Greetings from Holmes!

Our 2011 summer camp season has just begun! This is the first of a handful of semi-regular updates from the Face to Face / Faith to Faith program to try to keep you connected to what's happening up at Holmes over the next three weeks.

25 home group leaders and camp staff arrived  in NYC on Saturday night hailing from Northern Ireland, South Africa, the Middle East, and the U.S. to get camp started.

Our first week at Holmes gives our staffers a chance to meet, get acquainted with eachother, and prep for the 100 or so campers arriving this weekend from around the world. During staff week we run through many of the experiential programs that the participants go through to practice our facilitation, we make the final schedule for the two-week intensive, and we do a variety of team-building and skill building exercises.

• Here's what the staff did on Sunday:
• 1. Played a variety of trust and team-building games, including a small circle where the person in the middle, with eyes closed, 'falls' around while the circle supports him/her; "crossing the river" - getting across a large room with only five chairs.
• 2. Made "personal timelines" of their life story and shared them with the entire group
• 3. Took a tour around camp to get to know all the buildings and areas
• 4. Discussed all the different roles that different counselors have: leadership team, dialogue facilitators, cabin counselors, area specialists, etc.
• 5. Created a 'social contract' for how they'll work together as staff
• 6. Introduced an exercise called "perspective squares" in which participants explain how many squares they see on a 4x4 grid of squares, which introduces the notion of multiple perspectives of a single experience.

It was a full first day, especially as most of the staff are still getting over jet lag. For future updates, check back here regularly.

There is much to do before the participants arrive on Sunday!