Leadership Training Conference
I have much to catch up. I can't believe it's been nearly two months since I've written here. I don't usually work full time but beginning the last week of May I've worked every day and been totally exhausted when I got home. I've worked every Monday to Friday except the first week of July when I went to a Leadership Training Conference in Calgary. My next few posts will be sharing things I learned while there.
I have been interested in participating in leadership of a particular program ever since I took the course several years ago. Originally designed for those struggling with same-sex attraction, it has been modified and opened to anyone who is sexually or relationonally broken and really, that is all of us. My particular passion is to help those who struggle the way I have and I want all the tools I can gain to achieve that goal. The program I've been involved in is an excellent beginning. I'm so excited about the way God uses it to bring healing to people's lives including my own.
The conference centre was outside of Calgary. Where, exactly, was the problem. We’d been furnished a map but it was hard to match their map with the city map. I found the highway and proceeded out of town on an undivided, two-lane highway. Before me, as I left the city limits, was the seemingly unbreachable wall of the Canadian Rockies—-uncountable snow-capped peaks stretching as far as the eye could see, north, south and west. They are so beautiful!
I found the turn-off to the conference centre, rolled my eyes at the ubiquitous oil pipeline emerging briefly from the corner of the fenced-in ranchland, and continued down a narrow paved road until I was greeted by a shaded woodland, entered by a winding, gravel road over which stood a carved, wooden sign naming the place. Alongside the road, as I proceeded, were further carved-in-wood, shaped-like-icthus (fish) signs telling me what speed to go, where the parking lot was, etc.
There weren’t many cars. Most people had flown in and arranged for a shuttle to bring them from the airport. I schlepped my many bags over my shoulder and into my hands and trundled to the lodge, African violet very carefully placed, poking out of the top of one bag so it wouldn’t get damaged. The doorway was teaming with people I’d never met before who welcomed me with enthusiastic smiles, bug spray and assistance in carrying my load to my room on the third floor of another building—no elevators.
Each participant in the conference was placed with a roommate they didn’t know. All the gals from Winnipeg were on my floor but we were all in separate rooms. The rooms were nice, like small hotel rooms with two beds, a closet, desk and washroom. Every two rooms shared a shower which was accessible through the hall. Because I arrived before my roommate, I chose the double bed over the single. After all, I had my giant teddy bear to consider.
The conference centre consists of several rustic-looking but modern buildings connected by paving stone walkways which curved through the spruce tree forest. On a slight hill, the main building was two levels, the dining room on the bottom with patio doors facing an expansive lawn which gave the impression of being in a city park complete with picnic tables, deep-seated wooden lawn chairs and bug spray cans liberally dispensed throughout. It was hot and sunny the entire week and so the shaded patio along the width of the building was a welcome place for me to sit and enjoy watching the others play Frisbee, volleyball or chat in small clusters of two or three. Some of the leaders had brought their families and so there were playing children from toddlers to early teens to watch and enjoy as well.
Dinner was served not long after I was finished unpacking and what a sight to behold! It looked so elegant with its white table cloths and royal blue napkins tucked into water glasses. Service was camp style. You pick up a tray and accept or reject (and go hungry) the food they are offering. The food was always good and very well-balanced nutritionally. I watched carefully through the week to see what they served to get an idea of what menus to plan for the two weeks I’m cooking at Rock Lake in August. There was always a salad of some sort—fruit for breakfast and green leafy stuff (lettuce, cabbage, spinach, romaine, etc.) for the other meals. We were told the cooks prayed for us during our sessions, which was a real blessing to me and how friendly they were!
It was always the “luck of the draw” who you got to sit with at meals. The tables held four to eight people and, depending on when you arrived for meals, the tables of the people you knew and wanted to sit with might be full already. Or they might be empty because you arrived before everyone else. It was a great way to meet people though. I’m guessing there were about 80-90 people from British Columbia on the west coast to New Brunswick on the east, from the Yukon in the north to Las Vegas in the south. The people I got to know best were those from Winnipeg (I didn’t know any of them well at all and still don’t, really), those in my small group (more on that later) and my roommate.
Our schedule was packed. We started sessions at 9 a.m. and didn’t usually finish till 10 p.m. It was a long day. The first four full days had the following schedule:
9:00 – 11:00 Session
11:00 – 11:15 Break (just long enough to go to the washroom and get to the next place
11:15 – 12:30 Small Groups
12:30 – 2:00 Lunch and Free Time (usually taken up by continuing conversation started at lunch time)
2:00 – 3:15 Session
3:15 – 3:30 Break (as above)
3:30 – 4:45 Small Groups
4:45 – 7:15 Dinner and Free Time (as above)
7:15 – 10:00 Session.
The morning and evening sessions began with a good 45 minutes or so of worship. The worship leader was one young man with a guitar, an amp and an overhead projector but was he GOOD! Wow! Those times of worship were so powerful. There were several props to worship as well. One was a collection of chiffon scarves/cloths that sat heaped in a front corner of the room for people to pick up and wave as they sang and/or danced. The other was an enormous canvas draped over two long folding tables pushed together. The canvass was long enough that each day a new piece was rolled onto the table and the painted part rolled up on the floor. A variety of acrylic paints, brushes and knives (not sure of the proper name) were provided so people could paint their worship to God or their thoughts and feelings about what was happening as they processed what they heard or what they were discovering about themselves.
