For manistry month, the 14 other guys and myself are in Phuket, on the south tip of Thailand. We are working with SHE (self help and empowerment) ministries, a Christian charity committed to helping women and children at risk, many of whom are trapped in the commercial sex trade. SHE is dedicated to providing employment, vocational training and counseling for women who want to help themselves out of this industry.
However, we are not working with the women and children. We are staying and working at a plot of land that they are building a discipleship-training center. Our days consist of doing all forms of construction and different manual labor projects, trying to start building this center.
Some of the projects we have already done include, mowing/ chopping down massive weeds and grass, installing plumbing, digging trenches, leveling ground, re-wiring electrical, and making bamboo walls. However, the biggest project that we have started is clearing out an overgrown, filthy pond and making it usable again. This includes several of us getting into the lake to pull the weeds and try to deepen the pond. I spent several days using a massive rebar contraption ironicly named the "hook of death" to drag the bottom of the pond.
One day Jake, Brant, and I spent some time taking a small boat down the river attached to the pond clearing the impassable overgrown waterway with machetes. It felt like we were Huck Finn or Apocalypse Now style, embarking through the unknown.
Jonny and I are know working on hanging bamboo on the walls of what will become a coffee shop.
This month is also very primitive. Since we are living on the unfinished construction site, there are no showers, one toilet in the middle of the storage shed and a portable stove.
We are sleeping in our tents and our hammocks in one of the unfinished buildings, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am learning so much from these 14 amazing Men of God and truly starting to understand what a Man of Integrity looks like and trying to step into that role.
