Life Lessons for Young Men Part 2

Nothing says Christmas like a water buffalo. For a poor family in Asia, getting a water buffalo is like getting a farm tractor to pull a plow, or getting a milk truck full of delicious milk, or getting a stand at the market to sell cheese. A water buffalo opens the door for work, food, and income. More importantly, it opens the door to talk about Jesus.

And nothing says Christmas better than that. This is Rodney from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explored manhood within Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Sit back, enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Man Talk, brought to you by TAWCMN, talking and walking Christian men's ministry, where they're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination, and challenging men to take their God-assigned role. Here's our hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. I'm still wondering where that white guy is, but we're praying for Roy. He's not feeling well.

He was running a temperature, and so get well, big guy, when you hear the podcast, because I know you're going to listen to it, when you're recovering. We are back with the Trail Life crew, and we're going to be talking to the crew a lot for this particular session. But if you listen to last week's show, we were saying how the Trail Life is bringing about change in men and boys, and they're bringing about biblical change. And that's what we want in our men, and this is what we want in our boys.

We want them to be examples to the world of what a man and or a boy should be in the sight of society, because society has fallen, and this world has fallen. But as believers and followers of Jesus Christ, this organization truly gives me hope in that what the work that you guys are doing is changing men and changing boys. So again, we're welcoming Jim Medeiros, we're welcoming Son Horton, we're welcoming April Horton, and we're welcoming Caleb. And so what we're going to do now is we're going to talk to him first, and we want him to just give us an overview of exactly what Trail Life has meant to you since you joined the organization. How have you benefited from Trail Life? What changes in your life have Trail Life made to you?

I know that's a lot of questions, but we'll take them one by one. Well, Trail Life overall has been a really great program for me. It's been a wonderful experience. I've learned a lot about woods tools. I actually just skinned and cleaned my first fish, actually my first two fish, starred fires, and a lot more.

Amen, amen. So in doing these things hands on, things with your hands, how has some of those things maybe translated from the Trail Life experience into real life experiences? Well, it's kind of boosted my confidence in some ways. Kind of made me wary of certain things and more cautious with some things.

Not that I got hurt too badly. So what about some of the guys your age that you interact with? What do you hear from them in reference to life change skills that they've either picked up while in Trail Life or something that they've added to their life experience? Well, I know for a lot of the boys my age, there's a lot of firsts. First starting a fire, first chopping wood, first catching a fish, first fishing trip, shooting, especially 22, long rifles and pistols, and camping.

That was a big one as well. We've had a lot of great camping experiences. And serving also. Yes, and serving as well. The older boys, we encourage them to serve the younger boys.

Food, they actually cook some of the breakfast. So there's aspects where not just the father serving, we're incorporating the younger boys. The Navigators and Ventures program, they actually hold office.

Yeah, I was just gonna say I'm glad you mentioned it. You know, Caleb's a great example of our youth leaders that we have in our troop. But really, when you move up to the Navigator level, you know, there's a there's new responsibility. So prior to that, adults have to learn about safety. Safety is very, very important to Trail Life USA. But when when you become a Navigator, you also have to learn about safety because now you're joining the team in keeping an eye out on how to keep everyone safe, including including yourselves. So we want them, but you know, boys in Caleb's age to be the example for the Woodlands more than we want Son and I to be the examples in some cases, because we know that the boys are really looking up, you know, to the older boys.

And so there's a lot about leadership and Caleb's not giving himself enough credit. So let's bring let's bring in another one of the younger ones. And let's find out what has what what is have you learned from being in Trail Life? Let's get give us your name. I'm Nathan.

Nathan. So what has Trail Life done for you, Nathan, since you've been in Trail Life? I've learned how to fish properly. And I've learned how to kayak. I've learned what how edge tools are different from knives and stuff. Climb through dead logs.

Yeah, I climbed through a dead log. Oh, that's that's wonderful. So it seems like you have just had so much fun being in Trail Life. Oh, that's great.

