Exploring the World

Category: Prairie

Explore Intern Tree

Prairie | Garrett Boon December 5, 2009 | Comments (2)

Gain an understanding of self:

A. Describe your style of leadership: personality, communication and leadership style and spiritual gifts.

I have taken a lot of different personality tests over the last three years. I typically place in similar categories throughout all the different types of personality tests. Usually I end up as an introvert and a thinker. In the Myers Briggs I am an IXXJ. I have tested as a Rational, Guardian, and Idealist. In other tests I have been a Melancholy-Choleric, Steady/Conscientious, Beaver, and Process/Product.

I tend to be concrete in thinking. I don’t do well with abstract ideas or concepts, especially in class. I want to know the practical, hands-on, how do I do it. Similarly, I don’t naturally think in analogies. It is difficult for me to come up with them, and I don’t relate to them super well. Over time I have come to appreciate people who can think abstractly, but it still remains a foreign concept to me.

I prefer to work within lots of structure. I work best when I can watch someone do something so that I am able to copy what they did exactly. If someone gives me the big picture or idea, I don’t know how to proceed. I need more instruction that is broken down into concrete steps. I can follow detailed outlines really well, but when only given a couple large points, I am not able to make sense of it very easily.

In addition, I concentrate on the process in order to get a quality product. This is more important to me than the idea or the people involved. When invited to a game, I tend to go play always concentrated on winning. I don’t usually care as much about whether people are having fun, including me, but I want the end product to be good. When I have a goal, that is the most important thing to me. This plays into my greatest spiritual gift, which is craftsmanship. I want to do the best I can, and love to do it to the glory of God.

Other spiritual gifts I have are Helping and Giving, as well as Pastoral and Administration. I have always been keen to give to the Lord’s work. When a missionary comes to visit my church, I typically feel as if I should give. Yet, it isn’t out of compulsion, but rather conviction. I usually enjoy giving to support people in ministry.

B. Outline the Biblical values you hold as a leader that you would use to build a healthy team.

Reflection is a major value of mine. In high school, I was assigned to write a paper about a quote from Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Ever since I wrote that paper, I have placed a high value on reflecting over life in order to rightly process what is happening. This value has only been made more articulated through my years in Explore. As a leader, I think that it is imperative to a healthy team to incorporate reflection. I would use my position to structure times for reflection, both individually and also as a group. This would give the team a tool to use for processing and ultimately growth.

Another value I have is integrity, which comes from the lives of older men I was able to watch while growing up. I observed several men live out their lives with such strong integrity that the value became ingrained in me. The idea of integrity, to do what you will say you will do, is very much Biblical. As a leader, I would hope to be living my life in such a way as to be a good example. Also, I would encourage my team to also live lives of integrity, both in word and deed. I would do a combination of subtle hints and also outright encouragement on the behalf of integrity, because it is something that I value so much.

C. Explain how you see yourself serving your team as their leader.

The position of leadership I am in currently lends itself with many opportunities to serve my team. I serve by giving them my time, by preparing impact group meetings, by praying for them, by leading them through skills, by offering general college assistance, and many other things. But the action of doing these things isn’t where the heart of serving is. The heart of serving is what is in the heart of the man. I must examine my heart and motivation behind doing these things in order to be a true servant leader.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, Paul speaks about love. He says that if someone doesn’t have love, then it doesn’t really matter what they do. I could spend 15 hours planning a 2 hour group meeting, but without love, it is essentially worthless. Unless my motivation is completely pure and selfless, my actions as a leader are in vain, and certainly not effective. My team could easily see through me if I were to have a selfish attitude about leadership, and that is not going to give me a good witness.

When I do have the right motivation behind my actions, then I can truly start serving my team. My motivation will shine through eventually in my actions. Thus, when I operate out of selflessness, the time I spend with individuals becomes a blessing to them. That time will build trust instead of destroying whatever trust they might have had in me. This will in turn, allow time spent to be a service rather than a disservice.

Furthermore, when as a team we go through skills, my leadership won’t be about what I can get out of the skill for myself. I will be there for my team, to do whatever is best for them, regardless of what I might think would be the most fun for me. I see this playing out during winter skills, because I know some members of my team are not as physically able as I am. Therefore, we will not get as far in distance, and may not be able to get to some places that I would like to. But if I am really committed to serving my team, it won’t matter, because it isn’t about me.

Life, Prairie | Garrett Boon October 23, 2009 | Comments (1)

Tracking

One of the reasons I came back to the second year of Explore was to improve my outdoor skills. One of the skills I wanted to work on, which actually was not part of any class in Explore 2, was tracking. However, throughout the year I had the chance to work on my ability to track both in the back yard of Camp Bighorn, and also on the various trips we took.

In particular, our 21 day backpacking trip in central Oregon provided some really good opportunities to practice tracking. One day, I was in the position of pace setter. This meant I walked in front of the group and controlled the hiking pace. The only people in front of me were the scouts, who provided the practical navigation. My job was to follow the scouts at a decent pace. Everyone else just followed me.

