A Week Without a Conference

This past week, the intern team had a chance to rest and prepare for the remaining conferences and MASTERS.

September 13 – 19, 2009

There’s No Place Like Home

Austin Luce

As the motorhome pulled into the Moons’ driveway, excited shouts of, “We’re home!” rang out. The Moons’ house has become the team’s home away from home. This past week, we went back to Tennessee for a couple of days to relax, do a little work, and restock the motorhome storage cabinets with book table materials (and restock the snack drawer with goodies .

I particularly enjoyed getting to sleep in as late as I wanted, getting a hair cut, and going on a supply run to the grocery store for eggs so that we could bake brownies!

The team started reading the book The Peacemaker together. The book has led to great discussions and will be sure to build the unity of our team.

We have also spent a lot of time this week working on the theme for next year. We’ve brainstormed ideas, had several discussions, and are nearly ready to unveil the theme that will be used this January at the MASTERS conference and through out the next year.

We had a great time time this week, but we’re itching to get back on the road to put on the next eight conferences. We’ll see you there!

Trust me

Katie Mullaney

The other day I jumped off a thirty foot pole. Blind-folded. The fact that I couldn’t see the pole (or the ladder, or the tiny platform at the top) actually made the jump a little bit easier.

Oh, did I forget to mention I was in a harness, connected to a rope, a Doe River Gorge staff member was belaying me below, and Tim Hardy was guiding me the whole way?

The ‘leap of faith’, as the Doe River staff calls the jump, was the dramatic conclusion to the team-building activities the interns participated in this Friday at Doe River Gorge (DRG). The very gracious DRG staff took several hours to lead the team through various activities that both strengthened our trust in each other, and bolstered our effectiveness as a team.

After we flipped over a potato sack/flying carpet, crawled in a line blindfolded through the mud, and partnered up for the leap of faith, we walked down by the river in the rain. As we settled in for dinner, I contemplated the allegorical imagery and powerful impression the exercises had left in my mind. The importance of trust and teamwork was highlighted by the intense experience we went through.

The rest of our time at the gorge on Saturday was spent swimming in, hanging around, and zip-lining into the lake, eating more delicious food, playing disc golf, riding horses, hiking, and whatever other adventurous activities we could get ourselves into.

The experience was unforgettable, the staff was wonderfully hospitable, the rest and relaxation were refreshing, and the lessons we learned will stay with us for the rest of tour and the rest of our lives.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 3:02 pm and is filed under Conference Tour 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.