months and with several trips to Corhaven and even to the Holy Land, Kyle sought to capture the essence of Coracle and tell the story set against the backdrop of the Celtic pilgrims of old, from where we even get our name. And he did a great job. (Kyle even built a couple of real coracles for the film, one of which now is out here at Corhaven for you to see next time you come out!).

So, grab your favorite cozy drink, and watch “Coracle: Vessel of Skin and Skeleton Frame”. Be sure to click HD, go full screen, crank up the volume, and enjoy a story that so many of you are a part of, and that God has done.

If you think there are folks you know that would benefit from watching this, please forward it to them. One man who watched it had this reaction: “Amazing.  Full and meaningful. Multi-dimensional with a dimension not often experienced. Captures and draws the listener into the story. Moves the hearer into a mysterious setting, but it’s not a horror or intrigue — more like a soul spirit entry into a place of life and vigor. Powerful.” Another person commented after seeing it that they were deeply moved to want to be all the more who God had made them to be. And that’s of course what Coracle is all about. We just didn’t know that one of the ways we’d do that is through a film! God’s got a sense of humor, and Kyle’s got great skills.

       On the journey,

PS: As is the often the case when I send out these more personal letters, I love including something that has made my soul leap and cry for More. So here goes.

In 1994-1995, when I made my first trip around the world just after seminary, I took with me 12 cassette tapes (!) for my Sony Walkman (!!), of just five artists. Bruce Cockburn, U2, John Michael Talbot, J.S. Bach, and The Violet Burning. The last is who I’m writing about, led then and now by a guy named Michael Pritzl. He/they are too hard to describe. Short story, a guy from SoCal who started as a Vinyard worship band in the early ‘90s and grew into so much more more, staying faithful along the way.

Words to describe it–worship, intimacy, Jesus as Lover, honest, musically amazing, grace, longing, raw, heavy at times, intimate at others, resistant to fame and ‘selling out’, true, More. I saw them once in concert, at a warehouse club in a dilapidated district near DC, and in truth it was the ONLY concert I’ve ever been to when I felt _profoundly_ pastored. (Of course, I haven’t yet heard John Michael Talbot in concert!)
So, here’s a little snippet of something that catches the flavor of Michael Pritzl and the Violet Burning, and gets at what resonates so deeply in me about him and the music. It’s a window to the soul I suppose, and perhaps more so also a window in what a life lived for decades with God can turn into to. And the adventure doesn’t stop. When you keep on the road, it doesn’t end. It just gets bigger, and more sweet.

Check it out HERE. Again, full screen and turn it up.

And, I understand that now Michael is an Anglican in SoCal, or maybe Boston. I’d love for him to be able to read this little reflection and be encouraged by a guy who’s been shaped by his ministry. If you know any way to get this letter to him, I’d be grateful if you’d forward it.

OK, Further Up and Further in!!

Oh, and if I were traveling around the world again today, I’d take all those same artists on an iPhone, and add to them Mumford and Sons, Josh Garrels, The National, and Steven Sharp Nelson, the cellist from The Piano Guys…maybe Audrey Assad and Young Oceans too…and something that Stu G was a part of and something from the Gungor boys…thank God for music!