Well... I've been trying to encourage chapters to contribute their own posts to share what sort of events they have been having. So far, only Doug Jackson in Michigan has contributed to the Regional Photo Pool on Flickr. Doug posted a bunch of images from their horse ride event in October. Thanks Doug!
Other events that have been going on include:
"Do the Boo" corn maze in Houston, TX
A Halloween party and Go Cart NASCAR style in St. Louis
DB goes to the Symphony and helps Habitat for Humanity in Chicago
Check the calendar or click on the link to the left to see what else is coming up!
If you would like to contribute a blog post, just contact me!
After a year on the road, I returned the truck and trailer back to Denver. I logged over 20,000 miles and 9,000 of those were with the trailer in tow. It was an amazing experience to see the Central United States from the road and the 70-odd posts before this describe that experience.
The trip was a success. There were only 2-3 semi-active chapters in the region when I started. Now there are eight active chapters (tear-drop marker) and eleven chapters in the start-up process or with expressed interest (push pin).
In the next year, I'll continue to travel to work to get those start-up chapters up and running and uncover further areas of interest. This blog will continue as a place for chapters to share what they are up to and the fun and growth inspiring events they are putting on.
A huge thanks to everybody I met along the way and have contributed to the building of these chapters, for planning and running events and for spreading the word. To get more information on contacting any of the chapters check out the interactive regional map.
Stay tuned! The Central Region is just getting warmed up!
With about 140 in attendance, the Chicago Summit was again an inspirational time for the area youth to come together and enjoy the wonderful lectures and workshops. The full schedule can be seen at TMC Youth (as well as videos, a slideshow and recordings of some of the lectures).
Seventeenth Church right along the river in downtown Chicago provided space for the summit and the out of town guests were housed at Hosteling International Chicago just a mile down the road. That made for a nice stroll in the morning before the event.
I, however, did not do much sitting at all. As a volunteer, I arrived on Thursday afternoon to receive the rented AV equipment, start setting it up, and organize how the space was to be used. Friday, we were all back at the church to continue with the setup process and just as things were coming together, the first pre-registration participants started arriving at the hostel.
Saturday was filled with many great sessions, most in smaller groups, but at times the whole gang came together in the main auditorium. Lunch, snacks, dinner and dessert were provided as well as a rousing scavenger hunt that sent teams, broken up by age, racing throughout the church to chase down clues for the fabulous prize of Coldestone Creamery gift cards for the winning team. I believe it was the 12-17 year olds group that pulled off the win.
Sunday morning many of the participants gathered for Church and Sunday School, followed by small groups going out to get brunch. At 1.30pm a small meeting was held for adults (30 y/o+) who could not attend the event for a debrief complete with a slide show from the day before.
TMC Youth and the local planning committee did a great job and put on a great event. Bravo! Some photos
With only a week notice, the Twin Cities area pulled about 30 people together for an informational meeting to learn about DiscvoeryBound at 3rd Church in Minneapolis. I stated from the start that the objective of the meeting is to form a chapter board, schedule the next board meeting, and start planning an OTM event for November. All of these were accomplished.
There were lots of good questions asked about local and national events. Emily and Anna of the National Leadership Council (NLC) gave a great presentation on what the NLC is and what their experience has been. The two of them joined the adults in the formation of the board and with a third friend have taken on the responsibility of planning the OTM events.
After the basic introductions of people and what DiscoveryBound is, we split the kids from the adults (save the NLC gals). The kids brainstormed on what sort of events they would like to do and the adults slotted themselves into board positions. After forming the board and scheduling the next board meeting (they were just jumping to get into agenda items for the next meeting!) we all regrouped with the youth and they rattled off a list of great events. The activities included a balanced assortment of parties (actually, they tagged 'party' on the end of all the events to make the sound more fun - clever, eh?), service projects, and fundraisisng events.
We talked some about how to build sustainability into the program as there was once a chapter here years ago, but petered out. This awareness is a crucial part of keeping it going and setting up a system that will continue on. There's already talk of a Boundarywaters trip... I'll be back for that!
After church at 2nd Church in Minneapolis, I joined a group of gals who are reading their way through Mrs. Eddy's writings. Accompanied by muffins and juice, each person took a turn to read a paragraph and then the group would discuss the ideas presented. In the hour we had together, we read the articles on Contagion, Time and Thanksgiving. It's so great to see groups like this delving into the books and exploring the ideas together.
From the conversation about contagion, ideas were discussed about how much the pharmaceutical market really pushes drugs and how we can defend ourselves from that contagion of thought that we need drug assistance.
The article on time was amazing. Essentially, it says not to sit around and talk about doing things, get out there and do things! Such a great reminder and we all could relate to the circumstances described as the pitfalls of wasting time.
Of course, they were curious about DiscoveryBound, so I was able to tell them a little bit about the meeting at 1pm at 3rd church.
I rolled into the Twin Cities and dropped off the trailer in plenty of time to make it to the St. Paul Church for their Testimony Meeting. After connecting with the clerk about promoting our informational meeting coming up this Sunday, I got an invite by one of the members to join a group of guys from various churches around the area for lunch on Thursday.
Not unlike the mens group in the western suburbs of Chicago, these guys bring questions about the weekly bible lesson, how to apply CS to events in their lives, and to enjoy each others company. Not to mention the wide variety of choices provided at the Chinese Buffet they congregate at.
It was great to join these guys and to hear about CS being applied to their everyday lives. They were all very supportive of the idea of a DiscoveryBound Chapter in the area and had good questions about the function of a chapter and about the DB national programs.
Ginger Mack moved up to Madison, WI to work as the CSO and residential manager from Chicago. She's organizing weekly meetings and is bringing some fresh energy to the campus. Tonight's meeting was on Love and Relationships. The students shared what they are working on and members of the group brought new ideas to the table.
Ginger is keen to see this amazing space they have get more use and is keen to host a DiscoveryBound event at some point and she's meeting with the interfaith community in Madison to learn more about what is going on around campus and to put Christian Science on the map for spiritual seekers.
