Summer 07 Young Adult Reader events and adventures

Please scroll down or click on an event for more info.

Hello Urantia enthusiasts of the younger generations!

Before going into detail about specifically young adult happenings, let me say a bit about some conferences that some of us will attend this summer. The Urantia Book Fellowship is sponsoring a ‘Summer Seminar’ (sort of a small study conference) in the suburbs of Chicago [Dominican University in River Forest] July 19-22. Soon after that, there will be a conference, sponsored by the Urantia Association of the US, in Seattle Washington (July 26-29) and a reader ‘campout’ not far from Seattle on Vancouver Island in Canada right after that (July 30-Aug 3)!! (more information on this mini-conference/campout can be found below).

Chicago Young Adult Urantia Gathering July 22-25

The days after the Summer Seminar, some of us will stay in Chicago in order to be part of a small and informal young adult get-together. We hope other young adult readers from the region and beyond will join us, including new friends, who have not been to similar events in the past! This will be an opportunity to get to know other young adult readers, to enjoy Chicago and generally have a great time. We plan to have a few discussions on various themes concerning things like applying the teachings and the younger generations of readers. Maybe we can also do some volunteer work while we are there — plant the flowerbeds or unload some books — like we have in the past when the opportunity has arisen. The gathering will be on the second floor of the building that houses the Urantia Foundation's main office. Please email Tamara (tamara at urantia.org) (who lives on the 2nd floor and is also a young adult reader) if you plan to come and if you might like to sleep on the 2nd floor at The Urantia Foundation. It is right by Lake Michigan and close to downtown, in one of Chicago's most vibrant neighbourhoods. Please get in touch with me if you might make it!

July 26th-29th, 2007 UAUS National Conference Seattle, Washington

“The Magnificent Synergy of Seven” Hosted by Washington State Urantia Association At the Dumas Bay Retreat Centre

We invite you to join with us as we search The Urantia Book for better ways to live in and serve our world.

You are encouraged to complete our registration early and reserve your accommodations. The best views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains will be assigned on a first come first served basis.

Our Conference begins on Thursday, July 26, 2007 with a welcome reception and concludes on Sunday, July 29, 2007, with a Farewell Lunch. The registration fee is $429 and includes rooms, meals and program.

Saturday evening we have arranged a special Northwest Native Experience that you will remember for the rest of your life. This special program is all inclusive with roundtrip bus, ferry, dinner and Native American Program for $75 per person.

For registration information E-mail: Jim Nelson, WSUA Registrar [email protected] OR Call Janiece Hoggatt 206/612-2974

The registration fee is $429 plus $10 each way for airport shuttle and $75 for the Saturday Blake Island NW dinner. Please make checks to:

WSUA: Conference 2007
PO Box 82694
Kenmore, WA 98028

Confirmation and details will be sent by mail. Look for more information on the UAUS Website.

Second Biannual Vancouver Island Urantia Friends Campout!!

Dear friends,

I just received notice of a laid back Urantia camping conference that is going to be happening in late July/early August on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, for the low low price of just $25 Canadian for four nights of camping and conferencing. And that is happening right after the UAUS conference which is being held this year in Seattle. I'm going to go to both of them. They're back to back and so it is perfect timing. Here are the dates:

• UAUS conference is 3 nights: July 26 — 29 in Seattle, WA
• Vancouver Island camping conference is 4 nights: July 30 — Aug. 3rd.

There's more info about the Vancouver Island conference below.

Love,
—Joy Brandt

Hello everyone! We are having another campout at Rathtrevor Beach, near Parksville, on Vancouver Island again!!!

I have booked Monday July 30 to Friday Aug 3 (4 nights). It is a group campsite right beside the mighty ocean and beautiful sandy beach!.

I am hoping people will want to present talks, or worship sessions, or whatever to fill up our days, and of course, bring all your instruments so we can make heavenly music all day and night!

A general cost (based on 20 people) is about $25.00 each. We may have to pay a bit more if there are lots of vehicles. More than twenty people are very welcome, the cost would still be about $25.00 each.

I have to send them money to cover the cost very soon, so if you can come, could you please send me a check for $25.00 Canadian per person ASAP.

My address is:
Debbie Bartman
144 Tait Rd
Nanaimo, BC
V9X 1C3 CANADA

We will each be looking after our own food — will probably have a few potlucks too.

