Real Man TruckWorks and Survival is into our first Christmas.
So, I'd like to say Merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone here.
We are barely out of the chock blocks, having started in September, we are barely 3 months old. But during that short time we have racked up quite a bit. The forum seems busy and growing with over 7,000 posts and hundreds of topics. There is activity all over the site with vehicle build tips, delicious recipes, prayer requests, funny and some serious stuff, and a lot of men being men in a healthy environment.
We have 91 members and have had around 400 actual folks try to register. Because of diligence and quick reaction of our moderators, a lot of unsavory characters have been given the boot, keeping this place safe and "G" rated. The conversation is helpful, uplifting, and encouraging, and anyone visiting should leave with a good feeling from the positive experience.
There have been hundreds of dollars of donations and all of that money has been used to help our fellow man. Since September, we have prepared meals and fed as many as a thousand homeless folks on the streets of Cincinnati. We have handed out coats, blankets, socks, and gloves. We adopted some Christian refugee families who fled the Muslim violence in Africa and provided them with clothing, food and Christmas gifts. In fact while I sit and type this on Christmas eve, my wife is actually driving to their very homes to hand the children and adults the gifts. I hope to have pics of that to share.
Our members are spread all over the US and Canada, and almost all of you are quite accomplished and are very knowledgeable. Together you have started a synergistic relationship that has been informative and entertaining and healthy. Some of you are builders, others fabricators, some drill for oil or mine the earth for diamonds. Some are retired, others barely out of college. Almost all are lovers of Jesus, which if I may point out, is the real reason for all of this.
If I can share something here, Real Man is no accident. From what started on another web site where a lot of you and I shared on my build threads which now have accumulated around 2 million views, that evolved into this web site. I have always wanted to create "Real Man." I guess have been coaching younger men and helping them along for some time now. As a military officer I coached and mentored many. As an airline pilot I did it again, and as a contract pilot flying in the combat areas, I became that safe place where many of our warriors came to "Talk it out" after difficult times.
I saw then and see still a fusion in what we do as men with these hobbies, building trucks, hunting, cooking, whatever and survival. Not only survival from a coming collapse of society, but in the more immediate sense a collapse of our moral society. I needed a place where we would honor God first and keep him a part of the conversation. I wanted a place where Christian men would not feel like they needed to restrain from speaking the truth. Modern society has opened Pandora's box and indeed the gates of hell it would seem. Unnatural things that were appalling years ago are now out in the open for all to see. The bible condones none of that and I think we have as much a right to say that stuff is wrong as the wrong doers say it is cultural evolution.
This web site will be that place where we may speak as men, men of God, men of honor, men of integrity. Whether it be the sharing of your truck build project, or how you make sausage from deer meat, or asking for prayer when you are in need, this is going to continue to be your place. If we do it right I believe God will honor the site and we will continue to grow. If not, then may we fail miserably and may that end come soon.
I hope to make the site entirely free in the coming year. Currently a few have joined and I pay the difference from my own funds, and I'm good with that. If the Lord's work is getting done here, then it is a good investment. Hopefully we will generate more and more traffic and grow throughout the coming year. When conditions are favorable I will introduce advertising which will start to pay those bills. My dream is for Real Man to grow to the point where we have annual meets at my farm and all of that gets paid for from this site. I hope to be able to help folks who need a little help as well.
So with a happy heart, I would like to say thank you to all of you for coming and participating. Merry Christmas to all and may you have a blessed, fruitful and spirit filled year in 2015.
May God Bless you!
Don Harward