Before this meeting, Ginger took me out for a sail, which unexpectedly turned into a swim... but we were undaunted. Once we got some help to pull the mast of the 14' sloop out of the mud, we were off. We did opt not to pop up the jib as it was pretty blowy... small whitecaps and all, making me guess we were dealing with 12-15 kts of wind. It was a blast however.
Milwaukee has had a DiscoveryBound chapter in the past, but it fizzled out a few years ago. My recent meeting with Tom and Susan Bruno and Scott Wendelberger, all of whom were involved, went very well and we have a plan in place to start growing a DB presence in Milwaukee again. Scott just graduated from Principia in 2007 and has a great energy about him. Tom and Susan understand the need and have the desire to help build a strong spiritual foundation for CS youth and want to make it work. Making it work however means finding the right blend amongst the many other activities youth are involved in today.
We're going to start with getting our Church Contact network built up, then will move to OTM's. From there, we hope to attract some other members to the local DB board to join these three. They also get the information from the active chapter in Chicago and have even been down there for some of their events.
In short, the DiscoveryBound Leadership Conference was a smashing success. This was the biggest DiscoveryBound event ever with over 500 participants. Thanks to all who came and made it the best ever!
The National Leadership Council (NLC) played a huge role in the event this year. Now that the founding class of 2009 are mostly seniors (as opposed to being sophomores at this event two years ago) the NLC was able to take on more responsibility and even organized an amazing awareness dinner called the Oxfam Hunger Banquet. This brought to light the realities of how the world is divided economically. Most folks appreciated it and felt it was a very effective way to illustrate what was really going on out in the world. Some were put off by it, and rightfully so as most of us (myself included) only got a meager bowl of rice for dinner. One student was particularly irritated because she doesn't even like rice. I asked her what if she really lived in this situation and rice was the only option, ever. She conceded she'd probably learn to like rice and be grateful she had anything to eat at all.
The whole conference kicked off Saturday morning with a great lecture by Ryder Stevens on identity. The lecture was well received and Ryder provided some engaging stories that really stuck with people including one about the pig and the chicken... you'll have to find Ryder giving this lecture to get the rest.
Everyone then went to their sessions. Some were active, some based on discussions. Adults and youth had separate sessions. The adult sessions focused on being chapter workers and volunteers to support events in their local community and the youth sessions ranged from better understanding personal leadership roles, how to shine with the Christ love in sports, relationships, school, working situations and more.
Saturday before dinner the youth formed a huge circle and shared gratitude and highlights from the day before entering into the Oxfam Hunger Banquet.
Sunday morning started in the chapel with everybody for the responsive reading, a wonderful solo by one of the youth participants and a hymn. We all then filed out to the chapel green to collect into Sunday School classes. I had 15 year-olds and we had a good chat about the beatitudes - how being 'poor' in spirit means giving yourself 100% to God. We shared what part of our lives we could work on giving more of ourselves to God in - where we wanted to be humble and grow.
Sunday afternoon we all bussed down to the Principia Upper School Campus for a carnival, dance, slideshow and a very touching story told by Lona Ingwerson about letting our light shine. This was then illustrated by each of us holding an unlit candle and passing the flame around and seeing the glow of light grow brighter in the dark gym as we each let our light shine.
Monday morning everybody headed home and our DB Staff put the campus back to normal and we had a wonderful time going over the evaluations. Adults and youth alike shared how much they enjoyed the conference and many great suggestions were made so we can make the 2010 Leadership Conference even better!
We're always grateful for any feedback, constructive and complimentary, so if you think of something feel free to send it any time! info@discoverybound.org
Well, summer is now in full swing. Some of the chapters continue some basic events like ice cream social events, beach parties and OTM's. But for the most part kids are at camp, families are on vacation and DiscoveryBound chapters across the region are promoting the Leadership Conference that will be held at Principia College over Labor Day Weekend.
As for me, I just had a great weekend at Principia College at my reunion and ran into many of the folks I had met from my road trip over the past several months as well as with some of our trustees including Maddie Miles and Todd Herzer.
Since I have nowhere in particular to go, Principia has been gracious enough to allow me to continue staying here (in the trailer parked behind Williams Cottage) until our event on Labor Day. This is now the Central US HQ for DB and I'm working on getting those last few slots left at the DBLC filled by Central folks.
But along with that, I'm enjoying spending time on this beautiful campus, sunset walks along the bluffs, swimming in the new pool and spending time with friends on campus for Summer Session and otherwise.
Warren, the Cedars Camps Director, rolled out the red carpet... he set me and the trailer up in a great location here at Cedars. They just had a bunch of rain, so things were a little soggy. Warren had a pile of wood chips delivered and the youth grounds crew (workers program) helped form a path around my trailer to keep my feet out of the soggy!
It's a big change-over weekend which gives me the opportunity to span two sessions to talk about DiscoveryBound. Much like at Leelanau/Kohahna Warren introduced me at dinner and I spoke briefly to the youth about DB and then the next day, Warren introduced me before the talent show where many of the parents who were here to pick up their kids from Camp were in attendance and I spoke to the group again.
I also had an opportunity to have breakfast with the Junior Leadership (JL) program for high school students and most of them had heard of DB and many have been involved. We'll get a new batch of JL campers tomorrow and I'll take some time to speak to them at a meal or something as well.
Like in Michigan, I've had great chats one-on-one with adults who are looking for a better understanding of what DB is and it has resulted in an interest in getting two new chapters started.
The weather has been incredibly mild. A little humid after a good rain, but very pleasant in the mid 70's. Thunderstorms are forcasted for tonight... thank goodness for my wood chip walk way!
Well... In the few thousands of miles that I have covered on this trip, I have passed quite a number of folks on the side of the road changing a tire. Now I'm on the side of the road. Thank goodness for the double axle. Although, the danger is I had no idea the tire had blown out. I was only an hour or so out of Glenn Arbor, MI when a lady in a van pulled up next to me and tried to say something through my closed window.