If you are driving from Seattle to Tsawassen and then taking the ferry over to Nanaimo, (Duke Point), the cost is approximately 40 dollars for a normal sized vehicle and about 13 dollars for each adult (12 and over) (Canadian). You need cash or credit card. You can google them at BC Ferries. If you are not driving, I'm sure we could arrange a pick-up at the ferry in Nanaimo, or you could coordinate with one of the people coming from the UA conference.

We have lots of time to work out daily schedules, and if someone wants to coordinate that, please let me know.

I am looking forward to this!!! Our last camp-out was a huge success, and we made lots of new friends as well as reuniting with our old ones.

Please forward this to anyone you think may be interested in coming! And if you can come, send me an email, so I can start a list!

Love, Debbie Bartman [email protected]

Current Requirements for Entry Into Canada

Visas are not required for American Citizens entering Canada from the U.S. You will, however, need:

1. proof of your American Citizenship such as your U.S. passport (For information on obtaining a U.S. passport, check with one of the regional passport agencies located throughout the U.S.) or certified copy of your birth certificate issued by the city, county or state in the U.S. where you were born. If you are a naturalized American Citizen and do not have a passport, you should travel with your naturalization certificate. A driver's license, voter's registration card or Social Security card is NOT valid proof of Citizenship.
2. photo identification, such as a current, valid driver's license.

Single parents, grandparents, or guardians traveling with children often need proof of custody or notarized letters from the other parent authorizing travel. (This is in addition to proof of Citizenship as explained above.) Any person under the age of 18 and traveling alone should carry a letter from his/her parent or guardian authorizing the trip.

Colorado Camping Gathering Aug 8-13

This will be great chance to spend time and enjoy the outdoors with other young adult readers in Colorado's beautiful nature. A close friend who is also a young adult reader is excited to make the large house he is living in available for our gathering, and there are also great spots for camping around the house! The place is only about a twenty-minute drive up into the beautiful mountains outside of Boulder, a short walk from the progressive little town of Nederland. It is high up in awe-inspiring mountain wilderness (9,000 foot elevation!) a great place for all kinds of outdoor activities like hiking, mountain biking and more (more on this further down) that we can enjoy! We also plan to take opportunities to gather together in order to enjoy some Urantia book reading and discussions etc. Those who can only stay for a shorter period can join us as their schedules permit — I imagine some folks will commute up the canyon from the Boulder area. Anna and I will probably arrive the previous weekend and we hope that some others will arrive before the 8th too – let me know! I really look forward to hopefully seeing lots of you guys there and that we will make the most of this opportunity for priceless friendships to grow! The friend who will be hosting us wrote the inspiring text below. We hope that it will help encourage you to make the journey, even if it is a long one, and join us! He has limited access to the internet at the moment so it would be best if folks ask questions or let us know you are coming through contacting me. In Colorado, we plan to spend some relaxing time at a young reader's house in the mountains west of Boulder. The idea is to use the house as a base camp for all kinds of fun activities. There are great mountain bike and hiking trails in the national forest right from the back door. They range from easy and short to unlimited adventure factor. The Continental Divide is very close and those mountains have some beautiful vistas to explore. From up there, you can see all of Boulder and Denver and the plains stretching out to the east. And if you get high enough to see over the other side, you can see range after range of mountains to the horizon out west. Besides biking or hiking, there are lots of other fun things to do. We could go hang out at one of the lakes in the area and have a picnic. We could do some fishing, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, or just spend time relaxing by the water having good discussions and remembering how great life on this crazy world can be. Something else we could do that would be really fun is going tubing down Boulder creek. It would be a great way to have some fun together and cool off on a hot August day. Or it might be fun to take a jeep road up to the top of the Divide and maybe go for a hike or have a little picnic and read a paper. If the timing was right we could even catch one of those amazing sunsets where the sun looks like it melts into the sea of deep blue mountains and the brilliant colors of the clouds give us a glimpse what a truly beautiful creation we live in... There is plenty to do in the little mountain town of Nederland as well. (The photo is the view of town from the treetops at the house.) It has a great music scene — home to Yonder Mountain String Band and a few other great bands. There are cool coffee shops, breakfast joints, restaurants, and even a brand new micro-brewery. And the great thing is that its all only a 10 minute walk from the house. The gathering is planned from the 8th to the 12th of August, however, some people will be arriving as early as the prior weekend. Anyone is welcome to come early and stay longer. Since some people may only be able to be here on the weekend (the 11th and 12th), we are tentatively planning that Thursday and Friday, the 9th and 10th will probably be the best days for those who are inspired to do adventurous outdoor activities on longer trips farther from the house. Then on Saturday and Sunday we'll generally plan to stay closer to base camp — just spending more of the time relaxing and enjoying the time together near the house. The mornings would be great for some worshipful meditation or reading a paper with the birds chirping and the sun coming up. Or maybe getting out for a short hike or bike ride right from the house, or a walk into town. Later on, we could be playing horseshoes in the horseshoe pit, or bocci ball, or disc golf on a pretty cool course through the trees. One of the all-time favorite activities is slackin. This means setting up a slack line, which is just long section of climbing webbing stretched tight between two trees, and learning the art of balancing on it — 'surfing' it. There's really nothing slack about it and it's a lot more fun than it sounds. There are all kinds of other things to do too — swinging on the rope swing, sweating in a wood-fired cedar sauna, chillin in the hammocks, grilling on the deck, listening to tunes... This event should be a really great time out in the peacefulness of nature!

