This month I am not with my usual team.
Instead I have been given the opportunity to spend 25 days secluded in
rural Thailand (Kanchanaburi) with the 14 guys of my squad. It’s kind of like being at summer camp, but
better. Like working on a farm or a dude
ranch, but more fun. My ministry this
month is to learn what it means to be a man.
Sounds simple enough… Nope.
We have been here for less than a week, and while God has already shown me a
lot, that can wait until later. For now,
I’ll tell you about what day to day life looks like. Think of it as setting the scene for the
change that is to come.
My mornings begin as the sun breaks over the surrounding mountains, permeates the
fog that sleeps in the valley with us, and stretches through the mesh of my
tent to gently lift my eyes open. Most
mornings my reaction is to sleepily sit up and squinting, take in the beauty all
around me, reminding myself of where I am and how blessed I am to call this my
morning routine. The next step is to
look at my alarm clock, confirm that I don’t have to be up for at least another
hour and roll back into sleep.
I finally crawl out of my tent at 7:30.
I put on my shoes, careful to keep an eye out for spiders and scorpions,
and climb down the ladder. Our day
starts with bible study, followed by breakfast (eggs, French toast, etc.), and
then we begin work around 9. Daily
chores include feeding the cows, sweeping out the bamboo goat houses, and
loading/spreading/tamping rocks. We
break for lunch (pad thai, rice, …) and a midday break around 12:30. We work from around 2-5:30 in the
afternoon. On special days we’ll have
time to play a few games of volleyball before heading to the lake to swim and
“shower.” We eat dinner (fried chicken,
vegetables, rice) around 7:30. Bed time
is somewhere between 10:30 and 11:30. On
paper, each day looks the same. Life is
simple. I love it.
The reality of life here is that each day is new. Each day is full of new conversations,
experiences, and stories. We have been
taking time after lunch and dinner to have each guy share his story – his past,
his struggles, his triumphs, his highs and lows – his life, his heart, his core. This is an amazing opportunity to see into the
heart of men. Daily we are given the
opportunity to step into one another’s lives and dispel the lies of society, or
history, or popular culture, replacing them with the truth that we see and that
God sees. We are learning about how
vulnerability and weakness breeds true strength. We are learning the difference between a man
and a boy who can shave. We are learning
what it means to sharpen one another and lift each other up. We are learning about how God came to earth as
a man to save a world distorted by man.
Because it took me an hour to walk to find internet today (it ended up being 10
minutes from where I started) I don’t have time to completely finish everything
I want to say, but there’s more to come.
Please continue to pray for all of the men living together this month. Pray for openness, vulnerability, strength,
endurance, and health. Pray that we are
able to love each other not as men, but as men of God (trust me, they are very
different kinds of love). Mostly pray
that God’s will would be done in us and through us, because his plans are incomparably
better than ours ever could be.
