Category: Church Stuff

Last week, I was able to spend a few days at Flaming Gorge with both of my sons.  It was the only "high adventure" camp that I was able to attend with both of my sons.  We had a really good time.  We floated a bit of the Green River on rubber rafts.  We toured the Flaming Gorge dam.  I was able to cook some amazingly awesome dutch oven food for the group.  It was generally a really good time.

It was also a learning experience for me.  I don't really like what I learned.

Since I had volunteered to help with the food for this campout, I accompanied my son's (only one son is a scout now--the other is an adult) leaders to the grocery store to pick up some food.  The Varsity Coach (whom I shall refer to as B.B.) said that the had a confession--that he had not completed the required BSA medical form.  The Venturing Advisor (whom I shall refer to as C.B.) said that he hadn't done it either.  There was no reason given, but it was made pretty clear by their comments that they didn't feel as if it were important enough.  C.B. said that he might be leaving early, and that he wouldn't be on the activity for 72 hours.  I reminded him of BSA policy that it doesn't matter how long any individual attendee would be at the activity.  If the activity itself is longer than 72 hours, then all participants, youth and adult, would be required to have a completed BSA medical form.

This "do as I say, not as I do" attitude displayed to me by my son's current and future scout leaders upset me a little bit.  It made me feel as if, for them, convenience trumped obedience to BSA guidelines designed for the safety and protection of both youth and adults participating in a high adventure camp.

The evening that we arrived at camp, the leaders mentioned some of the activities that we would be doing at this camp.  One of the activities mentioned was cliff jumping.  I mentioned that I didn't believe that cliff jumping was an approved BSA activity.  My comment was completely ignored.  After we returned home, I read the following in the Guide to Safe Scouting:

Diving and Elevated Entry: Diving is permitted only into clear, unobstructed water from heights no greater than 40 inches. Water depth must be at least 7 feet. Bottom depth contours below diving boards and elevated surfaces require greater water depths and must conform to state regulations. Persons should not jump into water from heights greater than they are tall, and should jump only into water chest deep or greater with minimal risk from contact with the bottom. No elevated entry is permitted where the person must clear any obstacle, including land.

Scouts were jumping into the water from heights much greater than they are tall.  One leader jumped from a cliff estimated to be about 90 feet above the water.  This is obviously contrary to the guide to safe scouting.  This point is also emphasized in the safe swim training that B.B. said he completed just before we left on this trip.

I don't expect that leaders to completely know every regulation and guideline in the Guide to Safe Scouting.  However, I doubt that either B.B. or C.B. has read the Guide to Safe Scouting or they would have questioned the wisdom of cliff jumping.  Additionally, the scouting unit is required to file a Tour Plan with the district BSA office before a campout like the one at Flaming Gorge.  The Tour Plan application says the following:

We certify that appropriate planning has been conducted using the Sweet 16 of BSA Safety, qualified and trained supervision is in place, permissions are secured, health records have been reviewed, and adult leaders have read and are in possession of a current copy of  Guide to Safe Scouting and other appropriate resources.

If these leaders had read the Guide to Safe Scouting and if they had a copy of the Guide to Safe Scouting in their possession (which I am 100% sure they did not), we could have consulted the guide about the wisdom of cliff jumping during this activity.  In this case, even with someone (me) questioning the appropriateness of this activity, fun seemed to me to trump safety.

As we floated the Green River, the leaders emphasized the importance of wearing life jackets (thank heavens) during the entire float trip.  However, at one point on this float trip, I was sitting on the back of my raft next to another gentleman.  C.B. and one of the other adult leaders (J.L.) came up with the idea that it would be funny to have one of the youth jump from their raft, grab the back of the life jackets of the two of us on the back of the raft, and pull us into the river.  This is obviously not something anyone would consider safe--think of a horse collar tackle in Football.  It's a penalty because of a safety issue of being dragged down from behind.  C.B. offered the young man $20 if he would do it, and both C.B. and J.L. continued to egg him on until he did so.  It tweaked my left shoulder (which has been hurting for a couple of weeks now) pretty badly, and now when I move it, there's a sickening clicking inside my shoulder that I hope won't require surgery.  But the leaders again showed me that fun (or funny) trumps safety.

