Manistry Month is almost over now. Wow! That flew by! It has been an amazing month. We came together as a group of men and sharpened each other into the warriors that God intended us to be. Fears were conquered. Trust was gained. Life was spoken. Relationships were mended. Prayers were answered. Walls were shattered. Prophesies were fulfilled. The enemy got his ass kicked and God’s kingdom invaded Ocean View.
As I mentioned in my last blog, we spent the month in a part of Cape Town called Ocean View. There is no other way to describe Ocean View than to say that it is the most beautiful ghetto that I have ever stepped foot in. It is completely surrounded by mountains and sandwiched between two beaches on two oceans. To the west is the Atlantic Ocean and to the east is the Indian Ocean. It is pretty incredible. The people in Ocean View are a close community. They watch out for each other and for each other’s kids. There is a huge drug problem and there are drug dealers and gangs everywhere, but even they operate with more respect than any gang member or drug dealer I have ever encountered. Loud music blares into the night. Rastafarians smoke their pot in the hills and in the streets. The people of Ocean View make their living fishing and diving (whether they do it legally on a licensed boat or they go out late in the night to poach abalone). It is apparent that the enemy has a stronghold over Ocean View, but it is also apparent that the Holy Spirit is making moves and plotting His invasion.
Our host, Bradley Barnes, is a former professional soccer player who was born and raised in Ocean View. His past has some rocky points, but when he was born again, he was raised up a warrior. His ministry plan involves very little planning and a whole lot of following where the Spirit is leading. Whether he is doing his sports ministry with the neighborhood kids or he is walking the streets ministering to drug dealers and junkies, he first asks the Holy Spirit to lead him and waits on The Lord to move before he moves. He operates from a place of trust in The Lord that has inspired this group of men to do the same.
A major theme for us this month has been growing our trust in God and conquering fears that have been holding us back from truly being battle ready. It has occurred to us that fear is simply a lack of trust in God. This month our team has had plenty of opportunities to give our trust over to God. Some of the guys had never done street ministry or hung out in the ghetto before we got to Ocean View. It was amazing watching them ask God to push their fears aside and walk those streets ministering to people who would normally terrify them. Yesterday afternoon those same guys played in a soccer match against the most hardcore Rasta drug dealers in the neighborhood, who the Holy Spirit had led them to talk to a few nights before. That’s breakthrough, folks! We encountered a strong Christian man who had backslid and let sin in his life keep him from his ministry. We spent time with him and had him over for dinner one night where he worked up the courage to bring that sin to light and find freedom. Three guys on the team pushed their fears aside and went cage diving with great white sharks. Three of us prayed for peace as we flew off in a tiny, sketchy airplane and proceeded to jump out of that airplane. That was literally a leap of faith unlike anything I had ever challenged myself with. These are just a few of the stories of the ways God has led us this month to trust Him and step out of the boat like Peter did when he saw Jesus walking on water. The stories go on and on.
Now that we have spent this month as men pushing ourselves to trust God and follow where He calls, it is almost time to rejoin the women on the squad and put the things He has taught us into further action in Botswana and beyond. Two days ago we climbed up to a cross on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. We spent some time debriefing what we have learned this month, we identified some of the challenges that keep us from living up to our calling, and we gave those challenges and all of the fears associated with them over to Jesus at the foot of that cross. We prayerfully asked God to further use us in the invasion of His kingdom on this earth and we hiked back down a band of warriors with our shields butted together ready for battle. The enemy had better run and hide because we are coming and we are bring all of the power of God with us. As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Love Y’all!!!
