320 Days in Lockdown
320 Days in Lockdown https://cmnsummit.com/wp-content/themes/corpus/images/empty/thumbnail.jpg 150 150 https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/?s=96&d=mm&r=gHOPE: Rise Up, Recover All
November 4-6, 2021 | Dallas
Think your battle looks too hard? I wish you could have joined me in Peru for 320 days in total lockdown.
In March 2020, Paul Cole and I were headed to Argentina to conduct a massive men’s event when instead, everything shut down. Paul was able to catch the last flight out of Peru at 2:30 in the morning. As the last plane left, everything stopped in Peru.
During the next 320 days, our church family was scattered. Covid invaded our house—twice. Friends lost their lives. Karyn and I were huddled at home, unable to help, restricted even from going out on the streets. It was a tough, tough time.
When I was a kid, I dreamed of doing things. But I was a fatherless runaway living on the beach, riding waves every day. Then I met Jesus and got a new dream. I dreamed of a church. I dreamed of a ministry. I dreamed of having men in my life like my brothers in CMN.
God gave me all my dreams and more. But every now and then, especially during this past year, I wonder, why can’t this dream ever get any easier?
Lots of men are thinking the same right now. But—God is speaking to men as he spoke to David centuries ago after a terrible defeat that cost him his family. God’s word for us today is:
HAVE HOPE!
RISE UP AND RECOVER ALL.
That’s the theme for this year’s CMN Global Summit, “Lions Roar,” on November 4-6 in Dallas, Texas.
I’ll be there. I wouldn’t miss it.
What has God done before when I found the courage to rise up and recover all?
I’ll tell you.
On my walk one day, a nine-year-old boy looked up at me and said, “Can I be a woman for you?” He was hungry, so he had learned to prostitute himself to eat.
I thought, “Oh God, what kind of men would abuse kids this way?”
I prayed hard for God to send someone to help these kids. I prayed hard for my adopted nation. And I prayed hard for enough money to feed my own family for another week.
One day as I prayed, I heard a voice say, “Who will I send?” I had been praying for some big leader to come to help Peru. Instead, God laid it on me.
I thought, how could that be? I was just a born-again surfer who could barely raise enough money to feed my kids and keep ministering.
Friends helped me build our first orphanage. In the jungle where we ministered, an Ashaninka Indian tribal chief got word to us that his son was going to be kidnapped by terrorists. I asked how many kids were at risk. He said, “All of them.”
I said, “We’ll take them all.”
It wasn’t easy. The dream has never been easy.
There’s nothing easy about what God asks us to do, but we just do it anyway.
In CMN, we say, “We are CMN. We rescue men!”
JOIN THE BROTHERHOOD AT CMN GLOBAL SUMMIT
It’s not easy to rescue some men. And sometimes, it’s not easy to rescue ourselves.
Some rescues are messy. But let’s do it anyway!
The battle you fight today to recover from the pandemic, to keep your marriage together, to find a new job or a new way to make a living, to build your own business—these are all winnable battles.
When you rise up and recover all, the rest of us draw strength and courage from seeing your victories.
And you’ll draw strength and courage from seeing our victories at this year’s “Lions Roar” CMN Global Summit.
SAVE $100 WHEN YOU REGISTER TODAY
So, if somehow my story gives you the hope you need today, I’d love to hear about it at Lions Roar. I’ll see you there.
We are CMN. We rescue men. Even during a pandemic.
Your friend,
Robert Barriger
And to that, I say: Do it anyway.
