Our work is hip!

If there is any doubt that what we do with college students changes lives, check out the cover story of last month's Christianity Today!

He Talked to Us on the Road by Ted Olsen.

"We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves," travel journalist Pico Iyer wrote in his 2000 essay "Why We Travel." He's right, but it's much more basic than that, especially for the pilgrim who travels more to find God than to find himself. We travel, at first, to leave. Then, finally, we travel to come home.

Pilgrimage and journeys are a huge piece of what we do with students when we take them to the woods (or desert or canyon or water).

Spring Break - OLT Style

There is not much beer pong or keg standing that takes place on Spring Break Trips run by our staff in the OLT.

The OLT offered 13 alternative Spring Break Trips for students this year - 118 college students took advantage of trips to GA, FL, NC, NH, AR, CA, and TN!

Students are challenged on spring break trips to engage issues of identity, community and spirituality. Our staff take students as diverse as the campuses they work on, and have the opportunity to travel and live with them for a week - apart from distractions of campus life.

(Joy's staff Emily Bean led a trip for a campus minister and his CMU students)

Conversations of consequence are had and lives are changed because students are introduced to truths about their identity as God's beloved, within communities that really practice love and forgiveness - all with attention paid to their uniqueness as a multi-dimensional being created in the image of God.

JUBILEE

It was about a month ago that over 2500 students came to Pittsburgh for the CCO's annual event - Jubilee. Here are the highlights. Consider what student you know might benefit from a conference like this next year - February 19-21, 2010!

Dozens of plenary and breakout session speakers like author Lauren Winner


Andre Crouch, author of Culture Making


Great music


A huge bookstore by Hearts and Minds Books, specializing in books on EVERY subject from a Christian worldview


Tons of summer opportunities for students to plug into - camps, service projects, and, of course our own Leadership and Discipleship in the Wilderness!
Photos by Andrew Rush

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

Behind the scenes in the OLT

Joy’s work this semester has mainly been pouring into a wonderful support staff team for the OLT (Outdoor Leadership Team). She not only coaches these staff in their work as employees, but strives to develop them as whole people, who lead lives of integrity, truth and intentionality. She meets with them as a group every other week and encourages them to challenge each other in their work. She also meets with them one on one to personally mentor them in work and life. We have two Montreat College students this fall, Ryan and Melissa, who are fulfilling their internship requirements by working with the OLT.
Joy enjoys the coaching/mentoring role in her work the most. She also spends much time meeting with key people in other departments such as training, conferences, finance, communications, and development to continue developing the ministry of the OLT within the CCO as a whole.

Family First Sports Park

Much of Francois’ work this fall has been developing a partnership with Family First Sports Park (FFSP) in Erie, PA. It is a large facility which contains a low ropes course, a climbing wall, and an alpine tower, all used for team building activities. FFSP is connected with a nearby church, day school, and boarding school.

Most recently, we facilitated two days of team building for the 40 inaugural students at the boarding school, Family First Academy. We presented to them the story of Earnest Shackleton, in which the arctic explorer in the early 1900’s took an expedition to be the FIRST to the south pole. He put an ad in the paper for a crew that read something like, “...terrible conditions, safe return doubtful, acclaim in case of success.” We challenged this group of forty 8-12^th graders from Asia, South Africa, UK, Jamaica, Mexico and US to consider the legacy they are leaving and the trajectory they are setting for the years to come at the academy. Being the FIRST means a lot, there are a lot of expectations on you, you are pioneering something that has never been done before, and setting the stage for those who come after you.