While in New Orleans on the road trip last year, I posted four basic ways people can get involved with DiscoveryBound. We all have our own method of giving and I came up with this list to encompass all possible avenues. If you can see another way to give and make it work, add your comments below!
Get Involved as a...
Chapter Worker - a member of the local board taking an active roll in planning local or regional events for CS youth and their friends.
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.
General Volunteer - someone who wants to help on occasion but cannot commit to be actively involved in the regular planning process.
Resource - 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.
So, if any of these look appealing to you, or you know someone who could give in any of the above ways, let me know or send this on to them.
After nine consecutive weeks of heavy snow and cold temperatures, on Saturday, February 7th, southeast Michigan enjoyed a sunny day with a high of 49 degrees, almost a record. This was the setting for a fun event of cross country skiing at Willow Metropark. Five adventurers skied a three mile groomed trail that took us through the woods, around Acorn Knoll, by an old cemetery, and back to Washago Pond. Everyone took a turn leading. After the first mile we were peeling off coats and hats in the balmy weather. Fortunately there was still plenty of snow even as it melted in the warm sun. We stopped many times to throw snowballs and to study the animal tracks and droppings in the snow - coyotes, deer, racoons, and dogs was the consensus of our amateur naturalists. We concluded the great day by sharing a meal and conversation at a nearby restaurant. We look forward to our spring event!
I met Aaron, the Round-up Ranch Director from Adventure Unlimited, in Dallas to start our three-day Camp Show tour. We had a great turnout at all of the shows and lots of good questions were asked about life at the ranches. In Austin and Houston the DiscoveryBound chapters made use of this meeting opportunity. In Austin, they held a brainstorming session to plan out what the youth want to do for the rest of the year and in Houston the camp show was held at a climbing gym so everybody could go and get on the rock and play after the show.
From here, Aaron heads back to the Ranches for a few days before starting his West Coast road trip and camp show tour while I will be heading down to South Texas to help get a chapter going there.
The TAMU CSO held their third annual GAD - Gathering of Active Disciples. The theme this year was "The Desserts of Life" and a number of discussion sessions were held, some with theme related titles, around that topic: * How to break the ice - cream: Discussing CS with others * Whirled Peace: Praying for the world * Sin, baptism where do we fit in? * Recipe for a Sweet Life: Finding balance in life * Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n Roll: Removing Temptation * Being Perfect in a Material World: Evidence of a perfect you. * Having a Sweet Heart: A look at relationships * Life is Like a Box of Chocolates: Being grateful for the good already received
We also had Ryder Stevens, a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship give a talk on true Manhood and Womanhood. The title of his talk? Apple Pie: a la Mode
The weekend provided for an incredible opportunity to get ideas out and to gain inspiration on difficult topics. TMC Youth was there to do some filming so, look for an update on TMCYouth.com.
This year, I spent Christmas up at the Adventure Unlimited Ranches in Colorado. It was such a blast and so beautiful. My dad and brother came up from sunny San Diego and adapted to the snowy mountains rather quickly. We were skiing the first day, snowshoeing the next, then more skiing and tubing, sitting by the fire, and the food was amazing.
I've posted some videos, they're fun and a little silly. Check them out:
I'm also working on a video of the New Year's Stampede for 18-25 year olds. This was a great way to bring in the the new year with out dealing with any parties plagued with drinking and smoking and in a beautiful mountain environment. We went skiing, tubing, snowshoeing, played cards and had some great conversations on CS theology and healing.
If you had some DB/CS Youth holiday events, ask me about how you can post them here and share what you did!
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
