And now for a word from our students...

Anna was one of the participants on this summer's trip to the Georgian Bay. Having just graduated from Messiah College, she was getting ready to head out to San Diego to start the post college life. Anna is the one standing up in the blue jacket in the picture. Here's an excerpt from a letter she recently sent us:

So work is great and I love the people I work with. I'm living in a town house with all Christian girls I met through a church. I go to a Bible study for young adults, and I am slowly getting to know the people there. I am very motivated to try new churches, small groups, and just be outgoing. This motivation was given to me from my experience with LDW.

LDW taught me to be fearless. Learning to navigate on unsteady waters and sharing my personality and opening up to new people definitely prepared me to live with less fear in the future. Creating and discussing our future goals gave me a sense of accountability to accomplish these goals. I was accountable to my teammates from LDW, those who supported me financially,
and the one who was responsible for creating lake Ontario with is stunning beauty.

Now that I am a full time employee, I can most definitely see the benefits
of my trip. I'm not scared to share who I am with others, and I have a better sense of self-confidence. My faith was strenghtened by hearing others on LDW share their personal reasons for faith, as well as their life struggles. My co-workers may not realize what a great thing LDW did for my life.

God always has a plan, and for that we need to fear nothing. I was supposed to start work in early June, but my trip would interfere with this schedule. [ The medical center] is an extremely busy place with not a lot flexibility for vacation times since there are so many patients that need to be seen on a daily basis. There were other applicants who could have gotten the job and start earlier than I could have, but my employers saw beyond the time frame and allowed me to start later. They thought a kayak trip geared toward life transitions was a great opportunity I should not let go.

Seeing how God worked out these small details in my life schedule shows me that he cares about all aspects of our lives. He knows what is best for us, and His faithfulness will never fail. Thinking about these things reminds me to keep on trusting Him even when life seems like it is at its worst. With my parents divorce in process, I am reminded to trust God and know that he
has a plan for every member of my family if we are faithful to His word. It seems like this generation is plagued with divorce, so now is a good time to experience some of God's faithfulness.

Preparing for leaving well...

What a summer! I can't believe it's already September. As we start the semester and look back over the summer, we want to share with you on the blog and the upcoming newsletter all that's been going in our work with the CCO.

Francois started the summer by returning to the Georgian Bay with a group of students. Initially meant as a repeat of last summer's LDW trip, we found that most of the students applying were graduating senior preparing to leave college with a short window before their new jobs began. So we designed a 10-day trip with the focus of how to transition well. The parallel between the wisdom necessary to sea kayak in the uncertain and ever-changing conditions of the Great Lakes in early summer and the moving out of the familiar world of college into the adult work world was perfect.
Life on the islands of the Georgian Bay.

The instructor crew (r-l) Charity, Sean and Kelly (who was a student on last year's trip and after her internship with the CCO this spring, has come on staff to be the LDW manager!)

The crew back at the equipment room.
Can you thing of a better picture to capture the experience of transitioning out of college: the light at the end of the tunnel combined with the dark clouds of uncertainty!

Making the headlines

check this out from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Re-Creation is not a luxury

Quoted from an article in the International Herald Tribune:

A. Whenever I conduct workshops with any group, I ask people how free they feel and to rate themselves on a scale of 0 to 100. The responses are usually about the same whether I am talking to people in a correctional facility or at a workplace. I have learned firsthand that some people feel free while behind bars (and use their time in a positive way), yet others feel "locked up" while living in society.

One thing I learned from working with incarcerated populations is that having a good understanding of leisure and implementing it can be a coping skill, especially through transitions. Prison re-entry to society is a major transition in one's life. However, we all experience transitions whether big or small. Sometimes we have control of them and other times we don't.

Waking up every day is a new transition. Every minute is a transition. Taking a new job, retiring, going to school, finishing school, relocating, recovering from an illness, bereavement, having a new baby are just some of the transitions we encounter and there is an unknown associated with them. A satisfying leisure life can help an individual take control of part of that unknown. It also gives the opportunity for choice, which is often limited in other aspects of our lives, like during our work.

Improving our relationship with leisure can also reduce job stress, improve work-related skills, increase tolerance and understanding and enhance decision-making

Here's the link to the rest of the article

LOOKING AHEAD

This summer we will run not one but two summer programs. Leadership and Discipleship in the Wilderness (LDW), the 40 day trip that Joy and I have led several times to the mountains of Wyoming or the water of Canada, is growing.

This year CCO is hoping to offer both the Canada and the Wyoming versions! We have assembled two instructors teams and they have begun to interview students. After leading a trip in May, Joy will spend the summer in the office.

I will be heading out as one of the instructors for the Canada trip. I look forward to working with younger team of eager up-and-coming instructors. Another exciting development we are seeing in the summer programs is the growing numbers of applicants who are about to graduate. On last year's trip, almost half of the participants were graduating seniors. The pattern is even more pronounced this year. I am excited to work with these students as they consider the transition out of college to the work world.

~Francois

PRESS RELEASE

Since 1995 Leadership and Discipleship in the Wilderness, the 4-6 week trip CCO takes to WY and Canada each summer, has also offered students the opportunity to become certified Outdoor Leaders through the Wilderness Education Association, the only organization in the country to offer this type of certification.

CCO receives Wilderness Education Association 2008 Affiliate Award

(Pittsburgh) March 17, 2008 — The CCO (Coalition for Christian Outreach) has received the 2008 Affiliate Award from the Wilderness Education Association (WEA), a national outdoor education organization.

“I am pleased to report that your organization has set an example, in many regards, for what an outstanding WEA Affiliate should be,” writes Ivan Bartha, Coordinator for Experiential Programs at St. Cloud State University and Affiliate Representative of the WEA. (read more)

Alternative Spring Break

Spring Break Trips are typically a time for college students to travel with friends, let their hair down, and blow off steam that has built up under the heat and pressure of mid-terms and academic fatigue. It’s been a few years since I was actually on campus, so I looked up what MTV was promoting these days...here’s what MTV’s Spring Break website called “Must-have’s”:

Floating Party Table
Treading water is hard. Especially when you've got a bottle of ummm... juice in each hand. Unless you have four arms. But come on. Nobody has that. So get this floating bar thing. It's a bar that goes in the water. A bar where you can drink your juice without drowning.

Essential Foreign Swear Words by Emma Burgess
Not much explanation needed here. If you're headed to some exotic spring break destination, chances are at some point you're gonna need to know how to tell the locals to &#$@ off.

D’ya think students need an alternative?

I had the privilege of taking 8 students to Joshua Tree National Park last week for an alternative spring break trip that offers a different atmosphere from Miami Beach and Cancun. We still had sun, but rather than substance abuse, there was substance to our conversations and friendships. Rather than tying one on each night, we tied into climbing ropes each morning!

In addition to providing an alternative spring break, I had the privilege of mentoring two student leaders -Jeremy and Lauren. They are part of Ohio Wesleyan University’s Outdoor Ministry Team (OWU’s OMT!) They began planning for the trip in November with their campus minister beginning in November. Once on the trip, OLT staff Steve N. and I took the role of mentor/leader-developers for Jeremy and Lauren. We met with them each day and helped them lead the group effectively.

The director of OWU’s OMT said this of Jeremy and Lauren after he spoke with them about their spring break experience: “Their lives are on a new trajectory as a result of this past week.” They are thinking differently about how their gifts of leadership can be used in God’s Kingdom.

Thank you for your prayers and support that make it possible for me to be part of the story in which students like Lauren and Jeremy get a glimpse of their role in the redemption of God’s Kingdom.

~ Joy