Incidentally, J.L. apologized profusely when he heard that this had tweaked my shoulder.  The young man apologized profusely.  The young man's father apologized.  C.B., who had egged the young man on--even offering him $20--never said a word.  I know it's petty of me to expect something, and I'm still pretty ticked off at C.B.  I'm working on learning to forgive right now.  I'm not learning that lesson very quickly.

So what did I learn from this?  I can't trust my son to go on activities with his scout leaders.  Even when I go along, I can't let my sons out of my sight.  My older son jumped from a 12-ish foot cliff since I wasn't there at the moment to yet again question the wisdom of cliff jumping.  I learned that convenience trumps obedience; that fun trumps safety.  I learned that these leaders have a "do as I say, not as I do" attitude about rules or guidelines that seem inconvenient.

Fortunately, my younger son now has enough camping nights to earn his camping merit badge, because I can't send him camping with these leaders ever again, and I certainly don't want to go along on campouts with these leaders any more.

In the end, there really is no excuse.  The rules that were broken, regardless of importance, are spelled out in black and white.  There is nothing ambiguous about these rules.  This is why the scouting leaders in my unit have lost my trust and will no longer have my support (or my son) on outdoor activities.

They have lost my trust and I don't know how or if they can gain it back again.

One thing I left out of yesterday's post...

On Saturday evening, a member of my bishopric called me and asked me if he could meet with me about 20 minutes before church started.  We met for a few minutes and he asked me to fulfill a different responsibility at church.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints take an active part at church.  We are given a "calling," which is basically an invitation to accept an office or responsibility in the Church.

For the past five or six years, I have worked with the Young Men organization of the church.  I first served as the secretary to the Young Men Presidency, which helps with the spiritual and temporal nurturing of all young men ages 12-17 in the Ward.  A little more than three years ago, I was called to be the Second Counselor in the Young Men Presidency and Scoutmaster.

I was, at first, quite surprised--stunned even.  I had a terrible experience as a young man in the LDS Church back in Billings, Montana.  My experience as a boy scout, for the most part, is something I would rather forget.  The other young men in my ward treated me like crap, and I didn't want anything to do with any of them.

Yet my experience as a scoutmaster over the last three years was a very VERY good one.  I received all of the training.  I understood the scouting program, and through Wood Badge training, I saw the ideal scouting program and I did my best to make the scouting program in my Ward meet this ideal.

Yesterday morning, I was "released" from this calling and now I will be a "Primary Worker."  I will be teaching a class of younger children in the Ward.

I'm going to miss scouting and the young men that I worked with.  I'm going to miss that a lot.  I'm not yet sure how I feel about teaching Primary children.  Initially, I'm not too excited about it, but hopefully, like my experience with scouting, this, too, will be something that I grow to love.

If nothing else, I'll get to flirt with the pianist.

6:00 am - Wake up and try not to roll over and go back to sleep.  Fortunately, this isn't a typical Sunday.

7:00 am - Stake Priesthood Leadership Meeting.  If I didn't have this meeting, I'd still be asleep until...

8:00 am - This is when I usually wake up on Sundays

9:00 am - Ward Choir practice.  We're getting ready to sing one song the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and several more songs on Christmas Day, which is on a Sunday this year.

11:00 am - 2:00 pm - Church.  Yes, we crazy LDS people have three hours of church every Sunday.

The rest of the day is usually spent with family.  Unless I have a Young Men Presidency meeting.  Next Sunday, the Young Men Presidency has a two-hour meeting for training and planning with the bishopric.

Sometimes there are other meetings as well.  I work with the 12- and 13-year old young men in the Ward, and we have a Deacons Quorum Presidency meeting once a month.  Last week, there was the "Priesthood Preview" meeting for the 11-year-old young men and their parents, followed by an Eagle Court of Honor for one of the Young Men in the Ward.

