From out of Boot Camp, from Alan's teaching, from John Eldridge's teaching. Our God is not some 'conveyor of happiness' to us in tidy packages - His purpose is wider, deeper and more amazing. And I learned about the central power of 'Thy Will Be Done'. I had lived instead by brain and words and writing, at least in my day job, and doing these things opened my mind and heart to how wide God's purpose is for us as men. I had never done a clay pigeon shoot, never canoed down the River Severn (even thought I had lived only yards from it for years), never aimed a bow. I also had to listen and be amazed and astounded by the stories and courage of my fellow men on Boot Camp. Whatever I was, did or failed to do, His Grace was freely given to me. Even if I lost all the love of those in the world I did not lose His. Through the powerful witness of John Eldridge and his team on the Wild at Heart videos - and the equally powerful love of Alan and his wife Sue for all of us who became a 2015-16 'band of brothers' my understanding and experience of God's love for me. I had never sat down and spent spiritual time just with men, and had perhaps come to believe the way modern society seems to portray men as either weak or predatory (or both). could offer me in my journey with Jesus at my side. Living near Chorley then I had been in Chorley Chapel beforehand and had met Alan Vincent once or twice but I had no knowledge of what Boot Camp. In 2015 I was in the first throes of what has become my broken marriage and broken family, a tragedy I neither want nor can yet understand.
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