Sitting in the Manila airport, I'm looking around at a group of people who a mere seven months ago had never met, now interacting as a community of friends that seem to have known each other for years. The past six weeks for myself has really been a time of connecting on a deeper and more personal level with many of the individuals of this community, with whom I have been on this journey with the past 4 months.
Almost half way along on this journey, I have been changed, and seen the lives of those around me changed in ways I could have never imagined. I have found a new sense of freedom in Christ that I have never really known, with that freedom His spirit has been working to cast out fear and timidity in my life, and replace it with a boldness and a desire for more wisdom that can only be attributed to Christ. In some ways I'm finding for the first time in my life, that I am not trying to hide, instead I'm embracing who He has created me to be.
As I embark on the next part of this journey into Thailand, I will once again be facing new and exciting changes. Instead of being with the new teams that were established in November, the men of this squad will be coming together in Kanchanburi (made famous by the film the Bridge of River Kwai), to what is called Manistry month, essentially a month of a team of only men. We will be working on a goat farm and helping with maintenance of the farm and helping with some construction projects. I have been put as the leader of this team of men for the month, I look forward to all the challenges, as well as the growth that will come from this opportunity.
With a team of only men, this means that the women of my team will be in a separate location this month, they will be serving in Pucket and will be working with women and girls who are caught up in the sex trafficking and prostitution that plagues many parts of Thailand.
I'm excited to see how this month will unfold, I know that God is going to use this special time to speak to myself and the other men on what it means to be a true man of God. In the same way, I hope to see the women learn what it means to be sisters in Christ, and for them to know what it means to be a woman after Gods heart.