I nodded like I understood... but really I was just guessing on what she was saying somehow thinking she was trying to tell me my lights were on.
So, I pulled over to have a look and there was the shredded remains of my rear right trailer tire. Just as I was placing the tiny jack that came with the truck under the axle, a voice from behind me asked if I would like to use a better (faster) jack.
Kyle, a highschool student from just a few towns over, was helping to paint some vacation cottages his grandmother and father run. He brought down a big jack, the trailer went up, the spare came off the back of the trailer and fit nicely into place.
It was an easy swap and it only cost me 15 minutes or so thanks to the industrial jack Kyle brought down.
I'm on my third day visiting Camps Leelanau and Kohahna in Michigan right on the shore of Lake Michigan. It has been nothing but heaven.
Instead of doing a general DiscoveryBound presentation to the whole camp, I was introduced at dinner and have been visiting the campers in their activity sessions and participating where I could. And in the little lulls between activities the campers have been asking me more about DB.
I've also had chances to chat with their Counselor Trainees (CT's) about the programs and how they can support the idea of growing and providing 'camp at home' during the school year.
Also, I've been getting some good chats in with the various adults who are here who don't quite have a clear picture as to what DiscoveryBound is.
Everyone has been so receptive and the camp very accommodating. It's great to see these programs in action. The enthusiasm and love expressed by the councilors is clearly reflected in the energy of the campers and everyone seems to like the idea of taking that energy home with them for the rest of the year until camp starts again.
My third musical in less than a month! I know die-hard musical folks do much more than this... but I did my three in seperate parts of the country! Lion King in NYC, Drowsy Chaperone in Dallas and Wicked in Chicago. Whew.
The Chicago Chapter did a great job organizing this event for over 80 people. Eight of us checked out the "Behind the Emerald Curtain" backstage tour of Wicked before about 50 of us gathered for dinner where Kim Korinek, CS gave us some nice thoughTs on the theme continued from the NYC event "Man is the expression of Soul" (SH 477).
I spoke briefly about the upcoming DB National Event at Principia College on Labor Day and Cody Cosmic on the Chicago TMC Youth Summit Board announced the Summit coming up in October.
Wicked is a great show. It takes preconceived notions on good and bad, wicked and fair, and completely scrambles expectations. It pushed the message to look deeper than the surface - and that the depths of a person can be much different from what you think of them by how they look, or even who they are.
The Chicago Chapter has events planned through the rest of the summer and up to December. Check out the Central Regional events calendar - http://tinyurl.com/5w7ws8
Back in the Chicago area after a month on the road... er... off the road - in the air... anyway, I was invited to the prestigious Palatine Men's Club breakfast meeting where the boys get together every other week on Saturday morning. The conversation ranges from politics, to home repair, to church issues. Jeff, who brings the average age down by about half, told the group the previous meeting about his trip out to NYC with DiscoveryBound.
It's a great way to share the results of the trip. Jeff, as it turns out, will be flying to LA now to follow up with some folks he met at the NYC event and will be meeting up with one of the musicians he met in NYC.
Tomorrow we'll meet up with the rest of the Chicago DB board as they plan out the rest of the year.
I finally caught up with the Drowsy Chaperone tour in Dallas where the Dallas DB Chapter organized both a before and after chat with the actors Cliff Bemis, Georgia Engel and Mark Ledbetter who are all active Christian Scientists.
This is the third in a series of chat-backs these actors have graciously agreed to do with DiscoveryBound Chapters, including Chicago and Houston. Next they head to Kansas City and they should be back in Austin, TX in August.
The show of course was brilliant and the actors answered questions from curious youth and adults about life as actors, becoming actors and about how they applied Christian Science to their careers. Also, how they supported each other as well as the rest of the cast and crew.
The three actors commented on how great it was for all three of them to be in the show. Georgia has been with the show from early on while Mark and Cliff joined for the tour. Cliff Bemis has worked with Georgia in the past as well as with Mark, but this was the first time for Mark to meet Georgia.
Mark made a neat comment about how the audition process used to be such a burden. But this was before he realized he could only end up in the roll that was right for him. He talked about 'the usual suspects' - the group of men about his age and look who are most likely to be at any audition he's going to be at, those who are vying for the same part. Mark is grateful for a unique comradeship amongst his 'competitors' because they support one another and congratulate each other for getting the part as they know they will each find their own place.
The CS actors in The Drowsy Chaperone: Cliff Bemis, playing Feldzieg (“Murder she Wrote” and “Nancy Drew”) http://www.cliffbemis.com
Georgia Engel playing Mrs. Tottendale (“Mary Tyler Moore”, “Everybody Loves Raymond”)
Mark Ledbetter, playing Robert Martin (the groom). ("Marry Poppins", "White Christmas") http://www.markledbetter.com
More detailed bios and info on the show at: http://www.drowsychaperone.com/
It was great to be able to attend Annual Meeting this year. As always, it was wonderfully done and inspirational.
Richard Bergenheim, Editor of the Monitor and President of The Mother Church, presided over the meeting and struck a wonderful chord as he explored human resistance to change and applied Mary Baker Eddy's emphasis on progress. Change and Progress.
I've always been a fan of both. I've often joked that my life is consistently inconsistent. Always on the go, always changing where I am, who I'm with and what I'm doing. But there is a constant to be found there: Truth, Love.
The simple harmony of Life is always there, and though the human condition seems to be in a constant churn, God is our rock. Simple.
After a workshop packed day on Saturday, we took things a little easier on Sunday. In part because most CS churches in New York don't start until 11am! So we had an easy morning before heading down to 1st Church NYC where we packed the Sunday School.
Afterwards we strolled over to Central Park where we had a pizza lunch, free time and some discussion sessions to relate our workshops to the metaphysical theme "Man is the expression of Soul".
We continued east to 3rd Church for our talent show. Adults and youth alike shared their talents in dancing, singing, playing instruments, reading poetry and monologuing.
