This past weekend, the women of IMPACT 360 were out on their Womanhood Retreat at Summit Ministries in Alabama. Having had the Manhood Retreat the weekend before, we men of IMPACT were left in charge of the campus, and we were ready to put what we’d learned about Biblical manliness in to practice. So, while the women were out, the men got to work. Early Friday morning, we embarked on some student-led servant leadership projects in the community. My team was led by the fearless Hunter Ward, and together, we helped bring life back to the suffering campus of a local women’s shelter. We spruced up some garden beds, trimmed hedges, mowed, weed-whacked, planted, organized, rearranged, swept, raked, and even installed a new drainage system. There were only eight of us, yet we were able to make short work of all that was to be done with some active and engaged hands. The women at the shelter were so pleased to have us. One lady caught the spring cleaning bug and jumped in alongside us to get her hands dirty in the garden. While I was planting some flowers, I overheard two women talking who were saying how refreshing it was to see men doing this kind of work for them. That’s when it hit me that what we were doing was much more than just sprucing up the campus. We were showing these women what it means to be a man. We were showing them what it looks like for men to act in accordance with God’s intended purpose for them. We were taking care of God’s creation, caring for his people and having dominion over His earth. We weren’t taking advantage of God’s creation; rather, we were cultivating it to reach its full potential. I realized that’s what these women need: men who will cherish and love them, men who will lead and serve them, men who will encourage and engage them. That’s what the world needs – men who create, not men who destroy.

It was good to see the hope that our work brought, and it is good to think of the hope that will continue to come at the women’s shelter. Even more, it is very good to think of all the hope that can be brought by men who reject passivity, who take responsibility, and who lead and serve courageously.

Josiah Brown
IMPACT 360 || Class of 2012