UCB International Blog

This past weekend I was one of the fortunate who was able to attend the Mighty Men conference on the Shalom farm near Greytown. Many have asked me about it, and you may be one of these, or you may be someone who I thought would be interested to hear about the experience.

A few weeks ago my wife (Marguerite) was speaking to a friend of ours who mentioned that her husband was going to attend the conference. At that stage we knew nothing about it, but it seems something inspired her (the Holy Spirit) that I would probably benefit greatly by attending. She started asking people we know if they would be interested in attending, but one by one it turned out that everyone was either occupied or not in a position to attend. It felt to me that she was more eager that I should attend, than I was. Sometimes our wives know better than we what we need, and I thank her for her persistence. Eventually, on the Monday before the conference a friend of mine (Adriaan) who had been contacted by my wife indicated that he, like myself would like to attend, but didn’t want to go alone. So after much deliberation and considering alternative means of getting there (bus etc.) we decided to bite the bullet, register for the conference and drive down. I logged into the site and registered only to find that I was number 37 613 where they had initially only expected 30 000. A few minutes later I had registered Adriaan (number 37 653) and realised the bookings were coming in fast and furious. Camping site allocations were meant to begin that evening.

The next morning the site started taking strain, and sections were closed. The next day the site (hosted in Germany) couldn’t handle the strain and fell over. It then became unclear how many reservations had been made, and the emails to confirm site allocation were never sent. At this stage we realised that leaving at 12h00 as was originally planned was not going to work, and I took the whole day off, so we could leave at 10h00. Packing all my stuff in on Friday, and driving to Adriaan, we left from there with all our goodies in his diesel car at around 10h00. The time passed quickly, and all along the route we passed (or were passed by) groups of men on their way to the same destination. Adriaan and I had some surprisingly deep conversations, and this is when I already began to realise that this was going to be a special weekend. At 16h30 we hit Greytown and come to a sudden stop. There was a huge backlog of traffic, and people slowly trickled into the farm. The distance from Greytown to the farm is about 15km, and this stretch took us about 2 hours. The queues looked like this.

As we slowly rolled down the road we began to get an impression of the magnitude of the event. Here is the first we became aware of the tent that had been erected for the event. The tent is called Tensile 1 and this is only the third or fourth time it has been put up. In 2002 it had an estimated value of R15mil. It was initially built for a GateCrashers party in the UK, and part way through the construction the company ran out of funds. Someone in SA agreed to complete the construction if we could get the tent after the show, and thus it was completed and now stays in SA. It was put up in 2002 for the World Summit. Since then it has remained in storage and is generally considered too expensive to erect for any normal event. It has a seating capacity of close on 30 000 and takes 3 weeks to put up.

The road to the farm took us past some beautiful scenery, including this forest with the sun setting behind it. As we rounded the final bend and got close to the site office we received our first impression of what kind of effort and commitment had gone into the event. The masses of people we being dealt with very efficiently and the people preparing food for the campers, realising that all the cars queuing to come in would miss the supper time, started handing out hotdogs to the cars passing by. If you’re wondering, the event was fully catered for with shower facilities and provision of water and toilets… for all the people… at no cost. When I later explain the number of people you will acknowledge that only God can make something like this happen.

Finally finding our camp site (A 2 1) we parked our car where we could find a gap and get ready for the first session. Walking up to the main tent a brisk walk away there was an electric atmosphere with people blowing trumpets and generally sounding more like an English football match rather than a men’s conference. Fortunately we had decided to carry our chairs with us, because when we got there there were a huge amount of people sitting outside the tent as the interior was already full. I estimate the crowd capacity at that stage at about 45 000 people… and that was just the start. Even sitting on the outskirts of the tent, it was easy to feel part of the event as the tent has open sides, and the screens are easily visible in the night.

Angus Buchan started the even with a bang, and immediately challenged the men to stop their nonsense, break with the wrong things they were doing, recommit themselves to their families, wives and God. He’s a very straight forward person, and as they say in Afrikaans, “plat op die aarde”. He is a farmer, and doesn’t mince his words. He calls a spade a spade, and has conservative values which come straight from the bible. I am generally sceptical of evangelists, and was worried that he would try to use words to whip us into a frenzy. But that is not the man I learned to know at this conference. He has a genuine passion for the Lord and wants people to make right with him and harvest the most from the relationship. I truly believe that God moves through this man.

I estimate that 80% of the people at the conference were Afrikaans speaking, and probably 80% of those were farmers. These guys are hurting, and life is not easy for them. Their wellbeing, culture, masculinity and many other factors are under huge pressure, and I think Angus speaks to their hearts. Below are 2 photos of the inside of the tent. By this time there were over 55,000 people in attendance.

The campsites were really well organised. 4 blocks of land had been left un-planted for the event, and the only money asked for for the event was a camping fee to cover the costs of not producing crops on those stretches (R100). As mentioned, running water was provided via some ingenious use of irrigation taps and piping, and each camp site had a dedicated food tent to provide the campers with coffee and hot food. The picture below is of one of the meals being dished up. A pretty tasty bunny chow made of a full half loaf of fresh Albany bread and stew made of beef, potatoes and carrots. The guys prepared really well by preparing the meals and then freezing them in large plastic bags which were then placed in large drums of boiling water.

The picture below is of our camp site (A - Red Block). I’m guessing about 10-15 000 people camped here. On the horizon you can see the big tent and the food tent is in the top-middle of the camp site. The people worked really well together, and the atmosphere was always positive and happy. Seldom have a seen people shaking hands and laughing together when they have bumped into each other in the bustle of large crowds, yet here I saw it all the time.

This picture is not my own, but comes from the www.mightymen.org.za web page. It shows the tent and part of the Green camping block. 

Here is the daily view we had of the tent walking up to it for the sessions. Below are 2 pictures showing the inside of the tent during the sessions. The atmosphere in the tent was pretty wild, and the noise created by (at this point) over 60 000 men shouting “AMEN” or singing praise and worship was awesome. I don’t think I’ve laughed, cried and got goose bumps quite as much before in my life.  

This is the import point I want to make. The conference was a very personal and meaningful thing for me. No two people had exactly the same experience, and no one will be able to truly do the event justice by explaining it. Pictures and numbers are impressive, but feeling the Holy Spirit move through these men and blow the glowing embers in their hearts into a billowing flame is not something you can describe. All I can say is that it was a life changing event. I don’t think the country will be the same again. I’m sure that Satan has done a fair amount of damage already and made sure that a lot of those red hot coals have been reduced to simmering embers, but I also know that there are still thousands upon thousands of Mighty Men who are going to move out into this country and begin a change that can’t be stopped. As Uncle Angus says… “We aren’t starting a revival… We are in revival!”

Amen and all glory to God. May he bless these men, all the people who worked their butts off to make this happen, and to servants like Angus and his family who opened up their home and hearts to ordinary men, and in obedience to God, changed a nation. If things work out, I hope to see you there next year!