There always seems to be other meetings.  I'm not complaining TOO much though...  At least I'm not in the bishopric.  Then I'd have meetings all day long on Sundays, PLUS other meetings throughout the week.

8:30 pm - M*A*S*H time.  Usually the whole family watches an episode or two before going to bed.  It's fun family time.

9:00-ish pm - My wife goes to bed.  After she goes to sleep, I get some more "me" time, that seems to be rather sparse these days.  I'll usually play my guitar or read a book or do something else I've been wanting to do.

10:30-ish pm - Bedtime.

And they say that Sunday is a day of rest?  :D

On Friday, I took a bunch of scouts, leaders, and dads to the cross-country ski camp at Camp Maple Dell up Payson Canyon.

BOY am I sore!

It was a ton of fun.  They cross-country ski camp is set up so that you only have to worry about learning to ski.  They let us sleep in a nice, heated lodge.  They prepared all of our meals for us.  They had people on staff to make sure we were properly equipped.  The staff guided us on a couple of fun ski trips.

On Friday night, we didn't start out until around 9:00 pm and we skied in the dark for a couple of hours.  This was probably pretty good, because I'm pretty sure we all looked much less than graceful as we were figuring out what we were doing.  I think I pulled a lot more muscles trying NOT to fall than I did by actually falling.

On Saturday morning, we headed out from Camp Maple Dell to Maple Lake, which is 2.5 miles away from the camp.  It's uphill pretty much the whole way there, which means that it's downhill pretty much the whole way back.  The temperature had climbed above freezing, so the snow was pretty sticky.  I kept having to knock the snow off the bottom of my skis so I didn't feel like I was going to roll my ankle the whole time.

It was a really good workout.  And now I'm really REALLY sore.  My calves, hips, and triceps HATE me today.

Though I DID burn almost 2200 calories on Saturday.  That's more calories than I usually get to eat in a day.

I never really figured myself to be a big-time Scouter.  My own experience as a Boy Scout was, at best, miserable.  I didn't fit in with my troop.  The other troop members picked on me mercilessly.  I can't say I wasn't at least partly to blame, because once I started disliking going to scouts, I quit trying to fit in/get along.

Once I became licensed to drive, I did very little else with Troop 97 in Billings, Montana.  Instead, I would hang out with people that I actually liked and that actually seemed to like me.  I found acceptance with a wonderful group of friends, some of whom I still communicate with on a regular basis to this day.

And thus ended my scouting career as a youth.  I had given up when I was only a couple of merit badges away from earning the rank of Life Scout.  I had done most of the work to become an Eagle scout, but I would never earn that rank.

Quite a few years later, my own sons became cub scouts.  I was made Cubmaster in that particular unit, and I had a good time as Cubmaster.  However, my son's Webelos Den leader and I didn't see eye-to-eye on a few things.  My son didn't really seem to be enjoying going to den meetings, so my wife and I told him he didn't need to go to den meetings any more--that we would help him earn his Arrow of Light.

That didn't go over well AT ALL with the den leader, and it turned quite ugly from there.  I remember thinking that Scouting was failing me once again.  It had failed me as a youth, and it wasn't doing any better with my son.  I remember vowing that I would never EVER have anything to do with the Boy Scouts of America again.  I was DONE.

When my son turned 11 years old, he joined the local troop.  The 11-year-old scout leader was great and he had a good experience with scouting.  Things were getting better.

About the time my son turned 12 years old, we moved into a different home a little ways away.  My son started going to scouts in a different troop.  I didn't know any of the scout leaders in this new troop, so when it came time for his first week-long summer camp, I volunteered to come along.  I thought it would be a good idea to get to know these leaders, because they would be helping both of my sons through scouting over the next few years.

What a difference I saw!  I saw a scouting program that, though not perfect, was more of what I thought scouting should be.  We had a fun week, but more importantly, my attitude toward scouting began to change.