It promised to be a full but excellent week.
I have been interested in participating in leadership of a particular program ever since I took the course several years ago. Originally designed for those struggling with same-sex attraction, it has been modified and opened to anyone who is sexually or relationonally broken and really, that is all of us. My particular passion is to help those who struggle the way I have and I want all the tools I can gain to achieve that goal. The program I've been involved in is an excellent beginning. I'm so excited about the way God uses it to bring healing to people's lives including my own.
The conference centre was outside of Calgary. Where, exactly, was the problem. We’d been furnished a map but it was hard to match their map with the city map. I found the highway and proceeded out of town on an undivided, two-lane highway. Before me, as I left the city limits, was the seemingly unbreachable wall of the Canadian Rockies—-uncountable snow-capped peaks stretching as far as the eye could see, north, south and west. They are so beautiful!
I found the turn-off to the conference centre, rolled my eyes at the ubiquitous oil pipeline emerging briefly from the corner of the fenced-in ranchland, and continued down a narrow paved road until I was greeted by a shaded woodland, entered by a winding, gravel road over which stood a carved, wooden sign naming the place. Alongside the road, as I proceeded, were further carved-in-wood, shaped-like-icthus (fish) signs telling me what speed to go, where the parking lot was, etc.
There weren’t many cars. Most people had flown in and arranged for a shuttle to bring them from the airport. I schlepped my many bags over my shoulder and into my hands and trundled to the lodge, African violet very carefully placed, poking out of the top of one bag so it wouldn’t get damaged. The doorway was teaming with people I’d never met before who welcomed me with enthusiastic smiles, bug spray and assistance in carrying my load to my room on the third floor of another building—no elevators.
Each participant in the conference was placed with a roommate they didn’t know. All the gals from Winnipeg were on my floor but we were all in separate rooms. The rooms were nice, like small hotel rooms with two beds, a closet, desk and washroom. Every two rooms shared a shower which was accessible through the hall. Because I arrived before my roommate, I chose the double bed over the single. After all, I had my giant teddy bear to consider.
The conference centre consists of several rustic-looking but modern buildings connected by paving stone walkways which curved through the spruce tree forest. On a slight hill, the main building was two levels, the dining room on the bottom with patio doors facing an expansive lawn which gave the impression of being in a city park complete with picnic tables, deep-seated wooden lawn chairs and bug spray cans liberally dispensed throughout. It was hot and sunny the entire week and so the shaded patio along the width of the building was a welcome place for me to sit and enjoy watching the others play Frisbee, volleyball or chat in small clusters of two or three. Some of the leaders had brought their families and so there were playing children from toddlers to early teens to watch and enjoy as well.
Dinner was served not long after I was finished unpacking and what a sight to behold! It looked so elegant with its white table cloths and royal blue napkins tucked into water glasses. Service was camp style. You pick up a tray and accept or reject (and go hungry) the food they are offering. The food was always good and very well-balanced nutritionally. I watched carefully through the week to see what they served to get an idea of what menus to plan for the two weeks I’m cooking at Rock Lake in August. There was always a salad of some sort—fruit for breakfast and green leafy stuff (lettuce, cabbage, spinach, romaine, etc.) for the other meals. We were told the cooks prayed for us during our sessions, which was a real blessing to me and how friendly they were!
It was always the “luck of the draw” who you got to sit with at meals. The tables held four to eight people and, depending on when you arrived for meals, the tables of the people you knew and wanted to sit with might be full already. Or they might be empty because you arrived before everyone else. It was a great way to meet people though. I’m guessing there were about 80-90 people from British Columbia on the west coast to New Brunswick on the east, from the Yukon in the north to Las Vegas in the south. The people I got to know best were those from Winnipeg (I didn’t know any of them well at all and still don’t, really), those in my small group (more on that later) and my roommate.
Our schedule was packed. We started sessions at 9 a.m. and didn’t usually finish till 10 p.m. It was a long day. The first four full days had the following schedule:
9:00 – 11:00 Session
11:00 – 11:15 Break (just long enough to go to the washroom and get to the next place
11:15 – 12:30 Small Groups
12:30 – 2:00 Lunch and Free Time (usually taken up by continuing conversation started at lunch time)
2:00 – 3:15 Session
3:15 – 3:30 Break (as above)
3:30 – 4:45 Small Groups
4:45 – 7:15 Dinner and Free Time (as above)
7:15 – 10:00 Session.
The morning and evening sessions began with a good 45 minutes or so of worship. The worship leader was one young man with a guitar, an amp and an overhead projector but was he GOOD! Wow! Those times of worship were so powerful. There were several props to worship as well. One was a collection of chiffon scarves/cloths that sat heaped in a front corner of the room for people to pick up and wave as they sang and/or danced. The other was an enormous canvas draped over two long folding tables pushed together. The canvass was long enough that each day a new piece was rolled onto the table and the painted part rolled up on the floor. A variety of acrylic paints, brushes and knives (not sure of the proper name) were provided so people could paint their worship to God or their thoughts and feelings about what was happening as they processed what they heard or what they were discovering about themselves.
It promised to be a full but excellent week.
posted by Magdaleine at 8:56 PM
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