As most of you know I am now in my sixth month of the race. It is really hard to believe. This month we are in Thailand. It is also Manistry month. Manistry month is a month where the guys and girls are separated for the month. So the guys of GSquad are together tented on the future property of SHE ministries. SHE ministries is an organization based in Phuket Thailand. They work in helping women get out of the sex trade industry that is highly prevalent here. The ministry is about ten years old. We are doing construction work to get the home of Mark and Sharon the founders ready to move in. Once it is ready they will be able to move in and SHE ministries main base will be ready to house more ministries that come to support them. They will also be able to house Thai women here that they are helping mentor through teaching them a trade.
One thing we are already learning is that the work is important but it is definitely not about the work. As most of you know I am on a team of seven that is five women and two men. I have realized in our short stay here that if it was about the work we could have just stayed with our teams and did ministry this month. Many of the times from previous month have already done manual labor, so that showed us it wasn’t about us being men and better able to do the work. This month is about us as men having a once in a life chance in this environment to be men together. And not in the sense of what the world says men should do together. It is more about going to a deeper level as Christian men that we all have not been able to go to before. We have already talked about things in a week that I have never talked about with another group of 12 men.
I so feel so blessed to be able to live life with these men throughout this trip as well as more extensively this month. One revelation that has already been made is that through living life together as our Father has called us to the work will get done, not the other way around. If we finished the house this month but didn’t know more about each other as men we would have missed out.
In our society as men we are told that accomplishing task and getting things done is a part of being a man. There is some truth in that. However, a bigger part of being a man is living life together and growing closer to the Father through that process. Finishing a job for the sake of finishing a job does not bring Kingdom down. 12 men living life for the Father and not standing by and allowing each other to do anything but bring Kingdom down , that is what we are called to do. By being vulnerable with each other as men we can talk about things society tells us we should not. And by taking those things we talk about to the Father we can break off generational curses that stand to hold us from deeper intimacy with the Father.
Men stand up and be counted. Trust in the grace of the Father and your fellow brothers. You do not have to stand in this life alone. Dare to give of yourself. Live outside your cultural norms. Live a life as the disciples did before us. I believe if we can do that no other thing will happen but bringing Kingdom down. As the bible says iron sharpens iron. That is only true if the iron is picked up and not laid at rest. Men are you ready for your iron to spark.
