Saturday will be the 8th Annual Kayak-A-Thon to raise money for CCO's Outdoor Leadership Team. This year we will have 25 paddlers! Put in for the first group will be around 7:30 am from the Southside Park. Most people will try to paddle between 20 and 30 miles on Pittsburgh's Three Rivers. This year's event is being coordinated by Melissa Shoup, Montreat College senior who participated in last summer's trip to Canada with Francois and has spent the fall doing her internship with Joy in the CCO office. She has done a fantastic job.
Here's the press release about the event.
Weather is looking good for Saturday. See you on the rivers.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
SSOLTAP
I'd like to introduce you to the Support Staff of the Outdoor Leadership Team Around Pittsburgh (aka SSOLTAP, pronounced "soul-tap). This is the wonderful team of staff that God has given me this year. I feel a tremendous responsibility to pour into these staff and build them up to be faithful to their callings, much like I did with students when I was on campus. It has been a time of stretching and growth for me to lead them this Fall. I believe God has given me this support team for MY support as well as for the OLT at large.
Given that the OLT is 40 people strong - about a 1/4 of the organization doing outdoor ministry - we are in need of a great support team that works behind the scenes to make it possible for students be transformed by meeting God in different ways in the woods and out.
This is Karen. She is the OLT Adminstrator. She just joined staff in August and is responsible for keeping our staff informed of changes and news about trainings, taking and distributing notes from our meetings, and managing the details for training events. She is also a part time social worker, who loves to be with people and live out her faith in active ways. Karen graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, where she was involved in the CCO's chapel-based ministry called the Outdoor Ministry Team. We are so glad to have her on staff!
This is Kelly. She is our Leadership and Discipleship in the Wilderness (LDW) Manager. She is in charge of our summer adventure programs for college students to Wyoming and Canada. She was a student on our '07 trip to Canada, and joined staff this past summer after completing an internship with us in the spring. She graduated from Gettysburg College where she was involved in the CCO's church-based ministry there. It's rare to find Kelly without a big smile on her face, and we are so fortunate to have her on the team!
Next Post: a few more profiles from SSOLTAP!
Given that the OLT is 40 people strong - about a 1/4 of the organization doing outdoor ministry - we are in need of a great support team that works behind the scenes to make it possible for students be transformed by meeting God in different ways in the woods and out.
This is Karen. She is the OLT Adminstrator. She just joined staff in August and is responsible for keeping our staff informed of changes and news about trainings, taking and distributing notes from our meetings, and managing the details for training events. She is also a part time social worker, who loves to be with people and live out her faith in active ways. Karen graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, where she was involved in the CCO's chapel-based ministry called the Outdoor Ministry Team. We are so glad to have her on staff!
This is Kelly. She is our Leadership and Discipleship in the Wilderness (LDW) Manager. She is in charge of our summer adventure programs for college students to Wyoming and Canada. She was a student on our '07 trip to Canada, and joined staff this past summer after completing an internship with us in the spring. She graduated from Gettysburg College where she was involved in the CCO's church-based ministry there. It's rare to find Kelly without a big smile on her face, and we are so fortunate to have her on the team!
Next Post: a few more profiles from SSOLTAP!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Working Restfully
I spent a lot of time reading and reflecting this summer on how to work more restfully. That simply means to work at a pace that allows me to breathe and be attentive and aware of God’s work in and through me. In contrast, I was working last year with PRODUCTIVITY as my only goal. And, not just my goal, but my measure of success! I had a To Do list way too long for one person, and I would buckle down each day and try and cross as many things off that list as possible. At the end of the year, I wondered what of importance or consequence had I really fulfilled when all I was attending to was the urgent?!
I want to pursue this way of work and life so I can remain for the long-haul. I don’t know how long God would have me stay in the CCO, but I am open. It is not uncommon to hear about burn-out in ministry. Some believe that since it is “God’s work” that it either makes you immune to becoming tired or that there is no good reason to put limits on how hard you work (health of body, mind, spirit, family, relationships, etc.) I believe the evidence that working restfully is actually more effective. It doesn’t mean I don't work hard. It means I work well.
So, I am learning to manage my priorities better, to ask for help and be realistic about what one person can or should accomplish. And, I am encouraging my staff team of eight to do the same. Its not just my goal to set up a sustainable pattern of work for me, but also for the Outdoor Leadership Team as a whole. We have good work to do and I want it to keep going for a long time.
Please continue to pray for me and Francois as we seek to be faithful with what God has given us in our time, money, skills, and even our home. That none of these things takes our focus or becomes what we live for, but that we live for Jesus Christ, and give him thanks for the grace to figure it out on the journey.
You may want to check out these books:
- Keeping the Sabbath Wholly, Marva Dawn
- Catch Your Breath, Don Postema
- Practicing the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence
And this website:
http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
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!
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!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Monday, May 05, 2008
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
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
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