The U.S. ARMY is divided into UNITS: Fire Team (3-4), Squad (8-12), Platoon (15-30), Company (80-150), Battalion (300-800), Brigade (2000-4000), Division (10,000-15,000), Corps (20,000-40,000) and ultimately a vast Field Army (80,000+) of men. BASE CAMP @ FOUNDERS  BREWERY in Grand Rapids, MI is a Company of Men networked with several men’s ministry Platoons, Squads and Fire Team of men. 

BASE CAMP is the combined spiritual equivalent of a MASH Unit, Forward Command & Communications Center, Mess Hall, Resupply & Reconnaissance Base from which to launch our domestic and international men’s ministry events, and in the Summer of 2018:

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BARN BASE CAMP 

(BBC)

August 12, 2018

Your Video Invitation HERE 

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A BATTALION OF BROTHERS 

 

2000 Years Ago, The Son of God Son Was Born In A BARN As A Man. 

In the Summer of  2018,

The Sons of God Will Be Born Again As Authentic Men In A BARN. 

 

In the Summer of 2018, several Companies, Platoons, Squads, and Fire Team men’s ministry units throughout the State of Michigan and beyond will form a BATTALION of 250 MEN in W. MI  to feast and fight for each other hearts as SOLDIERS & SONS. The ROAR of the LION, the Shout of the King, will again be heard in a BattaLION of MEN. Fierce lords will gather in a fair land on SUNDAY, AUGUST, 12  to listen in profound silence as unforgettable STORIES & SONGS of a ferocious LOVE & WAR are told and sung long into the starry night by WARRIOR POETS in the cavernous wooden hall of A BIG RED BARN @ Wildwood Family Farms, Alto, MI. 

SOUL SURGEONS will set up a MASH Unit to remove shrapnel and apply tourniquets to open wounds on the battlefield where the souls of men are lost or won. The frozen frontier inside the shattered souls of men will be set free to feel so hearts can heal on a forgotten front.  A BATTALION of BROTHERS will march into the holy madness of a mysterious God who answers our unanswerable questions with the unquestionable answer of Himself. 

IMAGINE A ….

….BELIEF that your everlasting heart is inherently noble and dangerously good and the Glory of God is a man fully alive in Jesus Christ. 

….BATTLEFIELD where the battle for freedom inside your shattered soul is won by Shining Ones who fill the hills with Chariots of Fire.

 …BANNER bearing the royal emblems of your long lost lineage fluttering in a summer breeze that puts time to sleep as eternity awakes. 

….BATTALION of men covering a field like an ARMY of ONE as the smell of smoke and the hearty laughter of free men permeates the air. 

….BQ BUFFET arrayed on long, linen tables under a tent on a lush, green lawn like a feast where the Battle for Beauty is fought & won. 

….BRAND of BEER, frothing with the fury and foam of your original glory that BREWS what you really thirst – AN AUTHENTIC LIFE. 

….BAGPIPE playing AMAZING GRACE inside a silo, echoing across green fields leading you home like a pied piper to your heart. 

….BROKEN HALLELUJAH being sung together in a rebel-rousing, rafter-raising chorus that resurrects all that is dead inside you back to life.

….BARBERSHOP QUARTET roaming through a field of men singing spontaneous songs that harken back to yesteryear when men were men.  

… BAPTISM service that drowns away your life of sin and shame in a river of no regrets, roaring with the applause of heaven and men. 

….BUNCH of lawn games that makes you feel like a kid again as years like tears begin to fall away as the boy inside you comes out to play.

….BONFIRE with your favorite cigar & drink by your side as stories are told long into a summer night bathed in stars and silver moonlight. 

….BROKEN BLADE you’ve hidden in shame, reforged as strength in the Eternal Flame to put steel in your spine and a sword in your hand.

….BOND of BROTHERHOOD so noble & strong it cannot be broken by any beast that comes up from the fiery pit through the gates of hell.   