To cap off the evening, we had an interesting time getting everyone from the upper east side over to Pier 83 on the west side of mid-town where the Circle Line cruise ship took us out on a great tour along the Hudson. We saw the western shore of Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty and the East River. All with the sunset and the sparkling city lights bouncing off the water.
Monday, everybody got packed up and headed home! Good times!
Today we divided the group of 110 youths into four groups: music, theater, visual arts & dance - and sent them off to various corners of Manhattan to meet with our awesome workshop facilitators. Each of these facilitators are professionals in the corresponding field and they provided a great program for the youth. They spoke on their experience, shared healings and testimonies, and provided practical tips and pointers related to the industry.
The photo is of the Audition Workshop by Peter Link, a notable director. He gave a half hour talk abut the the audition process, then let a few of the students apply what he said. This was a combined activity for the music and theater groups.
The dance group got to choreograph their own dance and the visual arts group toured the Metropolitan Museum of Art, then many went off into Central Park to sketch.
Later that afternoon, we all met up in Bryant Park and walked over to Times Square to check it all out before settling into an amazing performance of The Lion King.
We're all in New York now and the scene is abuzz. We all met at 9am at the youth hostel up on 103rd and Amsterdam to formulate a plan. Then we all fanned out across the city to put on the hands on touches at our various locations.
Many of us regrouped for lunch near Times Square and dispersed again to finish our tasks. We reconvened at the hostel mid-afternoon to stuff folders, build the name tags, sharpen pencils and continue to iron out the various details that is part of a program of this size.
We also learned that many of the planes across the country have been delayed on their arrival to NYC. But we are unphased by that and are eager for our participants to arrive and thrive in this amazing program.
The Chicago Chapter picked up some new momentum last year and has been going strong since. While in Chicago I was hosted by Terese (left) and she has been great in organizing little lunches and events for me to meet more of the Chicago crew.
This photo is of Terese and Margaret who, along with Steve are the driving force behind the chapter. We were able to have a great meeting and look at the bigger picture of the Chicago Chapter.
The day before Terese and I went into the city to scout out a dinner venue for the next DB event: "Wicked the Musical". Terese has now coordinated about 80 folks to come.
The Chicago chapter also hosted a showing of "The Drowsy Chaperone" - a Broadway musical with three CS'ers who spoke to the group afterwards about how they use CS in their lives as actors.
Other past events have included a Chicago Bulls basketball game and a ski weekend.
While heading from the Detroit Chapter canoe trip to Chicago I overnighted in Valparaiso, IN. Liz, a Prin classmate of mine is back in her hometown raising a family. The current count: One husband, one son and one daughter. While the kids are still quite young, she loved the concept of DiscoveryBound.
I gave her a DB Handbook to check out and she was so impressed with how comprehensive it is and how flexible DB is to letting each chapter mold the resources to suit their specific needs.
Liz has already gathered some support from her own church (which, BTW is celebrating it's centennial this year) and is reaching out to area churches to join in.
Valparaiso is actually quite close to Chicago... not even an hour out on the train, so it looks like they'll be able to start working with the Chicago chapter as well as have their own events on the south side of the city.
I rolled into the village of Dexter, MI through patches of rain and overcast skies after driving up from Carmel, IN. Doug Jackson was standing at the end of his driveway with an orange traffic vest and walkie talkies to assist me with backing my rig onto his driveway. As it turns out, we didn't block any traffic and the trailer tucked nicely next to the garage.
The next morning we loaded the canoe and kayaks, met up with about 20 others from the Detroit Chapter and headed for the river. Ten boats hit the water, 8 canoes, a double kayak and myself in a single kayak.
It was a beautiful sunny day, high of 66F and 8 miles of cool refreshing water. Mostly calm water with a few riffles and some overhanging branches kept things interesting. Check out the video.
While little Bridget might be a bit young for our national DiscoveryBound events she and her siblings are in perfect company to get involved with local DiscoveryBound events.
It turns out, her parents the Ferlands, may well be the ones who get the DB chapter going in Indianapolis. They are members of the Carmel church and had already had visions of putting activities together for the CS youth in their community.
The Ferlands just moved into a beautiful big house with a big yard with the intentions of having pool parties and social events. Perfect.
My first stop in Kentucky was in Lexington. Courtney, a friend from Principia, allowed me to park in her drive and she took me into church Sunday morning where I had a chance to meet with the Superintendent and sign her up as a church contact.
That afternoon, I continued on to Louisville where I happened to connect with Art whom I met while working at Camp Owatonna a few years back. It was his birthday and his family was taking him out to dinner. So, I got swooped up along with that, adopted to the family and really enjoyed meeting all of them. Art also let me park in his driveway and as you might be able to see from the photo, my rig took up all of it.
It turns out Art is the Superintendent of 1st church and he ran the A/U chapter in Louisville many years ago. He told me of trips to Florida and other great events they had. He's not sure the population is there to support a chapter today, but he knows what it can bring and is happy to promote DiscoveryBound events.
Art connected me with the Superintendent at second church as well. I told them about the Leadership Conference over Labor Day and suggested a strong Kentucky showing. It could be a fun road trip. I assured him road trips are fun. :)
I met up with the Kansas City Chapter at Cedars Camps in Lebanon, MO for the work party they arranged with the camps.
Most of the work was done in the front corral of the camp where low branches were cut off of trees and the scrub cleared out to open things up for the horses. We piled it all up and made a big bonfire that burned all night.
The kitchen also got a good scrubbing. All the dishes that had been sitting on the shelves, collecting dust over the winter got washed as did all of the coolers that are an essential part of keeping cool drinks available for the campers in the sometimes 100˙F temperatures.
Sunday morning we built some shelving for one of the new bunkhouses before dialing into the Creve Coeur church near St. Louis to listening to their service. After church, we raked up some leaves and I got a nice tour of the camp to see most of the property and hear about the programs.
Next we helped organize the CS Books and other study materials that will go into each cabin for the campers over the summer.
We finished with a great lunch and packed things up to head out. It was a great event and the camp gained much from the process. There's already talk of doing it next year and hopefully we can get folks from other surrounding cities to join.
