Every team I visit has the same problem in their ministry – reaching the men. Whether it’s street evangelism in a city, feeding programs in squatter communities, or inviting tribal people to bible studies, it is very hard to gain the interest of the men. It’s understandable to some extent: a lot of them work very hard ALL day long, then they just want to come home and rest or they start drinking and gambling as their only source for entertainment. Gentle Hands has been reaching out to the people of Malabon for quite a while now, and they have noticed a key interest that all of the men share – basketball. To take a step forward in including the men, the workers and volunteers at Gentle Hands decided to clean and repaint the basketball court in the Malabon community. Their efforts were well received to say the least.Micah: We began our day of work in Malabon with extra sets of hands since a large team of military families from Japan came to volunteer at Gentle Hands for a week. We walked them through Malabon so they could really understand the living conditions these people endure (they live on a garbage dump), and they could see the incredible need they have for food, medical care, money, and the gospel.
After we walked through and greeted the people, our team and the new team began our fellowship time with the people. We played with children, talked to the adults, and Ate Char did some medical work.
Then it was time to work. The children and our teams swept the court to get it ready for painting. The men were starting to gather as we swept the court. Once we brought out the paint and started outlining our marks and asking what color they wanted everything to be, their interest peaked. Men came pouring out the sidelines of the court – watching, helping, smiling. It was great!
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| Sweeping - Filipino style |
Almost everyone from our teams got a turn to help paint the court, and all of they people seemed simply elated that we would do this for them. While it is something they appreciate and something we wanted to do, painting a basketball court was not our goal for the day. We wanted to establish a stronger relationship with the men which will hopefully lead to more of them coming to Christ.
Our hopes were realized the next time we went to Malabon. The men seemed more open, and they had even painted the Gentle Hands symbol on one of the walls surrounding the court – pink paint, heart and all. This was one step forward with the men that will hopefully lead to a race towards Christ.
