TYME OUT Blogs!

TYME OUT is celebrating a significant anniversary, 30 years.  Throughout this anniversary year we will share our story of these last 30 years.   I would like to share the story of how TYME OUT began as told from our founder’s point of view.  Here is how Sister Kieran described the beginning in 2005

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“The story of TYME OUT is a twenty-year saga of dreams, dedication, and dogged determination. The dreaming started in the late 1970’s when Sister Lucy Nigh and I were driving back from a week at Camp Vista. We wanted to create a place where teens could come to experience the depths of friendship, faith, and fun that we had just felt at camp. We also thought this might be a good way to fill some of the empty space at the SSND Motherhouse at Mequon.

That day in the car we brainstormed a name for our dream, and came up with TYME OUT: Total Youth Ministry Experience – Openness, Understanding, Trust. A youth retreat, we felt, was to be like the time out in a game – a time to stop the ordinary game of life, to huddle with teammates, to listen to the Big Coach, God, and to make plans for playing the game better.  We spent much of 1979 creating the center - making the beanbags, banners, and mushroom stools (some of which are still in use today) - and opened the doors in September of 1980. Because the opening of the center coincided with the diocesan decision to move confirmation to high school and to require a retreat in preparation for the sacrament, our calendar was filled immediately. But our first major hurtle was only months away. In January, the School Sisters of Notre Dame decided to put the motherhouse up for sale.

“That was the beginning almost 30 years ago.  The story continues, and I will share more in the coming months.  However, we’ve been “huddling up with the big coach, God” and the youth sent to us for 30 years, thanks to Sister Kieran’s desire to create a place for youth.  Thank you Sister Kieran for your direction in founding this “TYME OUT” for kids.       Peace,      Margie

God is calling teens to remarkable things everyday. Your openhandedness allows TYME OUT to provide them with a ‘retreat’ ‘tyme away’ to hear God’s voice, to contemplate the call with guidance and direct them toward the infinite ways they might respond.

Your support will touch the hearts and minds of more than 7,000 young people. Please rest assured that every dollar and every hour devoted to TYME OUT is a solid investment in the spiritual future of our youth. Your generous stewardship is making our mission a reality. 

You have listened to God’s voice with your heart and responded prayerfully with your time, talent and treasure.                

On behalf of TYME OUT and the youth we serve, may God bless you and your loved ones. 

In gratitude,

Kathy Wisnefski  -   Director of Development 

 Come this fall you will see a new face around the halls of TYME OUT.  Becca Rauworth joined the retreat team this week and is eagerly anticipating her first retreats as a full fledged member of the TYME OUT Community.

Becca is no stranger to TYME OUT or retreats, however.  In fact, she’s been out to TYME OUT on retreats with St. Joe’s parish in Big Bend, as well as worked in multiple other youth ministry settings as well.  Becca says that all of her experiences seem to have led perfectly to this new role and truly sees her coming to TYME OUT as a calling.  “I had a strong calling from a young age that God was going to use my life, my experiences, and the things I’ve learned to help God impact the lives of other teenagers. I hope to finally get to share the love and depth of God with people on a daily basis. I also hope to help others see God in their everyday lives no matter how little (whisper in the wind) or major (burning bush) he is present.”

I thought it might be interesting for you to hear about what an average week in the life of a retreat center was like.  So I will look at the week of September 21st to the 27th as an example and present this week from many perspectives.  So here goes.

Ben, Executive Director:  The Board meeting was Tuesday of this week and that always takes a certain amount of preparation from Ben to have an organized meeting.  Besides that meeting, there was the admin team meeting, the hospitality team meeting and attending Welcome Back Day at the Diocese.  Ben never seems to have a lack of meetings in any given week.

Margie, Program Administrator:  Besides doing the billing of the 3 retreats which had been here the weekend before, and preparing the calendar for the month of October, and scheduling the retreats that were being called in,  Margie was getting ready for an 8th grade retreat she was leading off site in Waukegan, Illinois.    The Academy of Our Lady School was eagerly awaiting their first retreat experience while Margie was trying to remember all the things she needed to bring to make that experience special for them.  TYME OUT has just begun doing off site programming and so many new factors have to be considered.   The end result was great! 

Lea, Retreat Diector:  Lea led St. Bruno on their leadership overnight experience, Thursday to Friday.  The 24 students and adults got to experience many activities which forced them to look at what a leader would do in all kinds of situations.  St. Bruno has been bringing their 8th grade for an overnight retreat for many years and TYME OUT greatly appreciates it.  Besides that, Lea got ready to host 84 youth and adults from the Milwaukee Children’s choir who arrived shortly after St. Bruno left and stayed until Saturday afternoon.  She was finally able to make her way home after a job well done.

Marc, Retreat Director:  Marc led a group of 8th graders from St. Alphonsus on a day retreat where he focused on, how to become a caring class.  Many Catholic day schools ask us to do something on this theme at the beginning of the school year for their 8th grade so that they will set an example for the rest of the school.  The group stayed until 5:00pm to take advantage of Marc’s expertise in this area.   

Jen, Head Cook:  As you can imagine, all the groups that come to our building have to be fed.  You know you can do a really great retreat but if the group is not fed well, then the retreat will not be considered a success.  Well, we never have to worry about that because the food is always excellent and more than enough.  One of the most commonly heard comments at the end of a retreat is, “I ate too much.”  That can only mean that the food was so good that they kept eating.

Brenda, Head of Housekeeping:  As groups come and go throughout the week, Brenda is always there to reset the building for the next group.  Whether it is vacumming, doing wash, resupplying the cabinets, or dusting, we always know that the building will be in spic and span shape when the next group arrives.  That is probably why we always get rated so high for building cleanliness on our evaluations.  Brenda is responsible for all of that.

Now that is not our entire staff and so you only have a partial view of what we do during a week, but it gives you a fairly clear idea of how busy our weeks can be.  We’re not complaining!  We love it that way.

Margie