Monday, May 18, 2015

ManMade Windows

Last Tuesday evening around 5:30 I packed up my things to leave work as I usually did.  I went downstairs to say "hi" to the group of young men who had gathered for their Man Made project.  A guy from Love for Life had just arrived to speak to them about the topic of sexuality.  Not a subject I would want to stick around for.

I started to head out the door and noticed a couple guys trying to push these two young boys out the door.  The boys were familiar to me. They were always running around the grounds of YI terrorising passerbyers and trying to sneak into the building.  Last time they were in the building, they broke some equipment of ours.  Needless to say they were not welcomed into the building.

I decided to ignore them knowing they would eventually leave until I saw the youngest one (7 years old maybe) start spitting on our door windows.  He kept doing it over and over again and the guys were raging.  It was time to intervene and I went over to ask where they boys lived, so i could bring them home.  Squatting down to their level, I was slightly concerned that they would spit in my face.  I wasn't making much progress with my chat with them.

That's when Conor one of the young ManMade volunteers (16 years old I think) came out with a rag saying "wash my windows now."  He didn't rise his voice, he didn't threaten them, he just said firmly and with authority that the boys needed to wash the windows.  The young one (who spat) ran away while the older one took the rag and began wiping the saliva off the windows.  He than handed the rag to Conor and ran off too.

I was blown away by Conor's maturity and the way he handled the situation.  I don't know very much about ManMade (it's for guys obviously), but I do know they look at characteristics that make real men rather than what media or society tells them.  Conor could have lost his cool with the boys yelling at them or whacking them upside the head.  Rather he showed them what responsibility looked like.  Not only did Conor model this to the boys but also to his mates that were watching.

Our world is in desperate need of guys to be men.  I'm so grateful for the ManMade programme who help and support the growth of Godly men.  I pray that they can continue to step into manhood which is much much more than being macho but rather being responsible witness of God's call on their life. May these guys become ManMade Windows who transparently show the love of Christ in all that they do.  

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