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| News - Section Section 13 Campout Board Meeting Report Tom & Kathy Dauer August, 2003 Dear Friends and Lovers, We recognize that many things in Marriage Encounter are done differently in different parts of the country. Returning from our latest Section Board Meeting we’re thinking that this meeting indeed might be somewhat different from most. Section 13 Executive couples and teams spent the weekend camped in the central Idaho mountains, to meet and conduct our normal business while being in relationship with the awesome community of the Snake River Encounter (Southern Idaho, Southeastern Oregon). For those unacquainted with the geography of Section 13 in Northwest US, the Encounters cover the states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. We normally try to host our quarterly Section Board meetings in the more populous and centrally located encounters, which means that typically the meetings are hosted in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Tacoma, and Spokane, Washington. About 10 years ago a new idea was tried and the Board Meeting was moved to one of the more remote areas of the Section. In order to accommodate the long distances to travel, it was combined with camping / vacation, it included families, and it gave the outlying Encounter Communities an opportunity to host a board meeting. That first meeting proved to be an exciting as well as memorable experience, and it’s become somewhat of a tradition, every other year or so, to have a campout / meeting somewhere in the Great Northwest. This year the Snake River Encounter (look on the map, the “River of No Return” country, Idaho) asked to host the meeting, and found a wonderful campground at Warm Lake, Idaho. Friday of the weekend several of the “local” couples started to arrive and prep the area to convert the national forest into a WWME Section Board Meeting and Revival camp, complete with a 40 foot “revival tent.” As the campers and Exec Teams began to arrive, we were beset with a disappointing disaster when, while one of the campers was being backed in, Martha Ryland tripped over a concrete and fractured her ankle. She was air lifted 100 miles to Boise, Idaho to the nearest major hospital. The rest of the campers arrived and got set up without any other major problems. The meeting was kicked off with a presentation by Jack and Karen Baker and Fr. John Rashford sharing their response to what are the “sacred places” in our lives. This was based on one of the presentations from the WWME Convention 2003,. Saturday morning greeted us all with clear skies and bright sunshine, along with crisp temperatures hovering in the 40’s. We began the day celebrating mass in our community tent, followed by the most wonderful breakfast cooked by the Southern Idaho Dutch Oven Chieftains. The local men-folk have perfected their technique of cooking in large Dutch Ovens, smothered in hot charcoal. They overwhelmed us as they cooked their favorite outdoor meals. A technique perfected on their many deer and elk hunting trips into the high country. As the day heated up to the mid 90’s, the Board met to go through a packed agenda while the hosting community entertained the children of all ages. Scavenger hunts, coloring and banner decorating, volleyball, and games of all sorts kept the children entertained while the adults were entertained with the work of Marriage Encounter. As anyone knows, a canvas tent gets very hot in 90 degree sunshine, so we had to break in the middle of the afternoon for a plunge into the “coooool” but refreshing lake, fight off the kids with their buckets and water guns, and just generally soak in God’s country. After dinner Rich and Mary Ann Breshears invited everyone into the wonderful world of Family Dialogue. How does a ‘scared’ face look, or a ‘funny’ face. How does your face look if you see a bear? How does your parent’s face look when they are sad? The entire community then broke up into their families and groups of adult families to dialogue with pens and crayons on “Draw a picture of my favorite memory of the campout and what does my feeling ‘face’ look like?” Finally we ended the day with a campfire, s’mores, and songs until everyone lazily drifted off to a good, hearty sleep. Sunday mass in the great outdoors with the birds chirping and chipmunks running in under the tent must be the way Jesus had in mind to worship together. The saddest time of the entire weekend was the breaking of camp. It’s hard to pack up all of the gear and say good-byes to old friends and new friends, to those you shared mass with and sticky s’mores and tents and campers for the weekend. As a result of the fabulous times from some of the earlier meetings, some of the families are committed to being part of the “Section Board Meeting Campout” even though their Encounter isn’t hosting. Driving more than 500 miles to help and be part of the weekend isn’t an impossibility, it’s just part of the territory when you live, and camp, in Section 13. Upon returning home to the modern technical world our email message told of how the Local Area Community were ousted from their post campout meeting. A forest fire had started just 1.5 miles from the camp site where the meeting was held. With Much Love,
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