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.
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
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.
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.