Arkansas. Though many Americans may have a hard time pointing it out on a map, it's clearly on my map and I'm so glad I decided to swing through.
Two days ago, I got to meet Jeff the COP for Arkansas and tonight I got to meet his family at church. After the service, we headed over to the Village Inn for some pie and ice cream and I told them more about DiscoveryBound and what the possibilities are. As it turns out, they had already been introduced to the concept, but it just hadn't quite clicked. Well, I think we got a resounding CLICK and there might soon be a chapter in Arkansas.
If nothing else, they are now in the know of what's going on around them and it sounds like we'll be seeing them at future DB events!
Through the Principia network, I connected with Tara and Daniel, who it turns out are the first and second readers at the North Little Rock church. We met for dinner on Saturday night and I got a good feel for CS in Arkansas.
They were so grateful for me to stop by and to now be 'in the loop' with DiscoveryBound activities. There's actually quite a lot going on around them and they're keen to help some of their Sunday School students get to as many of these events as they can:
April 26 and 27 Kansas City Chapter is sponsoring a Cedars Camp clean up weekend. There might be some folks to come down from St. Louis as well.
May 3 - St. Louis Chapter - Road Rally
June 5 - "Drowsy Chaperone" the musical with CS actors Talkback session in Dallas, TX.
September 2008 - Labor Day Weekend - St. Louis - DiscoveryBound Leadership Conference (DBLC).
They also recommended I head up to Fayetteville in the NW corner of the state where there are four churches. I want to promote these events to them as well.
It was starting to get a little warm in New Orleans! Not to mention in Jackson, Mississippi where I attended the Wednesday Evening Testimony service. There were only three of us in attendance, so we just sat around a nice table in the adjacent Reading Room instead of the church hall itself.
While the reader has been a Christian Scientist for many years, the other lady has only been coming since November. It turns out there's another person who has just recently started coming to the Jackson church in search of a better spiritual understanding.
From Jackson I headed northwest and have arrived in Little Rock to spread the word of DiscoveryBound and to develop some Church Contacts in Arkansas.
It was such a relief to have the temperatures drop from the mid 80's down to the mid 60's and we even got some rain and a bolt of lightning or two!
Texas is really taking off. There's talk of stepping the Austin May camping trip up to a regional event and the Houston chapter is getting geared up after a big boost of excitement from the Summit.
There's also stuff brewing up in Milwaukee... more on that as things develop.
Sunday after church, the membership of the many Houston churches were invited to come hear about how the summit went. John Cheney, the event photographer put together a great slide show of the event and Bill Warrick of TMC Youth gave a similar recap to my previous posting. There was also a chance for folks to ask questions about the event.
Naturally, one of the questions was about how to continue this momentum and keep youth, not just interested in CS, but pro-active in it. Bill Warrick admitted TMC Youth did not have that planned out beyond the realm of Sunday School. But Blake, who with others, is keen to get a DiscoveryBound chapter popped up and announced to this group that the DB Chapter board for Houston was already being formed and moving forward.
A number of parents and interested parties came down to meet with Blake, Lindsay (the Houston Summit Chair) and I about launching into a DB Chapter for Houston.
The Houston Summit was a great success! Bill Warrick of TMC Youth started things off and set the tone of the meeting. He introduced the TMC Youth staff and explained how the sessions would work.
There were four lecturers:
Christine Driessen - Sharing Christian Science: Building Bridges Ginny Luedeman - Plain Talk About Love and Relationships Don Wallingford - A Spiritual GPS: The Presence of God's Goodness Ron Ballard - Why Healing Spiritually is Crucial
The youth had the opportunity to hear any two of those.
Then there were workshop sessions: Talking about CS, CS Nursing and the Practice, CS Publications, Sunday School, The Christian Science Monitor, Class Instruction, Committee on Publication, Christian Science Organizations for college campuses and the new CS Chaplaincy program.
Again, there were only two sessions to attend any of these workshops but a neat addition to the schedule was the free talkback time given where the attendees could freely wander amongst the presenters and ask specific questions.
There was a full group session on Answering Tough Questions and how to address those. Some of the questions included: Does CS work? Do you ever go to the doctor? Why don't you believe, like most Christians, that Jesus is God?
To wrap things up, the Christian Science Board of Directors took the stage and fielded questions about the future of the movement and what they were thinking about things. They also made it clear that they cared about what the membership thought of it all and were receptive to ideas being thrown out. Explanations about going beyond the KJV of the bible, formality in church, music styles and Sunday School were openly discussed as well as how the attendants of the summit can help in the movement.
Afterwards, we were all bussed to the Cheney's house where a delcious fajitas cookout was served complete with a three guitar mariachi band and ice cream!
It is ON in Houston. After a full day of volunteering with the Summit Committee at 7th Church to get it all set up: hanging posters, setting up chairs, prepping drinks and snacks, fixing signs... we headed over to the hotel to start getting folks checked in.
It has been so great to see many of the folks I met while making my rounds in Texas, it's like a big family reunion.
Dick Davenport gave a great workshop today on the first 8 chapters in the book of Acts. He brought to light contemporary themes for us to consider as we continue the work Jesus started.
There were about 55 folks in attendance and Dick introduced me just before the lunch break and allowed me to tell everyone about DiscoveryBound and how they can help. I basically break it down into four ways... none of which are exclusive of the other:
1) Chapter Worker - a member of the local board taking an active roll in planning local or regional events for CS youth and their friends.
2) Church Contact - ideally each church will have someone receiving information about DB events and will promote those events to their Sunday School Students and parents.
3) General Volunteer - someone who wants to help on occasion but cannot commit to be actively involved in the regular planning process.
4) Resources - From donors to folks who are willing to host an event on their property and/or have boats, ATV's or other toys available to be used by the chapter for an event.
New Orleans has all of the above save someone willing to step forward as the Board Chairperson to lead the group forward. Over 20 people have expressed interest in a supporting role. I think it's just a matter of letting the buzz work it's magic and we'll have someone soon.