That's great. Well, let's bring in we're going to bring in another one of the two live crew for I should say four live crew here. So give us your name. And tell us how Trail Life has benefited you since you've been a Trail Lifer. My name is Josh. I ever since I started Trail Life, I've actually caught more fish.

We have a fish theme going. I've made more friends. Caleb and Nathan have been really good friends. And I've learned how to be a better Christian. And I've learned how some things can tie together to be like a story for God, like the parables of Jesus. I've just enjoyed it a lot. Well, that's wonderful.

That's wonderful. Thank you. You know, when you hear our the youth talk in reference to the things that they're learning from this organization, which is a great organization.

If listener if you have young people, and you want them to really understand what it means to get back to the Bible basics and understand what their life should be built on, then call. Go to the website and go ahead, Jim, give us that website. Yeah, you can go to traillifusa.com. And there should be a link there to find a troop. And that's how you would get connected with a local troop. So no matter where you're listening from in the continental United States, you can do that and find your local troops. I actually went on and I used that little search, the little search glass and I put in North Carolina, and it showed me all of the troops that were here in North Carolina. So you can do likewise to find out the troop that's near you.

It's a great organization. When we come back after the break, we're going to be talking about the last camping experience that you had and some of the challenges that you face. But see, there is a godly way, I'm not going to say a right way, but a godly way of handling things that may not be well in the sight of men. And you all know what I'm referring to. But when we come back, we want to talk about some of these things because inevitably, some of these things will arise because we're dealing with the human faction of people. And that's just a part of us. We have feelings. We get hurt when people say things that we may disagree with, that we may not conform to.

So in that respect, I think when you listen to when we come back after break, when you listen how certain things were dealt with when you experience troubling times or trouble between men, how these guys dealt with this. I was starting to tear up in here because it's the way, godly way that things should be handled. And when you turn things over to God, listeners, when you give it to him, only God has a solution that is right for your situation.

And that situation and solution is for you. It's for nobody else. It's this point in time when we call on the Lord God Almighty the most when he's available. He said he would never leave us. He would never forsake us. He commands the fathers not to provoke your children to wrath.

But if the children obey and see the godly example of the father, then they're modeling that. Because I know that's what my son did. He would always be watching. And then I would do something and he said, Dad, are you really supposed to be doing it that way? So they saw it. He saw it. And I was like, when did you see that, son? But it's like, yeah, they're watching.

We see you. And so when you respond a certain way and then you act differently the way that you respond, children see that. And then, of course, as a result, they want to know why.

So then if they start getting off course or off the track and they say, well, Dad, we saw you or Mom, we saw you, and believe me, they will remind you. But when we come back, that's what we want to talk about because as believers in Jesus Christ, all of us are ministers of God's Word. All of us may not be ordained. All of us may not have gone to a seminary and things like that, or what I like to call them, cemeteries. But that's neither here nor there.

But when you go there and a believer is listening to you talk about God, but then they see you out at Walmart responding a different way, just like that child, they want to know why. So when we come back, I hear the music playing. So when we come back, we're going to talk about this experience that Son and Jim had. And we thank God for all of the crew that was speaking earlier because this is what we want to do, folks. We want to bring boys to men. And we're not still in boys to men title. We're not doing that.

But this is what we want to do. See you in a minute. TAWCMM would love to have you join their community of men for breakfast every first and third Friday of every month. They have Bible discussions and fellowship after the best breakfast in town. The meeting location is at their gracious Host Church, First Christian Church in Kernersville, 1130 North Main Street in Kernersville. We'll be right back.

Remember, affordable chiropractic on West Lexington Avenue in High Point Hall, 336-885-1987. You could bring that in. Yeah, we're back. I'm loving the music. Keep playing that music.

Keep playing the music. We are back here, Man Talk Radio. We're here with Jim. We're here with Son. We're here with April and the crew. And we just want to thank God for what they're doing. So during the break, we were talking about that situation. So I'm going to let, Son, you open that up and how God used you to just bring these two men together and all that who were around just rejoiced as a result of what God did, because there's nothing you did.

