Raising your son into manhood, Raising a modern day knight

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lukas on April 10, 2012 at 2:31am

Hi Allen,

Eight years ago, God woke me up one morning at about 3am and said DADS AND LADS. At that stage I did not know who or what spoke to me, I was not in the right place at that stage of my life, facing possible divorce, my son and daughter were 3 and 4 at the time.

Well I started a Bass fishing charter business in SA named Dads and Lads...got it totally wrong. In 2008 I attended a Mighty Men conference by Angus Buchan, evangelist and author of Faith Like Potatoes(70 000 men attended).That weekend was a milestone in my life and I had one question..What now?

Well in Aug 2008 I did my first Wild at Heart Band of Brothers camp with a few men at church and my journey took a awesome turn. I met God in a new way and never looked back. I faced a lot of financial difficulty the past four years but God is my anchor. We started hosting Wild at Heart camps and was invited by John and his team to Colorado in March 2011. Since then we were challenged with an absolute struggle to get going again. In Oct 2011 I was introduced to Robert's DVDs named Quest for authentic manhood.

Well to compare it with John's resources would be unfair, both Robert and John has a gift to work with men. The way I see it and please do not shoot me as I am not slating any of them. Robert's material hit more sensitive areas in my life and being familiar with John's message I knew I had to go through this process. Well we started hosting Quest for Authentic manhood and we are finding it a bit easier to stay focused. I recently read his book Raising a Modern day Knight and knew God's plan with Dads and Lads had something to do with what we are doing now.

In the back ground I was praying for guidance, attending meeting after meeting with pastors, Industrial psychologists and mothers with sons age 13 to 15 to see what I need to do...no success. All I got was more questions and confusion.

Following a prophesy on South Africa for the past 4 years that is preached over and over again at every assembly of men I knew God was busy with something but I could not pin the task He has put on my heart. Mal 4:6. Let me explain. The divorce rate in South Africa is I recon second highest in the world, the result being miss guided boys, hence miss guided men and fathers. Out of my own friendship circle we have a 60% divorce rate. If we look at the black African community we have 14 year old boys looking after their families because mom and dad and uncles died of AIDS. That is scary.

How do we rectify this curse on our country in God's eyes. We need to get involved in our young boys to become men.

I had questions, who do I involve, how many men, my son and who, do I involve street children or what do we do with these boys...confusion. Until God showed me what He wants.

While doing the Quest for authentic manhood course and mentioning the Raising a modern day Knight book I asked the men who would like to buy the book, 11 men bought the book, I kept record and emailed every one two weeks or so after their purchase.

I asked them if they would take on this journey to bless our sons with me, they all came back and said they would love to, but there is a snag. I challenged the men to look at a close friend and find a son that has an absent father and take responsibility for that boy and bring him on this journey. Opt to become his spiritual dad for this journey until he is married. They all jumped at the chance and I believe we are on the right track.

Since this some major thing happened in my relationship with God. I recently attended another boot camp in SA and God reminded me of something I asked in 2008..I asked God to restore my heart...fully. At this camp God took me through all my wounds I got as child and He reminded me of all the healing He gave me through all the camps we did and hosted the past 4 years. (19 camps). He then gave me a movie name, a movie I saw as young farm boy in 1985 and I saw myself as the main character. The movie name Man from Snowy River. The following Monday night one of my best friends gave me the movie and said he heard me mention the movie as my all time favorite and he got it at the local DVD shop. He had this urge to buy it when he spotted the set at the shop..bless God.

Well i took a days leave and watched the movie...shortly after the movie I prayed and asked God what is going on, He replied, You have your heart back..fully restored, you are released. Wow.

Since then I could face anything...but I guard my heart with all I have and for us to raise modern day knight we need to be knights. Fully restored knights in God''s eyes not our own.

I gave the men a deadline of 20 April 2012 to finish the book so we can start this new Dads and Lads journey with God as our guide and Jesus as our healer and the Holy Spirit as our Counselor.

Please pray for us and I know that this topic was not brought up by you by chance, there is a purpose and a longing in God's heart for this.

Regards

Firm in His grip.

Lukas Olivier

Permalink Reply by Allen Smith on April 10, 2012 at 5:42am

Lukas,

Thank you so much for replying. God is amazing the way he works!! You are right, there is something bigger than us going on here. I am just starting out on this journey of Wild at Heart. I attended the Boot camp last year for the first time. Last September a couple of other guys, a small band of believers and myself had a boot camp. We are hosting another in Michigan in June, Lord willing. You will def be in my our prayers. It is so cool being involved in the Larger Story with HIM, and making new Allies. Looking forward to seeing what He does.

Call or email anytime as the Lord leads!!

812-670-7966, 502-212-5120

at997@insightbb.com

www.ajackatheart.com

Love Allen

Permalink Reply by Lukas on April 11, 2012 at 1:11am

Allen, thanks for the offering of prayer and support in the spirit. We will need every bit we can get.

Just keep at the Wild at Heart message of searching for your heart. Believe the passage that Jesus promised.

Mat 18:11  For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

The words THAT WHICH WAS LOST does not refer to lost people but to the joy and peace, zeal, zest, freedom that was lost as a result of what happened to our hearts as young boys.

Greetings and good luck with your mission.

Firm in His grip.

Lukas

+27 833110100

lukas.olivier@bt.com

You and your band will be in our prayers, remind us again before your next camp so we can fight with you and for you.