Instead of seeing scouting itself as the problem, I came to realize that it was the leaders' interpretation of scouting that was to blame.  The scout leaders of my youth were probably doing the best they could, but they weren't following the program as it was intended by the scouting movement.  My son's scout leaders were doing the best they could, but they, too, were not following the program as outlined in BSA publications.

A couple of years later, and I found myself in the position of Scoutmaster.

ME??  Scoutmaster?

I decided that I would do everything in my power to make sure that nobody in my troop would have the nightmarish experience I had as a young scout.  Nobody in my troop would be pushed away because I was doing the best I could, but I wasn't really following Scouting.

My first step was to get trained.  There is a lot of training that scout leaders can and SHOULD attend.  It takes quite a bit of time.  But instead of wondering how it's SUPPOSED to be, I had learned enough that I could start to implement what was supposed to be.

The last training I did was Wood Badge training.  It's the "PhD" of Scouting, if you will.  The nicest part of Wood Badge training was that I LIVED the Scouting program as it's SUPPOSED to be implemented for a week.  I saw the ideal, and could then start working to pattern my troop after this ideal.

Wood Badge training doesn't end when the week of practical training is over.  Each Wood Badge participant sets five substantial goals, called ticket items, that they work to complete over the next months.  Up to 18 months can be spent "working your ticket" and I believe that this is really the power of Wood Badge.

In my case, my Wood Badge tickets completely changed how my troop operates.  They have changed young mens' lives in my troop.  They have solidified my desire that no young man should have the horrid experience I had as a child.  They have helped me know how I can better help each young man in my troop.  They have helped young men not be pushed away because I wasn't doing it right--mostly because I wasn't doing much any more.  Instead, I was guiding young men in my troop as THEY began to lead and implement the scouting program as I learned about it at Wood Badge.

It's not always perfect.  Sometimes, it's not very well organized.  But I can see these young men grow as they learn the meaning of leadership.  I have seen lives change.

Tomorrow, I'm going to receive my Wood Badge beads.  My tickets are complete.  I have finished this part of Wood Badge and I will be rewarded tomorrow at a Court of Honor for my troop.

I went to Wood Badge mostly so people would quit bugging me about it.  I ended up learning more than I would have imagined.  I found friendships that will likely last a VERY long time.  I made some great memories.

But the most important thing of all is that I learned what Scouting is supposed to be.  That knowledge will continue to change lives for as long as they'll let me be Scoutmaster of Troop 770.

I learn something new on every camp out.

This time, I learned that I need to have a rule that if you transport boys TO the camp out, you have to transport boys home FROM the camp out.  One of the leaders (the 11-year-old scout leader) had to leave after breakfast on Saturday morning.  I had asked one of my scout's parents to come up and pick boys up at 2:00 on Saturday afternoon.

The camp out was a lot of fun.  We were drizzled on until about 10pm on Friday night.  But we stayed dry all night and the next morning.  The rain started up again at about 10am.  It wasn't bad until 11:30 or so when there were 3 or 4 lightning strikes.  Then it started raining hard and steady.

Fortunately, we had broken camp.  The boys came back from the closing flag ceremony/awards ceremony soaked to the bone.  I had stayed behind to get lunch ready.

After a quick lunch, we were ready to hit the road.  The only problem - the parental unit that had volunteered his chauffering services was nowhere to be seen and the rain was coming down harder and harder.

I decided to drive down to the entrance of the camp to see if he might be waiting for us there.  As I left our camp site, I slid down a now muddy road to another dirt road that was quickly becoming a soggy, soupy mess.  Once I got out of the upper area, the roads were better maintained and I was able to easily make it to the camp entrance.

No parent.

I decided that this parent's van would NEVER make it through the muddy mess to get to our camp site, so I dropped the boys in my car off (under shelter, of course) and headed back for the others.  I didn't even attempt the last climb to the camp site.  I knew I would be sliding all over the place.  I left the car, walked up to the camp, and told the boys to follow me.  We all climbed into my subaru and headed back to the camp entrance with road conditions worsening by the minute.

