Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Photos of some XD staff on Spring Break

Students are back on campus after spring break and photos of their trips are being posted all over the web. Here are couple from staff Joy and I supervise to start us off:

Jeremy Stoltzfus led two trips this spring break. On the first trip he was canoeing in the Florida Everglades with Juniata College. During that trip he apprenticed Lisa Hershey, CCO staff at Juniata. Lisa has been working with students at the Standing Stone Coffee House, a coffee house run by former CCO staff, Greg Anderson. Lisa is starting an outdoor discipleship program at the college and will be leading the CCO's 40-day expedition in the wilderness of Wyoming.
Jeremy's second trip was on Suwanee River in Georgia with students from Georgia Gwinnett College. Jeremy was invited to lead this trip by the outdoor program director who had been discipled by Jeremy when she was a student at Messiah College. Here are some photos to enjoy:
Jeremy is a XD program resource who will be leading several trips to Alaska this summer for friends of the CCO.

Jamie Zackavitch was hiking at Cumberland Island (also in Georgia) with students from Ohio Wesleyan University. Jamie was mentoring a student leader who is involved with the Outdoor Ministry Team at OWU. Here are the photos from her trip:
http://glancingbeyondtheledge.weebly.com/1/post/2012/03/lets-get-down-to-business-spring-break-style.html
Jamie is the XD administrator. She keeps us running! She will also be heading to Wyoming this summer with Lisa to lead the CCO's Leadership and Discipleship in the Wilderness 40-day expedition.

As I was writing this, I started thinking about Genesis 5 and 11 and spiritual genealogies. Jeremy and Jamie are leaving legacies. They themselves where "begat" and through their work such as their leadership on the recent spring break trips, they will "begat" students who will themselves become witnesses. But I think that's the topic for another blog post... later...

Monday, March 05, 2012

Spring Break Season 2012



That rite of passage time is upon us once again. The time from which stories will be retold for years to come and that is caricatured in countless bad Hollywood B-movies. It's spring break time again!!!
But for a number of students involved in CCO ministries, spring break does not mean hitting the beaches and the booze. They have chosen instead to join a small group of peers to build a community seeking adventure with a purpose (as my friend Ryan Carlson likes to say). They will be heading out to the wilderness to be stretched. In taking a sabbath from classes, they seek deeper connections to each other and to God. All while discovering a new adventure activity that will take them outside their comfort zone. They understand that in leaving the comforts of campus and civilization, one has the opportunity to see life a little more clearly and  the things that really matter come a little more into focus. So please pray for them over the next two weeks and for their CCO instructors who are shepherding them through these potentially life-changing encounters. Pray for the CCO Experiential Designs trips: Westminster College in rock climbing Colorado, Juniata College canoeing in the Everglades, Geneva College and Waynesburg University sea kayaking in the Everglades, Ohio Wesleyan University backpacking in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and on Cumberland Island, Georgia and Georgia Gwinnet College canoeing in Northern Florida. Pray also for the many CCO/ Habitat for Humanity trips that will also be heading out for spring break all over the Southeast.