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.

The Kayak-A-Thon is coming, the Kayak-A-Thon is coming!

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.

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!