He just used you. Absolutely. Amen.

But you're going to love this, listeners. Absolutely. So we went on a camping trip. There's probably about 40 to 50 participants, fathers and sons, and a few single moms.

There's just one single mom out there. But the circumstances, the boys were going on an adventure. We have an agenda, but if the boys are having fun, we just let them have fun.

We're not going to interrupt that. They need this time to get an understanding of their friendships, build bonds. And in one instance, it was kind of a Lord of the Flies moment. They were out in the back of this wood pile away from the site of the fathers, and they wanted to express their physicality.

They wanted to show, you know, I studied karate, whatever. It got physical. Needless to say, one of the boys walked out crying. And I was thoroughly exhausted. I had about four hours of sleep.

I packed all day, and I was at my wit's end. And so I told the boy, it's okay, we'll talk to your dad, or go talk to your dad. Well, his father came to me and said, son, my son got jumped by three kids.

And why didn't you tell me about it? And so I was caught blindsided, and I was backtracking, and he said, I'm leaving. And he basically blew up, and everyone heard it, and he was marching off. The other father that was involved said, we're leaving too. And I just stood in the middle of the field saying, can we talk about this? And no one turned around.

So it was about 15, 20 minutes. I called up one of the fathers on his cell phone, just trying to get him to see my side of things, because we weren't able to express things. And before I could utter many words, he was like, we're coming back. My son is not going to witness that this is how we do things. We're going to come back and show that there's a different way that we can resolve things.

So I was like, wonderful. Now how do I get the other father back? He's now 30 minutes down the road. I'm going to ask him to drive another 30 minutes back. So I called him up and said, don't worry about it, son.

We forgot our net. So he looked up. I was like, thank you, God. So he was on his way back. So I told Jim, I need your help.

This is the circumstance, and can you come and support me? So we walked up away from the troop. The fathers came into the parking lot, and I didn't even talk to the fathers. I just knelt down and looked both the boys in their eyes and told them from my heart what I wanted to see in them. That they were children of God. That I loved them. That I would never allow them to be set up for failure. And how I was bullied when I was a child.

And the only time that I want them to fight is when they're side by side against a common enemy and not themselves. There was a little bit more said, but when I looked up, all of us were in tears. And it was a wonderful experience. Afterwards, we surrounded the boys. We prayed over the boys. The fathers apologized in front of their sons.

The sons apologized to each other, and they ran off and played all day long. And the troop saw all this transpire. They didn't know what was going on. In my own mind, I was like, that's the end of our troop. This is a thorn in our side.

How do I overcome this? And I just didn't have the power to do it. But it was a miraculous moment. It was God orchestrated. And it wouldn't have been possible without him. And without that model, there were Jesus in the middle of it, where we need to bring in our brothers to mediate things like that.

This would never happen. You know, that's so wonderful. Jim, you wanted to add something to that? Well, I was just going to say, you know, God uses those moments, right? That to us, I mean, Toussaint and I, as it's happening, like he said, I mean, we're already starting to think a month ahead, like, what is our troop going to be like? What impact is this going to have?

What's the next meeting going to look like, the next weekly meeting? And, you know, God was up there laughing, saying, I got this, you know? He was already turning cars around, and we didn't even know. But, you know, it's a great testament to just really never losing faith in who he is. And, you know, he was orchestrating something that day. God was, God Almighty was, he had a plan. And, you know, we were blessed enough to be a part of that plan and to allow him to use us and for us to not, you know, San and I were able to keep our cool through that, especially San. I mean, I don't know if I had, you know, like he said, he had hardly any sleep and all of that all the way up until that point. So anyway, it was just, if you were there, it was a beautiful thing.

There was no dry eye in that circle. Yeah, see, and that's the way it should be done. See, so we asked you to talk about this story because… I'll say one more thing, though, because I think this is important.

One of those dads was a registered leader, and one of them wasn't, and they're both registered leaders now. Again, a God thing. Again, a God thing.

