Last month around 10 young men from our community came together on a so-called 'Fatherhood evening'. On such an evening we pray for all those who became father for the first time or again in recent months (in this case: Ward, Nick, Maarten and myself).
We also use this opportunity to zoom in on an aspect of fatherhood and try to pass on wisdom acoss the generations. This time we listened to Stu Ferguson, connected via Skype from the US. Stu is a member of the Servants of the Word and is therefore not a father in the physical sense but he has built up a lot of experience in youth work with boys and young men and is therefore in a lot of ways a 'spiritual father'.
Some key ideas from Stu's explanation that have stayed with me: - We have to give our boys real responsibility quickly. - It is good to perform physical work together eg. in the garden, and train our boys in perseverance. - We can help each other in raising our children and we should also view this as a common project.
Another inspiring evening!
