Lead the Escape, 2009 CFC Conference Tour

The 2009 Communicators For Christ Conference Tour is titled Lead the Escape. Kali and I have been to two of the conferences, and leave for the last conference of the year tomorrow. The twelve-member intern team came to our church last week and presented their drama by the same name. We love the interns and have learned and had a fun time with them at the conferences and here at home.

This is Josh. He teaches Team Policy and oversees Model U. N.. He is also the tournament director, along with Robin. They even do a little ditty called: Josh and Robin, to the tune of Rockin' Robin. :O)


Robin :)

Robin and Kelsea during Gecco, a global environmental, economical, and financial simulation.

Kelsea in Lead the Escape.



This is Eric. He teaches media track along with Katie Mac.

Katie Mac and Socrates :O).




Tim - reminiscent of the A.N.N.O.U.N.C.E.MENT Song :), which he sang with Janie.


Janie doing a snippet of her interp.

Phil - the man of 1000 faces. . . .

. . . . and juggler extraordinaire.


Kristen. She was pretty much everywhere!

Here is Austin. He collects gnomes, but I can't recall if they are Garden Gnomes or Lawn Gnomes . . . .

. . . and Gerald, Austin's gnome!

Hannah taught a lot of classes and was a vital part of the Greenies, during Gecco.

The Greenies consisted of Katie Anne, Kali, and Hannah.

Katie Anne was really funny! and also did some dramatic bits.


Justin held the new position of Tour Manager. I know he was invaluable to the team.

And I couldn't make a post regarding anything to do with Communicators For Christ without including a photo of the beautiful Mrs. Moon, the founder and leader of CFC.

(An interesting side note * * * the homeschoolers that follow my blog may recognize the name Teresa Moon. She wrote a book that I used when Kali was in elementary school - years before we heard of Communicators For Christ. Mrs. Moon wrote the book Evaluating For Excellence: A Handbook for Evaluating Student Progress.)

Thanks to all the interns, Justin, and Mrs. Moon for a great conference experience! We are praying for God to bless your efforts as you encourage young people to step away from artificial communication to authentic communication for Christ. Love you all so much!

Finally in Naples

Kali and I finally made it to Naples late this morning. We started out last night after her class was finished and drove a couple hours before stopping for the night. Then up early this morning. Not my favorite time of day - at all. I don't typically do six o'clock in the morning. Six o'clock at night I can do all day, just not six o'clock in the morning. Interstate traffic was bad. A light rain caused big trouble. We came across a total of six major accidents. Traffic was backed up literally for miles in both directions. Not good. Needless to say - we were late arriving to the conference. At least we got there before lunch, and that was a good thing. I say "good" because today's lunch was from Panera Bread. Yummo!

We had fun debate classes today. Lots of high energy kids...whoa! Should be an interesting week :O). Tomorrow we work on Public Forum debating.

You probably won't get any more posts this week. And you definitely won't get any photos. Sorry. We are staying in a lovely hotel. A lovely hotel with stinky internet service. I am not lieing - it took over a full minute just to open my hotmail account. That didn't even include trying to read any mail. I'll be thankful to click submit on this post and just say, "have a great week! I'll be in touch Monday!"

A Visit to the Ranch

A couple days ago, Jason and Bobbie came out to eat lunch and visit the ranch. Once we got in past the horses, we fed treats to Mona and Hershey.

They seriously love treats! And they will eat treats as long as you will feed them.

Bobbie was funny. When we told her you could lay on the donkeys, or hug on them, she just plopped right onto Mona's back! The donkeys love the attention! They are so sweet and loving!

Somewhere about here, Bobbie wanted to know if Mona and Hershey knew any tricks. I told her I wanted to teach Hershey how to walk through a hula hoop. So, Kali went out to the car and got my hula hoop that I use as a prop on photo shoots, and we began.

The first thing you do is to select your target. Sorry, Hershey, but you are the smallest and most likely to fit!

Next, you terrorize, I mean catch your target so you can teach her this really cool trick!

Just look at my baby run! :O) Cracks me up!

Hershey: Save me, Mona!

You may have to practice a little diversionary tactic while your partner gets set up with a handful of treats.

Zero in on your target . . . .

. . . . bribe them with treats . . . .

. . . then begin the process!

The thought is to "treat" your way through, one body part at a time!

First leg through . . . .

. . . . second leg and torso through . . . .

. . . . come on, Hershey! . . . .

. . . . and, she's through the hoop! Whoo!Hoo! (Not as easy as it looks here, but not as hard as I figured it would be, either!)

After all that hard work, you need a little down time to relax. I know! Let's wrestle Jason to the ground! hahaha! Sorry, son! Actually, Jason can give as good as he gets, I just didn't get a picture of him doing it. I was too busy laughing!

Mona: Hey, Heshey! I think that Bobbie-girl is OK! Look at her put a good one on Jason!

Gus: I wonder if Jason needs help??? Neigh! He can handle it! but I'm here just in case!

Rascal: I don't care, just stay away from my food! and that means you, too, Mona!

Well, everyone's been loved on, played with, hugged, kissed, petted, fed, and treated! even tricked!

So let's head on home! It's time to call it a day.


This week's You Capture challenge was Photographer's Choice. To check out a whole bunch of cool photos and stories, click here.