But yeah, you know, I mean, all the way down to forgetting the net, see? So it's like now, now there's no excuse for you to come back. Okay, he gave me the five minutes.

So in five minutes, let's talk about the other story that you were going to mention. Yes, this troop is a ministry. Like I said at the very beginning, there's parents that come up to me, it's like, I know this is a program for the boys.

Then I stopped them. It's like, no, it's not. It's for us.

You know, it's for the boys, it's for us. I've seen, there's a single mom, the first time she's ever camped in her entire life, and she's trying to bring her son to experience godly men. And three o'clock in the morning, I see her huddle up in a chair by the fire, but she's still there. She is still fighting for herself and for her son.

And for us as a troop to come around her and support her was very important to me. There was another mother that came in, this her first time ever visiting, and she had four boys and they ran into the room and they started running and screaming and she was trying to control them or at least say, I'm sorry, you know, hey, simmer down. And I just looked at her and say, let them be. This is what they're about. This is what this program is about. Then they're going to have fun and we're going to figure this out together.

And she was like, I like this. That takes a lot of pressure off me, you know. She said, I don't have to be embarrassed about my boys being boys. Yes. No, that's what they are. That's what they are.

They're boys. You know, it's such a wonderful thing, I think, when we talk about what you guys have done in the organization and what the organization means. So we're coming down to the end, but I would like for April, if she would, I'm going to put her on the spot again, to offer up a prayer to all of the mothers out there, to all of the fathers, to all of the sons out there who might be struggling within that family unit.

This is an organization that you can reach out to. So if you would just close us in sort of like a prayer, remembering those folks out there who are sort of like on the bubble, you know, but don't know which way to turn. But now we have an outlet for them. Okay. She said, really?

Right now? Yes, please. Oh, I thought we were coming back for that.

I thought I was going to get to think. Okay, Lord, you know my heart. You know these men and boys, and you know everyone that comes to our troop, and you know how blessed we are because of you.

Lord, people can show up with no skills at all. All they have to have is themselves, and you will show the way. I pray for moms to be brave and push their husbands to take their boys, no matter how tired. I pray for their grandparents.

If the dad can't do it, then a grandparent would do it. Anybody can bring the boy to the meeting, and anybody can participate. Everybody benefits when the family is together and growing, Lord. Thank you, Lord, and I thank you for this opportunity. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Amen. You know, God is able when we're not, and he's shown us through speaking with you diligent families who are involved in trail life, you know, exactly what men should be, and standing by their wives, standing by their children, being that example that the world has basically taken away from them. You know, so this organization is bringing men back to be men, and this is what man talk is all about because the family stands on the man. You know, God has given that man certain responsibilities, and this is to take nothing away from women and wives because God has given you a role, but he has given men a role as well. And so as men, we need to step up and step out, as Roy would say in his absence.

We would step in and step out and not sit on the sidelines, but be active participants with our family. Son, you have something? I just thought of something really quickly. In these groups, in these troops, men support men, and the other families. We had a presentation where one of the boys said, my dad's old, in front of everyone.

I said, but he's wise, you know, because the sledgehammer that I can show you, you can't even pick up, and if you can pick it up, you can't even use. Appreciate your father. Wow. And don't forget American Heritage Girls for all the girls out there because they need a place to move. All right.

She got a plug in for American Heritage Girls. So we thank you listening audience. We just love you. We love all the comments that you have left for us on the website. We just thank you for all of the participation, the calls of encouragement that you've given us.

We just love you, and we just want you to keep listening because Roy and I, we want to be relevant. We want to bring topics to you that's relevant and meaningful for the family, for the man, for the women and children. So we thank God for you, and until we come again, ManTalk Radio, God bless, and we love you. As we wrap up today's show, be assured that TAWCMM, Talking and Walking Christian Men's Ministry, is building a community of men that are Christ followers with a desire to be servant leaders in their homes, communities, churches and work environments. Check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings. Drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future. Thank you for joining us on ManTalk Today. Visit us at www.tawcmm.com. Men walking the talk. This is the Truth Network.