Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Wilderness Medicine Training



We spend a weekend with a group of 16 CCO staff upgrading their medical certifications. Joy did a great job organizing the weekend and making sure everything ran smoothly while Francois tried to keep folks awake with his teaching and fake blood scenarios. Thanks to SOLO, the oldest wilderness medicine school in the country, for their continued support of our ministry.







Follow this link for more great pics.

Transforming students to transform the world



I got this letter from Grace who was part of the Institute for Adventure Education in Campus Ministry, a two year internship Joy and I facilitated a few years ago. Grace is the one in the white shirt in the photo. She is now nearing the end of her graduate work in architectural design.


hi,

[I]n my classes, we often discuss sustainable design, as it is the main issue in architecture and design these days. backpacking has really enabled me to understand what sustainable living really means. because of LNT [leave no trace] and simple rules of living well in the woods, i think i can understand the importance of sustainability and how it can be done a lot better then most people in my classes. i definitely have a much different perspective on the issue that makes it 'real' to me.

last week we read about an architect/theorist that called architects to be holistic in their design. this was written in the context of the 70's when modern design was taking over, designers started giving into capitalism/money and design vs quality work. for me, i can relate back to discussions we've had on not compartmentalizing our lives. architecture and modern lifestyle has definitely suffered because of 'our' lack of understanding of how it is important to think and live holistically. in architecture that means considering how design impacts all the other parts of our lives and considering people, nature, art, etc and not just creating a space that looks cool or is the cheapest.

it's been interesting how much is overlapping between discussions we've had and what we're discussing in class right now.

peace
- grace