Thursday, July 17, 2008
Bob Eames: Leading and Kayaking with Style
Bob Eames was back for another exciting week at Snow Mountain Ranch. On Monday evening Bob followed up his previous lecture by delivering a more in-depth analysis of leadership styles. We were encouraged to think more about our personal leadership styles and their interaction with other styles of leadership.
On Wednesday morning a group of the Calvin Staff drove to Grand Lake for some kayaking. We spent about two and a half hours exploring the waters, chasing ducks, jumping in the cold lake and just having a good time with each other and Bob Eames.
Enjoy some of the pictures from the kayaking adventures.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Bob Eames: steak and leadership styles
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This past Monday night we enjoyed a good talk and some great food with Bob Eames. We were told to come a half hour early to our meeting to the cookout shelter with a knife and a fork. This was good news. As we hungrily waited to eat, Bob had us take a quiz about what our leadership style is and what role we prefer to be in with a group setting. The results of the quizzes showed that each student was either a Structural/Acheivement leader, a Cultural/Affiliation leader, or an Informal/Influential leader. Then we discussed in our small groups if the quiz proved to be correct about each other, and we also had to discuss which type of leader would take on which role in grilling food with a group of people (which only added to our hunger!). After this, we ate to our hearts’ content: steak, barbeque chicken, grilled vegetables and potatos, sweet corn, rolls with butter, and pie! Thank you Eames for the break from Commons food!
On Wednesday for our Calvin activity, we enjoyed some more amazing food by going to Hernando’s in Winter Park for pizza with the Eames. We have quickly learned this summer that you can never get enough of their pizza. Following that, we had a campfire at SMR with s’mores. It was a great evening!
The weeks just fly by here at SMR. We are having a hard time believing that most of us only have one month left! Between work, hiking, camping, biking, climbing, Calvin activities, worship services, small groups, one-on-ones, just hanging out, getting to know people, and other things, the time just flies by. We are having a great time!
Don’t forget to check out extra photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/snowmountainranch. There are now two albums.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support as we work and play here at SMR, and please continue to pray for and think of us!
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Finding Your “Sweet Spot” with Henry DeVries
This past Monday we had Henry DeVries come out to deliver the latest of our leadership talks. In his talk, Henry got us to not only consider how we operate as leaders, but also helped break our traditional views of leadership. Typically, we find leadership to be an administrative and organizational (from the front) kind of role. However, leaders can emerge in friendship, encouragement, team building, and working alongside others (from the middle and the back).
What is important, said Henry, is finding your “sweet-spot” and incorporating that role into the various facets of your life. This sweet spot is where you’re happiest, most effective, called to be, and where you most often find yourself. We were also encouraged to look at the perfect model of leadership- Jesus Christ as a servant leader. In all, it was a good combination of the past weeks with some new insight.
On Friday, we had an impromptu cookout outside of Blue Ridge Lodge. Afterwards, we loaded our cars and drove to Grand Lake for fireworks. It’s hard to top fireworks over a still lake on a clear night.
Also, we’ve been asked to put up more pictures from this summer online. For space reasons, we’ve made a picasa page through Google. Here’s the link to those: LCI- PicturesWe will update these as often as we can. You can still read more for a few pictures.
-Dave and Melissa