….BAND of BROTHERS praying BLESSING over you before you return home from your mountaintop transfiguration with a face full of fire.

….BLACK SKY illuminated with thousands of fluttering fireflies floating into a nameless nebula whispering to your heart to Let Go & Let God.

….BUGLE playing TAPS at evenings end under a blood red sky; a haunting reminder the old man is gone and there will be a new dawn for men.

….BARN that feels like the home you never had and you’re a  Wise Man guided by a shining star to a King on a throne disguised as a trough.  

 

If you can imagine a BASE CAMP 

where a BATTALION of BROTHERS  

feast and fight for each other in 

A BIG RED BARN 

then you’re ready for…

BARN BASE CAMP 

(BBC)

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE: 

5:00 – 6:30 PM BQ Buffet, Beer & Bagpipe 

6:30 – 8:00 PM STORY & SONG  

8:00 – 11:00 PM Baptism, Beer, Bonfire & Bugle 

LAWN GAMES: Corn Hole, Croquet, Ladder Ball and Yard Darts

will be available at all times except during STORY & SONG.

NOTE: Parking is limited. Please carpool. Thank you! 

THEME: 

Journey Together Or Die Alone  

SPEAKER: 

Kevin DeVries, Explorer 

Skiing to the North Pole in 40-below temperatures on a thin, continental-size sheet of shifting ice where polar bears stalk all day long as the polar sun circles like a vulture 24 hours a day above and open water leads threaten to drown you in the 2.5 mile-deep Arctic Ocean beneath, Kevin discovered this: Self-rescue is impossible in the extreme Arctic. Like all men, Kevin sought an unknown point until he knew the point:  We Journey Together Or We Die Alone.  Journey with Kevin where time is nothing and the moment is everything as all time zones converge at the North Pole. Travel to the ends of the earth. Reach the end of yourself. Find a new beginning in God that never ends. 

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Enrich Maria Remarque, a German soldier who survived the unimaginable horrors of WWI, compared polar expeditions to the animal instincts required to survive on the front when he wrote in All Quiet on the Western Front: 

As in a polar expedition, every expression of life must serve only the preservation of existence, and is absolutely focused on that. All else is banished because it would consume energies unnecessarily. That is the only way to save ourselves…All other expressions lie in a winter sleep, life is simply one continual watch against the menace of death; –it has transformed us into unthinking animals in order to give us the weapon of instinct–it has reinforced us with dullness, so that we do not go to pieces before the horror, which would overwhelm us if we had clear, conscious thought–it has awakened in us the sense of comradeship, so that we escape the abyss of solitude–it has lent us the indifference of wild creatures, so that in spite of all, we perceive the positive in every moment, and store it up as a reserve against the onslaught of nothingness. Thus we live a closed, hard existence of the utmost superficiality, and rarely does an incident strike out a spark. But then unexpectedly a flame of grievous and terrible yearning flares up.

Ski all the way to the poetic North Pole: Sinners sin. Slaves behave. Sheep stray. Soldiers serve. Saints believe. Sons belong. It’s all quiet on the wounded front. It’s time to come home. You’re a beloved soldier son. – Kevin

Read more about Kevin’s North Pole Ski Expedition: TRUE NORTH – The Destination Is The Journey HERE

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“Find like-hearted kings living in the same direction. Sign treaties. When one kingdom is at war, both are at war.”

– Dan Allender, Intimate Allies 

 

A Company of Men in a BREWERY and a Battalion of Men in a BARN has its place of honor and healing, but the greatest life impact happens in a Squad/Fire Team of Men.  We recommend the following Squads of Men to experience maximum life impact like a Band of Brothers  gathered around a blazing bonfire, feasting and fighting for each other’s hearts in some foreign forgotten field: 

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CAMP I  

Tuesdays @ 7:00 PM, Bar Louie’s/Woodland Mall, 3195 28th SE, Kentwood, MI 49512

Contact: Kevin DeVries, kevin@GraceExplorations.com, 616.916.5909 

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