Dick Davenport is doing a bible workshop on the beginning of the book of Acts this weekend and he found some time to go out to lunch with Sherwood and I near his hotel in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
Dick was the Dean of Men while Wood an I were at Principia and it was great to connect with him to talk about our time at Prin, to get a sneak preview of the workshop and to share with him how DiscoveryBound is doing and where we're heading.
During the workshop, just before the lunch break, Dick will introduce me and allow me to speak to the group for a few moments to try and kindle some interest in getting a chapter going here in NOLA.
At this point, I need someone to take the lead here. I have, as always, found strong supporters, but the to be chairperson is remaining elusive.
On the organizational side, Kathy - introduced to me by way of Michelle in Austin, has take the charge of helping me recruit church contacts for all the churches and societies in Louisiana. We're using GoogleDocs to stay synchronized and it's working great!!
It would be amazing to have a Church Contact Coordinator like Kathy in each part of the region. Thanks Kathy!
After the DiscoveryBound whilrly ball and laser tag fun, Clark Shutt from Camps Leelanau-Kohahna spoke to everyone at The Leaves where a huge banana split was built for all to enjoy... this thing was 10 feet long!
Many of the youth and parents who had been to camp shared what was so near and dear to them about camp and everybody enjoyed the huge banana split.
DiscoveryBound Dallas wasn't done yet, however. Some of the new board members and other volunteers sat down to work out some of the details for an amazing event.
The Broadway Show "The Drowsy Chaperone" is coming to Dallas and there are three Christian Scientists in the cast. The Dallas Chapter is going to host an event to attend the show and then to have a "talkback" session after the show to let the three CS'ers speak to the DB crowd about what it's like being on a touring Broadway Show and how they use Christian Science in their work. The show will be in Chicago and the same event is being organized up there.
BJ has been doing a great job keeping the Dallas chapter going and put on a great event of whilrly ball (think lacrosse on bumper cars) and laser tag today after Church. There were about 25 youth in attendance, including a contingent from Austin.
The sad thing is BJ is off to college next year and we need to get some others involved to run the chapter. Sloan, who I met a few days ago was there, and we also found Dan who is keen to see the Dallas chapter continue. They are all going to meet with BJ and keep things rolling.
The Dallas chapter is also getting a bus organized to get folks down to Houston for the summit.
Kevin Graunke gave a great lecture and he and the lecture board were gracious enough to introduce me and DiscoveryBound at the end of the lecture and allow me to speak to the many attendants of the the lecture at 2nd Church Fort Worth. I just spoke shortly and asked anyone keen to help with the new Fort Worth chapter to come down to the front afterwards. We had a good half dozen of so show interest and Elizabeth who is heading the chapter up got their contact info and she'll work on constructing a board with those volunteers.
Kevin, it turns out, was on the Milwaukee Chapter Teen Council when he was a youth and really enjoyed the experience. It was great to meet him and great to have that opportunity to round up more volunteers to help Elizabeth.
Last night I had the great opportunity to dine with Jane, the Executive Director of the Sunnyside Foundation. This foundation is dedicated to supporting CS youth in Texas. She manages funds to help college students with buying books, paying rent, and I believe tuition. Sunnyside also sends kids to camp, any camp, not just CS camps. She is very keen to see DiscoveryBound ramp up in Texas. It was great to be able to share this blog with her as well as tell her about the chapters cropping up in every corner of Texas.
A proposal and grant request is being drafted to submit to Sunnyside to support these Texas chapters individually as well as providing funding to get some regional events scheduled in Texas.
Also with us was Jane's husband and a family/church friend, Sloan, who has offered to help with the existing Dallas chapter. It looks like we'll get him on the Chapter Board. The interesting thing about the Dallas Chapter is (as far as I could tell), it has been nearly single handedly run by a high school student, BJ. Well, BJ is about to head off to college and we need to get some replacements in to cover for the great work BJ has been doing and keep the chapter active and growing.
Dallas has had a chapter going for some time. And while their metroplex partner city, Fort Worth is geographically close, logistically, it can be quite a chore to get from Ft. Worth to Dallas for DB events.
Thus is born the Fort Worth Chapter! Elizabeth and her son Peter met with me Friday for lunch to talk about what we needed to do to get things going. Elizabeth was at the Abilene Sunday School Workshop, and while she had to skedaddle home afterwards, she left me a note expressing interest in getting the chapter up and running.
Still, some tight communication and coordination will need to exist between the two chapters to be sure events don't overlap and to work in a complementary fashion.
This should become pretty easy to synchronize with the new DiscoveryBound.org website. It will include a community calendar so each chapter will see what the other is up to.
As these chapters get established, the two of them are going to be able to unite and get some amazing regional events together that should draw from all over the state as well as Oklahoma City and New Orleans.
Last night I visited the closest church to where I'm parked in Arlington, TX - the Arlington church. It turned out one of the members was moving to Florida and they were having a farewell party for her and they invited the total stranger visiting their church to come along. Ok... so I wasn't a total stranger. The organist, Mary, and my mom were roommates at Principia together. Mary had just had me over for dinner the night before. I also gave a testimony about seeing the message past a metaphor (the non-fruit bearing tree Jesus withered away from a few weeks ago) and about the "Science" of Christian Science.
Once the group figured out what I was up to with DiscoveryBound, they invited me to address the group at the party and talk about what was going on here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The response I got afterwards makes me believe we'll have some good participation in the newly forming Fort Worth chapter from Arlington!
Sunday was a double bonus feature day with the creation of two new chapters for DiscoveryBound: West Texas and Minneapolis.
Liz from Mankato, MN contacted HQ in Denver curious about what a DB Chapter was after her daughter attended the DiscoveryBound Boston Youth Meeting in conjunction with Annual Meeting at the Mother Church. I contacted Liz and we had a great chat and she's keen to get a chapter going. Talk about dedication though, she hauls her family 80+ miles to get to church in Minneapolis!
