What a blessing to be a part of the Siafu Men’s Retreat at The Oaks Camp and Conference Center. This year it took us 5 ½ hours to drive from the Oakland Bay Area to The Oaks, but once we got there it was worth it! The highlight of my weekend was not only being with the men from our church, but meeting Dr. Don Davis on Saturday morning at 7am prayer. Not only did I meet him, but Dr. Davis sat next to me in our prayer circle and prayed for me—what a blessing!
If you live in cities like Oakland, Sacramento, Antioch, Stockton or Fresno, you are well aware of the crime, the brokenness and the spiritual darkness that continues to penetrate our cities. In these cities, you have poor and working poor people who are depressed, marginalized and overlooked who are struggling to find purpose, significance and meaning. It is in times like these where God will raise up a remnant of people who are willing to Fight the Good Fight so that the Kingdom of God can be established in our cities. It is in times like these where we need a revival and resurgence of strong Christ-centered male leadership who have the character and integrity to stand in the gap and fight for our children, homes, churches and communities.
As a church plant in our second year of ministry (Genesis Church-Antioch), God has graced us to bring a total of 25 men to Men’s Retreat over the past 2 years with the goal of bringing 20 more men next year! I am fully persuaded that if you preach to women, you’ll reach women. If you preach to teenagers, you will reach teenagers. But if you preach to men, you’ll reach men, women and their teenagers!
Therefore, it is important that we mobilize our brothers and get them to the Siafu Men’s Retreat. When they get there, they will meet men like Jaimie, Derrick, Tyrone, Gaya, Joe, Antwan, CJ, Jerome, Anthony and Ben. These are some of the men from our church whose lives were significantly impacted because of those 5 ½ hour trips to men’s retreat. Tyrone, who is a member of Genesis Church-Antioch, a single father of two, and works at Google enthusiastically said, “If you missed it, you really missed it. I had so much fun! I can’t wait until next year to ambush Pastor Bernard Emerson in paintball again! There’s so much to do here from Archery to Basketball and the food is a plus! You can never get bored and it’s affordable.”
