A new familiar face around the Outdoor Leadership Team

We are very pleased to welcome Sean Purcell to the CCO. Sean will be serving the Outdoor Leadership Team as the event coordinator. Sean brings a wealth of outdoor experience, a sharp mind steeped in his PhD studies in philosophy, and a gift for teaching. His wife Krista and daughter Ella will be joining him in the move to Pittsburgh. While Sean has been working with CCO for many years as a volunteer, we are very excited about having Sean join our team more formally. You may remember Sean from past posts on his teaching at our staff trainings last year or his leadership on Crossings, the sea kayaking trip designed for graduating college students. With Sean coming on staff, we look forward to many great discussions filled with challenging ideas and laughter whether in the classroom or in the wilderness (especially when snow is involved!).

College campuses and religion

From the Princeton Review, this year's rankings of America's most and least religious campuses.
Most religious Brigham Young University, least religious Sarah Lawrence College.
click here for article.
One of CCO's core value is "We love college students". Wherever they are. From the most religious campus to the least religious campus. Here is an example from the Atheist/Christian roundtable at last year's Jubilee conference. Click here for the video.

CCO: Transforming College Students to Transform The World.

Photos from the Alpine Pilgrimage

Howie getting ready to snap another one.

Joy beginning to display the baby bump met
Howie and I at the end of a long hike.

Howie Shultz, photographer extraordinaire, has started posting photos from the Alpine Pilgrimage. They are amazing! Click on the link below to have your breath taken away by the beauty of creation.
Howie's photo album

If you are inspired, registration for next year's trip will open soon. You can get more information about the Alpine Pilgrimage on the CCO website by clicking here.

CCO's Alpine Pilgrimage- pics of a day on the trail

Here is a snapshot of a day on the Tour du Mont Blanc. This was probably one of our hardest hiking days from Contamines Montjoie via 3 different mountain passes to the Refuges Des Mottets.


Getting ready to set out for the day.


A breather on the trail.


Leaving Col du Bonhomme on the way to Col de la Croix du Bonhomme. A little snow school lesson was necessary to prepare for this section.


Finally at the refuge-an old dairy farm. A home cooked meal with our closest 93 hiking companions! Heart food to prepare our tired muscles for tomorrow's climb over the Col de Seigne from France into Italy.


The old man...The Mont Blanc. Keep the mountain on your left and a 100 or so miles, seven valleys, 11 mountain passes, and 3 countries later you will return to where you started but you will have changed as Renee Dumal wrote:

When one has been to a mountain top
One has only to come down again
So why bother in the first place?
Just this....
One climbs...One sees
One descends...One sees no longer
But one has seen
There is an art of conducting oneself
in the lower regions
By the memory of what one saw higher up.

More pics for CCO's Alpine Pilgrimage

Enjoy...

Setting your heart on a pilgrimage

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage." (Psalm 84:5 NIV)

During the month of June, we got lead a group of 17 participants on the CCO's first Alpine Pilgrimage. Inspired by the CCO president Dan Dupee's experience of a sabbatical a few year ago, we worked with Dan to design and offer a trip for CCO donors and board members and their family. Our destination, the Tour du Mont Blanc, has been named one of the world's 25 greatest treks. The Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) is a 100-mile trail (with 30,000 feet of elevation gain and lost) through France, Italy and Swizterland that circumnavigates the highest peak in Europe.

Our theme of pilgrimage offered a chance for the 17 participants to experience the way CCO staff use the wilderness to help students grow in faith, character, and leadership. The famous trail actually follows in some places old Roman roads used for pilgrimages to Rome centuries ago.

The thousands of photos (literally) taken by the group tell the story of how God's creation still speaks to those who have ears to hear and eyes to see (psalm 19).

The pilot trip was very well received and we have already received request to do offer another one next year.

Here are a few shots to enjoy (special credit to Howie Schultz for the most beautiful pics in the lot).


A moment of reflection on the trail


The group in Chamonix

New staff for OLT!

We are delighted to welcome Jamie Z. to our team as the OLT Administrator. She graduated from Penn State in December and has a perfect combination of skills for the job. In addition to being an accomplished outdoor leader with a winsome personality, she's organized and gifted in administration. (Not a combo you find in too many people!)

Jamie will be spending about half of her time working in the main office managing communications, record keeping, and a lot of details that go into making it possible for our staff to go on adventures with students. Her acceptance of this job is an answer to a few years of prayer for more administrative help for OLT.

The other half of her time, Jamie will be leading those adventures for freshmen orientations, fall and spring break trips, and LDW during the summers! She has been involved in Crux, a CCO outdoor program at Penn State University Park with Steph Wessel. She was a participant on LDW Wyoming during the summer of 2008.

Please join us in praying for Jamie as she begins to raise significant financial support and attends CCO's New Staff Training in June.