In Colorado, we plan to spend some relaxing time at a young reader's house in the mountains west of Boulder. The idea is to use the house as a base camp for all kinds of fun activities. There are great mountain bike and hiking trails in the national forest right from the back door. They range from easy and short to unlimited adventure factor. The Continental Divide is very close and those mountains have some beautiful vistas to explore. From up there, you can see all of Boulder and Denver and the plains stretching out to the east. And if you get high enough to see over the other side, you can see range after range of mountains to the horizon out west.

Besides biking or hiking, there are lots of other fun things to do. We could go hang out at one of the lakes in the area and have a picnic. We could do some fishing, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, or just spend time relaxing by the water having good discussions and remembering how great life on this crazy world can be.

Something else we could do that would be really fun is going tubing down Boulder creek. It would be a great way to have some fun together and cool off on a hot August day. Or it might be fun to take a jeep road up to the top of the Divide and maybe go for a hike or have a little picnic and read a paper. If the timing was right we could even catch one of those amazing sunsets where the sun looks like it melts into the sea of deep blue mountains and the brilliant colors of the clouds give us a glimpse what a truly beautiful creation we live in...

There is plenty to do in the little mountain town of Nederland as well. (The photo is the view of town from the treetops at the house.) It has a great music scene — home to Yonder Mountain String Band and a few other great bands. There are cool coffee shops, breakfast joints, restaurants, and even a brand new micro-brewery. And the great thing is that its all only a 10 minute walk from the house.

The gathering is planned from the 8th to the 12th of August, however, some people will be arriving as early as the prior weekend. Anyone is welcome to come early and stay longer. Since the most people will probably end up being here on the weekend (the 11th and 12th), we are tentatively planning to get out and do the more adventurous outdoor activities on Thursday and Friday, the 9th and 10th. Then on Saturday and Sunday we'll generally plan to stay closer to base camp — just spending more of the time relaxing and enjoying the time together at the house. The mornings would be great for some worshipful meditation or reading a paper with the birds chirping and the sun coming up. Or maybe getting out for a short hike or bike ride right from the house, or a walk into town. Later on, we could be playing horseshoes in the horseshoe pit, or bocci ball, or disc golf on a pretty cool course through the trees. One of the all-time favorite activities is slackin. This means setting up a slack line, which is just long section of climbing webbing stretched tight between two trees, and learning the art of balancing on it — 'surfing' it. There's really nothing slack about it and it’s a lot more fun than it sounds. There are all kinds of other things to do too — swinging on the rope swing, sweating in a wood-fired cedar sauna, chillin in the hammocks, grilling on the deck, listening to tunes... This event should be a really great time out in the peacefulness of nature!

I really look forward to hopefully seeing lots of you guys there and that we will make the most of this opportunity for priceless friendships to grow!

From Tennessee to Oregon – See You on the Road!?

Anna and I will be driving from Memphis Tennessee to Eugene Oregon, during the month of August, and we hope to connect with readers and visit study groups along the way! It would be really great if we can plan little young adult reader gatherings in various regions. I’m hoping to get to meet some of the young adult readers who I have come into contact with on myspace and elsewhere, but not yet met. Please let me know if you would like to work together on planning something for when we pass through your area! We plan to pass though Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wisconsin, Utah, and Idaho before our trip ends in Oregon. Maybe we will manage to add some detours to the route in order to connect with folks in states like New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, and/or California.

I would appreciate hearing from you if you think you can take part in any of the above!

Most things in life may be means to ends, but true friendships are ends in themselves.

Hope to see you this summer!

Mike