"The No Bull Briefing" - November 2022

 

THE NO BULL BRIEFING - November 2022

Join Us For the Annual Virtual Retreat Were you unable to join us in Eva for the national retreat? No worries! Join us for the annual Samson Society Virtual Retreat to hear this year's presenters, participate in live workshops and an intimate Q&A session with the Hunters, and process and fellowship with your Samson brothers during breakout sessions. When: Friday, December 9 and Saturday, December 10 Where: Anywhere you have a strong internet connection Who: YOU! If you attended any of the retreats in Eva or Italy, you receive a discounted price! Why: Perhaps costs or timing prevented you from joining us in Eva earlier this month. We still want to provide you the opportunity to experience the presenations and fellowship with Pirate Monks. You will also learn about the State of Samson and how you can register for the Samson Summit at a discounted rate! REGISTER Double Your Impact on Giving Tuesday Our annual matching gift fundraiser is under way and we are currently 13% of the way to our goal. For every new gift donated to Samson House from October 1 through December 31 of this year, an anonymous donor will match your gift dollar-for-dollar, up to $50,000. Double your impact and double the reward of partnering with us as we work to rescue families by helping men live in the freedom of authenticity Please note: the matching gift does not include recurring gifts.  DONATE A Gathering of Men: An Open Letter From a Samson Sociaty Virtual Meeting Host with 31 Meeting Attendees at the National Retreat People ask all the time how we grow the Samson Society National retreat numbers. In my mind it starts where Samson Society starts: in the meetings. Beginning the week after the national retreat, we share our retreat stories. We make an effort to have follow-up conversations every meeting-after-the-meeting where an individual shares a story or experience from a past retreat. This fosters curiosity and provides a deeper insight to how an individual's path can unfold in to something more after experiencing the intimacy and community of the national retreat.  We consistently share our experiences every week and as we get closer to the date of the next national retreat, we nominate prior retreat attendee guys to connect with Samson brothers who are curious but have not attended the retreat. This personal invitation and one-on-one connection is the secret sauce to helping men overcome the fear or anxiety that can keep others from registering and showing up at the retreat. After that, the excitement and build-up really happens because we all know this is the opportunity for the deeper level of intimacy that will only strengthen this group of men.   One thing that I believe helps create and foster community within your meeting is not just creating relationships, but taking them deeper through consistent life-changing events. For example, at Make Thursdays Great Again we encourage men to attend a Samson Society group-based intensive with CSATs Roane and Roe Hunter, two of our presenters from this year's national retreat. To date, around 20 guys have participated in this 3-day trauma work and story weekend. The relationships we have forged during our times together at the intensives are indescribable. During these weekends together, there is a deeper pursuit of real masculinity and community, which further drives into the excitement of attending the Samson national retreat and the community experienced there.   My hope and vision is to share this insight to help you experience deeper intimacy and levels of "being known" within your meetings, as well as help us reach our goal of having 300 men attend the 2023 Samson Summit.   Meeting Host Virtual Training Do you host or sub a Samson Society meeting? If so, you are invited to join us for a special virtual training session on Saturday, February 4. Whether you facilitate an in-person or virtual meeting, this FREE training with TrueFace President & CEO Robby Angle will dive into what it means to have the heart of a leader and how you, as the meeting host, can confidently take the community of men who attend the meeting to a deeper, more fulfilling level.  REGISTER Childlike By Jeremy This journey of recovery isn’t an easy one. So often, present day experiences we hold on to have roots that go far deeper than we realize. Stopping and seeing an addiction (or behaviour we don’t like) for what it is can be a powerful moment of realization. I’m spending 66 days with Louie Giglio’s At The Table With Jesus. According to Pastor Louie, science suggests that the timeline to change our neural pathways & start a new habit is 66 days. That’s a long period of time to begin the rewiring process. As I ponder that, I also ponder a simple truth: We are given the blessing of being a child. We get to be a son (or daughter) of God.  To be a child is to be nurtured, cared for and sought after; to be delighted in. To be a child means making mistakes and falling down, and having your Father there to pick you back up.  To be a child is to be unaware of the “bigger things at play” because your Father shields you from that. He’s a good father. This simple recognition allows us to get back down to the size of a child. We can look up at Him as though we were staring at an earthly parent or guardian. We can be mystified by His size, His power & His might. We can feel safe and secure knowing that He will take care of us, though bad things happen. We are never out of His reach. He allows us to experience things so we can grow. If you don’t let a child fall down riding a bike, they can never get back up to master the art. I can simply be - with all my personality, quirks and flaws. He loves me exactly as I am, and sees me the way a Father - or an uncle in my case - sees a child. Pure, lovely & worth so much more than we can ever imagine. Though the enemy tried to steal, kill and destroy me as a boy, God helped me to persevere & move forward. Though I still don’t know the severity of what happened during my childhood and how it shaped me, God - my good father - saw it all, understands it all and can walk through it all with me. Jesus showed us He was the Son of God by living the way he lived. He didn’t need to be right, because He knew He was right. He didn’t have to be the loudest one in the room; those that heard Him heard the precious words He had for them. Though it takes some work, Jesus can walk right beside us through the trauma and difficulty. To be a child is to be fully known, fully accepted & fully loved. Not because of what we’ve done, but because of who the Father is. Take a moment today to be childlike. Petition to Return Covenant Eyes to the Google Play Store On September 21, 2022, after 11 years of serving customers on Android, Google suspended the Covenant Eyes Android app from their Play Store. Click the link below to learn more about what occurred, how Covenant Eyes is responding, and how you can act to help get Covenant Eyes returned to the Google Play store. LEARN MORE October 2022 Meeting Host & Sub Winner Thank you Walt Micksch for hosting the Original Franklin in-person meeting, and the Out of the Ditch and Roundtable Check-in virtual meetings! We would like to give you a 25% discount off one item in the Samson merch store as a thank you for donating your time and talents! Please check your email inbox for your discount code. Each month we will draw one name, so be sure to complete the host form online every time you host or sub a meeting to be entered in to the drawing. You receive one entry for each time you host or sub during the month. Regional Retreat Opportunities Planning a regional Samson retreat? Let us know at samsonhouseoffice@gmail.com or drop it on the #upcoming_event channel on Slack so we can help you spread the word! Monthly Resource Corner Each month, Samson Society will promote a resource that you may find helpful on your journey. Feel free to share any podcast episodes, blog posts, books, or documentaries that you find enlightening!  Provided by Naked Truth Project, Ctrl Alt Del is a free, on-demand video course designed to help you reboot your life & ‘force quit’ your porn use.  Want to learn more about Naked Truth Project? Check out this recent episode on the Pirate Monk Podcast with founder Ian Henderson. Connect with us on social media!

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