As a result of the very successful Sunday School Workshop hosted by The First Church of Christ, Scientist Abilene, TX, their first reader, Emily stepped forward and said she wanted to see this happen for the West Texas youth. We talked some at the workshop and Sunday after church she was ready to take the point on getting the chapter together. This is a very ambitious and unique chapter. Just for kicks, I calculated the area it covers... wager to guess? Try 96,000 sq miles!
Seeing as these chapters were started on the same day, and as they are about as far apart as they can be from one another in the Central Region, I'm declaring them 'Sister Chapters' and maybe some day we can get an event organized with the two of them together... "Meet me in St. Louis?"
Abilene Church put on a great workshop for Sunday School teachers today. They had 40 people in attendance, the largest group came from Amarillo, a four hour drive!
It was great for me to hear that one of the objectives for the group was to network. They wanted to connect with each other and share ideas and get the kids together. The term "regional events" even cropped up.
The event organizer, Shellie, allowed me to speak to the group for about five minutes and the idea of a West Texas Chapter was thrown out. We'll see if I get some traction on that. I also spoke to the seven youth that came along and had their own workshop, similar to the one at the Mother Church during Annual Meeting last summer. They liked the idea of getting the CS youth from West Texas together more often.
This was a group that has made youth a priority and it showed. It was a wonderful fulfillment to reach out and meet people from West Texas as I was not going to be driving out that way.
The joint DiscoveryBound and Adventure Unlimited show in Austin, Texas was a great success! A handful of volunteers came forward and were willing to invest the time and get a DB chapter up and started. We even got an event on the calendar, an OTM to sync with the rest of the region - the first Wednesday of the month. The new board will be meeting a week from today to round up more volunteers and plan out the next three months of activities.
Aaron, from the A/U Ranches, and I presented our programs to a room of about 20 people from the Austin area. Most of them were from the near by Third Church, but a key few from First were also in attendance and the new DB Board is an even mix from the two.
It turns out there are also some CS Societies near by and they might get included in future OTM events.
Things have been going very well in Austin. First the lecture on Saturday with Ryder was great. Sunday I went to First Church, the sponsors of the lecture and met the Sunday School Superintendent who already had copies of the upcoming A/U & DB event all printed out and ready to pass out to all of the students.
Unfortunately, the flyer didn't really describe what it was I (the mentioned DiscoveryBound) rep was going to be doing there... so, as I explained the objective of DB and the idea that the objective of this meeting was to get a chapter going, more people took an interest and a flyer with them. Mostly adults whose children have grown and gone, or those who don't have children. It will be great to get everyone involved as children really need to be seen as a community asset and responsibility, not just that of the parents.
Over the week to come, I had follow-up meetings with a few of the folks I met at church and the lecture, went to two Wednesday Testimony meetings: noon at First and the evening service at Third.
Today, Aaron from A/U gets in and we'll have our info meeting and camp show and potluck luncheon under cloudy and cool skies. I feel kinda bad after touting what warm weather we've been having on the staff conference calls, and now that Aaron gets here, it's cooled off. Maybe that's better for him... to ease into it after being in the snow blizzard at the Colorado Ranches.
Oh, yes... the photo above... I was staying at a RV park in the city for the first week, which was great for meeting with folks and for getting to First Church. Just yesterday, I moved out to Rusty's Ranch (see Flickr Photos) and one the ranch cats came into the trailer for a visit and tried to help me with my e-mails and such last night. He was really more into cuddling.
After Ryder's lecture I had a chance to meet some of the folks from the area and each time I introduced myself as working with DiscoveryBound, a look of appreciation was reciprocated to me.
I promoted the meeting coming up in a week where Aaron from A/U will be talking about the camps and I'll have a moment to see if there is interest in getting a DB Chapter going.
After the lecture I went out with Daniel, Whitney and Holly. Daniel is a Junior at the University of Texas and Whitney and Holly came up from Texas A&M. They're all involved with their respective CSO's and they seem eager to support DB.
I chatted with them about how middle school and high school might pay them more attention than folks their parents age and how DB is a natural feeder to get students interested in getting involved with the CSO of their college when they go off to study.
Marissa in San Antonio is about to have her last Sunday School class and she's kinda bummed about it. She's just getting the CSO started at Trinity College, but I told her that was a perfect environment to help buffer the transition from talking about God for an hour to sitting still and listening about God for an hour. The CSO has a great opportunity to even invite local HS seniors to come and participate and to understand what a supportive community is available.
We all had a great time talking about this stuff... not to mention some good snacks like my root beer float, Whitney's chocolate chip cookie a la mode and very liberal and decorative whipped cream while Holly and Daniel split some cake. Good times.
Ryder gave one of his newest lectures, Manhood and Womanhood: Your Sacred Identity in Austin today. He provided an in depth comparison of Genesis 1 and 2 exposing the limited thought represented in the story of Adam & Eve. Adam was formed of dust... nothingness and therefore can only express that - nothingness.
An interesting point he made was the story of Adam and Eve was actually stolen from the Egyptians. Ryder says it was an old folk story that the enslaved children of Israel picked up while building the pyramids.
We are not Adam, or Eve. We are the word of God, we are the infinite expression of light and love - Soul. Our identity is the reflection of Spirit. There is no dust, no breath in nostrils, no need to recognize any limitations... and we need to see that for ourselves. That's the hard part, to see ourselves in that perfect image. It seems like it would be so much easier to just succumb to the oppressing notion of death and decay.
Ryder charged us at the end to go as the children of God. To express that unconditional Christ love. It will help us see ourselves with the unlimited resource of God and it will help others see themselves that way.
Six brave souls attended the San Antonio Chapter start-up meeting. Interestingly, they were all people who either had grown up children or no children at all (although Ron is practically starting over with his adopted kids)! We need to get some parents involved!
While this group may not be the chapter board in the long run, they have agreed to work towards getting an OTM (Operation Testimony Meeting) going at Third Church on Wednesday 5 March (The first Wednesday of the month) and a big kick-off event down on the river including rafting or floating down the river on tubes or some such. It seems it was an event they did years ago and it went over really well.