We wouldn't have made it without all-wheel drive.  It was a little bit harrowing, but we ended up making it out just fine.  I spent the next half hour trading off which boys were in the car with the heater so that no one would freeze.  Just as I was trying to call to find out where my help was, he showed up and we were able to get everyone home.

WHEW!!

I learn a litte bit more each time I have one of these outdoor activities.  I figure that in another year or two, I might actually feel like I know what I'm doing!

A storm came in over the weekend.  It rained most of the day on Saturday and the rain turned to snow on Sunday.  The heavy, thick, slushy snow on my driveway was even causing problems with our all-wheel-drive vehicles.

Yesterday was Fast Sunday because of our upcoming Stake Conference, so as usual, I sent a dozen young men out to gather fast offerings.  They all looked like drowned rats by the time they were done.

I always offer them rides home, and especially yesterday when it was snowing.  One pair of Deacons wanted to walk home and I snapped this picture of them as they walked down the street:

The snowflakes had gotten quite large and they stopped for a minute to watch the softly falling snow.

A little later, I decided to see if I could get some of the snow off of my driveway.  I was still wearing my church clothes, and after shoveling about half of the driveway, I went down.  Good thing I have a spare pair of dress slacks.  Unfortunately, I don't have a spare finger.  It lost a pretty good patch of skin as I went skidding down the driveway.  I guess I should have put the hiking boots on instead of just wearing my normal shoes.

When I came back outside (after applying a band-aid) a car pulled up and my home teacher jumped out of the car and grabbed a shovel out of the trunk.  He helped me finish shoveling.  How nice of him!  It was another example of a snowy duty being performed by a priesthood holder.

With my new calling as Scoutmaster/Second Counselor in the Young Mens Presidency/Deacon's Quorum Advisor, Sundays have become more and more busy for me.  On the second Sunday of the month, I attend Bishop's Youth Council.  On the third Sunday of the month, I have an Aaronic Priesthood Committee Meeting.  On the last Sunday of the month, I have a meeting with my Deacon's Quorum Presidency.

But no day is as busy as Fast Sunday for me.

On Fast Sundays, I'm in charge of making sure that a pair of young men visit each house in the ward to deliver a ward newsletter and to collect fast offerings.

I ususally drag myself out of bed at around 8am, shower, shave, and get dressed for the day.  The night before, I call a member of the Deacon's Quorum Presidency and have them call all of the deacons and remind them to meet at my house at 9:30 in the morning.  By a little before 9:30, the deacons have started arriving.  I send them off, two by two, and by about 9:45, I know whether or not I have to go into panic mode and start calling Teachers and Priests to help out.  Fortunately, we have a lot of really great young men in our Ward, so it's not too hard to find people to help.

It also helps that I bribe them with something like homemade cheesecake or dutch oven desserts.  Maybe that's not the BEST thing to talk about on a fast sunday, but research shows that bribery works well with young men this age, at least, that's what a friend tells me.  (He's a principal at a grade school, and he'd probably be able to point me to sources that say so.)

By about 10:15 or 10:30, all of the fast offering "routes" are accounted for and all the young men are out fulfilling that particular Priesthood duty.  If I can't find enough young men, I'll go along with one of them (preferrably my own son!) and I'll help out, but that's only a last resort.

At around 10:45, the young men start returning with the fast offering envelopes and leftover newsletters.  I'll give them rides home if they want.

During this "down time," I'm usually preparing a lesson for our Quorum meeting later in the day or I'll work on other calling-related things like making plans for an upcoming troop meeting or campout.  When all of the young men are back and the collection of fast offerings is complete, it's just about time to get ready for church.  Church doesn't get out until 4:00 in the afternoon, so by then, the day is pretty much gone.

I'm not complaining though...  Bishopric members have such schedules EVERY Sunday.