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Today GTD kicked off the most important objective we've ever been involved with. It's called "52 Days" and it's based on the first 6 chapters of the Biblical book of Nehemiah. In this book Nehemiah finds out that the Jews who survived the exile were in great trouble and the wall of Jerusalem that was built to protect them had been broken down and its gates were destroyed by fire. Nehemiah wholeheartedly seeks God and prays for success and mercy before the king. He then shares his distress for his people with the king (Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king). God granted Nehemiah favor as the king not only gave Nehemiah authority to rebuild the wall, but also funded its reconstruction. Nehemiah journeyed to Jerusalem and took time to survey the damage to the wall and the gates. He then met with the remaining remnant of Jews and shared with them his vision to rebuild the wall of and how God had already been working. The people replied, "Let us rise up and build." And so they set out to rebuild the wall. They worked day and night while being threatened by many adversaries who wanted to destroy them. They worked with a trowel in one hand and a sword in another. And they worked together and completed the wall in only 52 days.
I've always loved this story because it displays the delicate balance between God doing His part and man doing our part. God supplied the passion, mission, vision, opportunity, authority, and funding while the people supplied the obedience, effort, hard work, and diligence to physically restore the wall. God did His part and the people did their part.
Today, we have taken on a similar mission to rebuild the Walls of GTD. The foundation (our values, mission, vision, and commitment to Christ) & the God-awesome events of our ministry are solid as a ROCK. But the Walls of GTD (the structure that helps us accomplish our mission) needs some attention. In fact, it needs to be rebuilt. Part of the wall is broken down because it's the natural result of aging (18 years of ministry causes trailers, equipment, and gear to need some restoration). Part of the wall is broken down because of spiritual warfare (We have an adversary in the spiritual realm that wants GTD destroyed and he utilizes a variety of artillery to attempt to chip away at our resources. We just survived a 5 year recession that required intense amounts of personal sacrifice). And part of the wall is broken down from "live-and-learn" decisions (We've never built a ministry like this before. In fact, it's a very rare ministry. There aren't many mobile outdoor adventure ministries out there so sometimes we get educated by the school of hard knocks and that can wear away at our walls). The exciting thing is that we have completed 18 years of ministry and now have a wealth of education and experience to draw from as we begin to prepare for the next 20 years of ministry. In order to be ready for the next 20 years we are using our 19th year to "Rebuild The Walls of GTD" and address every broken piece of equipment, every broken piece of organization, every broken piece of planning, every broken piece of marketing, every broken piece of our overall structure and either rebuild it, reform it, or remove it. If it's not adding to our calling then it is getting in the way. If it's in our way and we can't reform it then we are getting rid of it. This goes for everything - events, website pages, brochures, departments, programs, trailers, storage facilities, post-it notes, 20 years of paperwork, 25 year old ideas, outdated wall colors, and the list goes on-and-on. I think you get the gist of it.
So what does all this mean? It means that just like Nehemiah couldn't rebuild the Wall of Jerusalem by himself, neither can we rebuild the Walls of GTD by ourselves. We need your help. We are asking people to volunteer as well as help fund some of the rebuilding. We need everyone to be involved. This is a call for, "All Hands On Deck!" We have all kinds of work that needs to be completed - office work, data entry work, picture scanning, minor repairs, major repairs, renovations, construction, procurement... you name it, we need it - especially Y-O-U!
We spent today doing the most important type of work, we prayed. We sought God for His favor, His plans, and His success over the next 52 Days. And we also went to work! We didn't have all of the volunteer projects ready to go on Day 1 because we didn't want to call this a 52 Day campaign if we were really working 4 weeks on it before it even started. That wouldn't be a real 52 Day campaign. I have already spent time surveying the wall like Nehemiah did before he announced the general objective to the people. Now I'm making the announcement, "The Walls of GTD need to be rebuilt so that we are impacting the next generation of young people with the Gospel of Christ. The walls can't be rebuilt by themselves and we can't do it by ourselves. We need your help. Let's team-up for the next 52 days to transform this ministry into a God-awesome ministry prepared for the next 20 years. Let's team-up for the next 52 days and be a part of something bigger than ourselves; something that impacts eternity! Will you help us transform GTD into a ministry ready to go the distance for the next 20 years?" We want you on our team! Click here to sign-up.
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