One of the concerns presented was the distance of things. It seems many of the church members are scattered all around the outskirts of town so larger more substantial events might work better than little gatherings like OTM's. We'll see.
A huge thanks to this crowd: Ron, Marisa, Carol, Fielding, Susie and Tina for being a part of the seed group. Though, to the credit of a few other folks, there were some other meetings going on at the same time. Hopefully this seed group will be able to reign them in and get things going.
Yesterday I headed up to New Braunfels, about 30 miles out of San Antonio (see map at right... markers are CS Churches in the area) to visit with Judy & Chris Schwab. Judy has been through a number of careers including as an opera singer in Europe and at the New York Metropolitan Opera, she's worked as a teacher and is now in the Christian Science Healing Practice. Judy is very active with the youth in the area. They have about 15 students in their Sunday School now, and with a generous grant from the Sunnyside Foundation they will be hosting a weekly Bible Study workshop with local disadvantaged youth, many of whom will attend the CS Sunday School as well.
Judy put me in touch with Jeanne, the church clerk who, with the board, approved letting me speak to the membership about DiscoveryBound. There were about 10-15 folks in attendance and along with giving a quick overview of what DB is, I invited them to attend the meeting tonight as we work to get a San Antonio Chapter Board constructed.
As it turns out, after telling of our bi-annual Australia trip, one of the New Braunfels members used to work at the Australian Easter Camp many years ago!
There was also some interest in the Adult Expedition trip to Turkey!
I had a great lunch meeting with San Antonio mover and shaker, Elden Stalnaker. He is working with some students at Trinity College to get their CSO up and running and is very keen on seeing a DiscoveryBound chapter to bless the community as well.
We spoke on a number of topics including some ideas I introduced to him when we first met after the lecture on Saturday and when we were out to lunch with a large group from 1st Church on Sunday.
Elden runs a ministry on Lackland Air Force Base. He wakes up at 4am on Sundays to drive to the base to run a bible discussion workshop with an eager class, then comes to church to run a Sunday School class and has a CS healing practice the rest of the time. He also works with Rob and Lauren Nofsinger in Boston who are working towards becoming CS Chaplains in the US Army.
It was great to spend some time with him to brainstorm and share resources. As mentioned in the video, we came up with a theme word, or words rather, for our work in San Antonio: Omni-Action: Action in all directions and in all ways... and I suggested Meta-Action: Beyond Action. He liked that.
I went to a great lecture today by Elise Moore. She spoke on the topic "God is Speaking to You." She made a great point about how God is always speaking to all of us, it's just a matter of listening. Are we being receptive to God's thoughts? I really appreciated her asking everyone to pray that children are listening to God. She told a few stories of how God speaks to everyone - and while children have the ability to hear God speaking to them the don't always listen (no surprise, eh?). But God is also speaking to those around the children to be watchful to keep them safe. Elise stressed the point that we need to be active in not limiting children and to pray for their ability to hear God (and for adults to recognize they can).
This spoke directly to what DiscoveryBound is doing. We take time every day to pray for children, our programs for children and those who work with children. We pray for the volunteers who take time to take action for and with children and to help them grow and learn to listen to God.
Elise spoke of our Spiritual Sense - our capacity to recognize good from bad. She likened it to a radio. All we had to do was to 1) Turn it on. 2) Tune into God. We are all born with Spiritual Sense, meaning children have this as well.
It was a great talk, and she mentioned some Bible and Science and Health citations I have yet to delve into.
I was just sitting in my trailer... plucking away when suddenly I realized I was surrounded by horses and horse trailers and lots of flags and a bit of ye-haw!
Wednesday I visited 3rd Church and met some great folks who are keen to help with getting some DB activity in San Antonio. I've also connected with folks from 1st and 4th churches.
There's a lecture on Saturday by Elise Moore titled "God Is Speaking To You". I'm not sure which church I'll visit on Sunday... probably 1st, but we'll see.
I hope to get to see more of the rodeo. I just met some folks who were on the ride and they set me up with a day pass to visit the grounds and to see what all is going on.
On I-10 from Houston to San Antonio, you can't miss Jerry Mikeskas Bar-B-Q.
A small hexagon shaped building sits right at the mouth of the first westbound exit to Columbus, TX. Ample parking for cars, semi-trucks and RV's made it easy to get there. The lot wasn't full, but I did follow a semi-truck into the big lot.
Inside... the best way to set the stage might be the antler chandelier hanging in the middle of the single dark room. On the walls hundreds of hunting trophies - animals of all sorts - watched you as you considered what sort of meat you wanted to eat. Then, they all watched you eat. A handful of truckers sat scattered around the room, eating their solitary meal while young and old couples and even a few families with young children filled more tables.
For not quite $8 I got a nice selection of meat, BBQ sauce and three sides - spinach, beans and boiled potatoes. The BBQ sauce was pleasantly sweet, while I would have appreciated something a bit more tangy, smoky or spicy.
Despite the food not being quite as amazing as I had hoped, I can see how this eatery could easily become a tradition for those who frequently travel between Houston and San Antonio.
It's a true piece of Americana... rather Texacana. If you can handle all the critters on the walls, I recommend the stop.
Good times in Houston, but it's time to move on. After some very good meetings with folks here, it's clear they are all very busy with getting ready for the TMC Youth Spiritual Activist Summit.
DiscoveryBound has been in Houston in the past, but with the number of kids dwindling in Sunday Schools... it's been difficult to keep the momentum going. The folks I've chatted with here seem to think the Summit will lead into an interest to continue having CS related activity for youth henceforth and if there is any spark of interest in that, I'm told DB will be off and running. Until then, we're supporting the work being done for the Summit and I'm off to San Antonio to continue the work and to promote the Summit. I plan to be there in April!
Oh, and a side not one Houston and road signs... I can't sort it out. It can be a confusing city to drive around in. Often times the signs are hidden behind a concrete pole or are too close to the junction. Maybe it's just me.
