TYME OUT Blogs!

With the warm weather of the past several days many of us have already begun to turn our attention to thoughts of summer, family vacations, good times with friends and spending time outdoors. Why not include a TYME OUT summer camp as part of your plans this year? Our camps offer youth the opportunity to focus on an area of particular interest while making new friends and enjoying a variety of fun and exciting summer camp activities.

TYME OUT Youth Center offers a variety of summer camps for middle school youth. While some of our camps are more secular in nature, we also offer 2 Catholic camps that promote on-going faith development in a fun environment. Through our Catholic summer camps, the TYME OUT mission of being “dedicated to the faith formation and character development of youth, empowering them to reach the fullness of their potential as individuals created in God’s image” continues year round.

Our PraiseTYME camp opens youth to a variety ways to worship God through song, in a  diversity of prayer styles, and through the creative incorporation of drama and art. Our other faith-based camp, Young Catholic Stewards camp offers youth the opportunity to grow in an appreciation of who we are as people created in God’s image, an awareness of the beauty and goodness of God’s creation, and a sense of our own responsibility to be stewards of God’s creation.

Please see the attached flyer for more information about these 2 camps.

praisetyme-ycs_flyer1.pdf

Each of TYME OUT’s summer camps, whether secular or faith-based, seeks to foster development in the areas of character, confidence and community. If you are interested in finding out more about any of our camps, please contact our Camp Director, Nick Maske, at 262-966-1800.

Peace

Jim

Are you searching for a challenge but unwilling to drop a couple grand on an adventure vacation to some remote wilderness location? Did you realize that right here in the bucolic setting of Stone Bank, Wisconsin you can construct a bridge to help you ford a raging river, save the environment by safely transporting toxic oil sludge through a makeshift pipeline, safeguard the human race by transferring radioactive pellets into a nuclear containment device, navigate a field of searing razor-sharp shells, or safely guide a teammate through an explosive minefield? You might well wonder where all this is possible? Why, in the TYME OUT gym, of course.

The TYME OUT challenge course and a little imagination make all this possible for some of the retreat groups that come through our doors. Retreatants have the opportunity to work together to build teamwork, strategize, develop effective communication skills and discuss ways to apply these qualities to real-life situations. Recent groups to make use of the challenge course included a group from Marian University and another from Blessed Savior School, which just goes to show that the various challenges have something to offer groups of all ages.

Peace

Jim

Perhaps one of the more difficult aspects of going on retreat isn’t getting teens to bond as a group, or even to open up and engage in the retreat itself, but in developing ways to keep that retreat feeling alive once everyone returns to the busyness and routine of their lives. Retreats can be powerful, transformative experiences in which participants have the opportunity to explore their spirituality more deeply and benefit from sharing that faith experience with others. Unfortunately, given the hectic pace of modern life and the fact that you may only see the teens in your group every couple weeks, it is all too easy for a retreat experience to fade into the background.

Here are just a couple ideas for carrying the impact of your retreat into the daily lives of the teens in your group.

• Incorporate ideas and discussions from the retreat into your regular programs and meetings with the teens in your parish or school.

• Offer a follow-up day or evening of reflection where teens can explore more deeply a topic from the retreat. Offering this before or after a Mass that teens usually attend can increase participation and it never hurts to provide pizza or other snacks.

• Meet the teens where they are; this often means making use of technologies that can seem daunting to some of us, but which come naturally to today’s youth. If your parish/school has a webpage, perhaps you can post pictures, reflections, or topics for discussion on them. Depending on the policies of your parish/school, you may already have or could create a blog or facebook page where you can post retreat-related materials. These technologies also allow the youth in your group to post their own comments and reflections. (Many also have features that allow you to review comments before they are posted to the web).

• Invite the parish community to coffee and donuts after one of the weekend Masses and give the teens an opportunity to share their retreat experiences with the parish. This is especially nice if the parish helped subsidize the cost of the retreat, and it gives the rest of the community an insight into the depth of faith of the parish’s young people.

• Make use of post-retreat resources that already exist. For example, I’ve personally made use of a book available through Paulist Press and written by Thomas Hart titled, “Coming Down the Mountain: How to Turn Your Retreat into Everyday Living.” And, there are many more out there that can offer helpful tips.

Perhaps you have your own ideas that others could benefit from, so please feel free to comment and leave your own suggestions for ways to keep that retreat feeling alive.

Peace,
Jim

On October 21st, 9th graders from The Professional Learning Institute (an MPS charter school located on 24th and Wisconsin) came to TYME OUT Youth Center to experience a secular version of our Character Retreat. Perhaps unsure as to what to expect, the students entered the building quietly and respectfully, but within a few minutes of welcoming and introductions the students quickly warmed up for what was to be a day of quality discussions and FUN!

 The students brought a sense of enthusiasm to the day’s activities. Their willingness to have fun with each other while working together to problem solve was contagious. While the joking and laughter came easily, the teens were quick to adopt a more serious and thoughtful attitude while processing what took place during the activities. This thoughtful discussion carried over into other opportunities to dialogue about serious issues in their small groups. Their openness in speaking candidly about the struggles they face brought a fresh perspective and unique flavor to the discussion topics.

Thanks to the 9th grade class of The Professional Learning Institute for your openness, respectful behavior, gratitude and your willingness to smile and have fun. I look forward to seeing you again.

TYME OUT staff will be visiting the PLI for a morning assembly on November 25th and welcoming more students for an overnight retreat in December.

Peace

Jim