The ground was slightly wet that day, which made for really good tracking. The terrain was fairly rugged. The grass was pretty high and there were tons of bushes and some trees scattered around. These provided just enough of a challenge for my skill level in tracking.

So I decided to track the scouts. I could still see them, which helped me travel in the correct general direction. I would walk for a ways with my eyes glued to the ground watching for footprints. Then I would glance up and make sure I knew where the scouts were. I was having a lot of fun.

I was having fun, that is, until one time when I glanced up and the scouts were no longer in sight. My heart skipped a beat as I realized I had no idea where they had gone. My duty as pace setter was to follow the scouts, and now that just got a lot harder. I didn’t know where they were. Everyone was trusting me to lead them in the path of the scouts. I didn’t like the way this situation was shaping up.

At this point, I decided I had to go on, and the only way to do that was to continue tracking them. However, now it wasn’t just for fun. I had to track for real. Still, because the tracking conditions were very favorable, I was able to follow the scouts’ trail fairly well. Eventually, we caught up to the scouts and successfully finished our hike. It ended up being a very valuable learning experience and increased my confidence and skill level.

Life, Prairie | Garrett Boon April 25, 2009 | Comments (3)

WFR

Today we had our first big sim. I was a rescuer. I felt like I completely botched the whole thing though. Originally I was given control of the radio, but was a “secondary” rescuer. Val was kind of designated as IC, but not really. Somewhere in the middle of the hour long rescue, I switched from being a secondary to the IC, but not really. More clearly defined roles in the beginning would have helped. Tomorrow we do another sim, and maybe I will be a rescuer again. Hopefully I will do a better job. Some day it might be real.

Prairie | Garrett Boon January 30, 2009 | Comments (1)

January 25

I once asked a friend how to harness inspiration. I have tons of inspiration now, I just need to find a way to store and save it for when I begin to be distracted. I recently came up with a picture of what I want to be, as far as a person. Yol Bolsun.

Tomorrow we start our WFR class. Wilderness First Responder. After that we have two class of Group Facilitation class. Then comes four days off. Then the next 3 weeks will be spent in Murder Creek Wilderness, Oregon.

Life, Prairie | Garrett Boon January 26, 2009 | Comments (2)

Team Sherpa Update

Greetings Camp Bighorn Family,

It is now close to the end of first semester. I and most others feel
as if it has gone by so quickly. I am excited for what will be coming
next semester, yet at the same time I don’t really want this one to
end. Granted, it has been hard. There have been many academic
challenges. There have been challenges within our team, and also
within the Prairie community as a whole. One thing that has been an
issue this semester is learning how to balance our time between
homework and friends. Sometimes it feels as if we have to choose just
one or the other. But for the most part, I think we have done a good
job in learning to balance the two.

Through these challenges I have seen growth in my own life, as well as
in the lives of my Sherpa teammates. It has been cool to see everyone
willing to engage even the hard things. It has also been neat to see
our different leadership abilities come to light throughout this
semester in the various circumstances we have found ourselves in.

At the beginning of the year, we were a little nervous about having to
spend an entire semester on Prairie campus. Our experience last year
taught us that Explore and the rest of the students had a hard time
relating to each other. However, all of us have enjoyed being on
campus this year. Most of the team has said that our stay on campus is
a highlight of the year. Here are some of the activities we have done
to incorporate into the Prairie community:

Slacklining – We would set up slacklines every day the weather was
nice and it became a cool community event. It created a nice
icebreaker to get to know some of the PBC students.

Meals – Especially before the 1st years came back to Prairie, we had
no choice but to blend into the main Prairie body during meals. This
also helped to break the ice and some of the awkwardness between
Explore and the rest of the school. After the 1st years came back, we
also served a little bit as a bridge between them and everyone else.

Rock Wall – Emily, Jesse, Abe, and I all worked at the rock wall on
campus this year. This was another way to get involved in what was
going on at Prairie.

Classes – We had classes with the rest of the college this year, which
helped create a common bond between us. We weren’t doing something
completely separate and different as we did last year.

Sports – There were various intramural sports this year on campus
which we participated in

These were a few of the main things, but there were also many other
smaller activities we each were involved in here on campus. We got to
know the Prairie community better, and they got to know us.

Throughout the semester we have had team and individual discussions
about what the weight of Glory means. Last night, during our weekly
Impact Group meeting, we took time to reflect again what it means to
carry the weight of Glory. Of course, each of us had a little
different take on it, but two common themes that I saw were that we
cannot carry it in our own strength, and that a big purpose of
carrying it is for the benefit of others.

Many things have happened in my own life this semester, and I am still processing through them. One of the things I have appreciated the most is all the conversations I have had with various people, including interns and directors. Many people have been willing to listen to me, to ask questions, to challenge me, encourage me, and walk with me this year. I am excited that we will soon be down at camp and I will be able to step back into fellowship with y’all. I have really begun to realize the immense value of relationships this year. On another note, the food at Prairie has improved since last year, but I know we are all still very much looking forward to eating Dave and Jen’s cooking

God bless and have a Merry Christmas!

Garrett Boon, on behalf of Team Sherpa

Prairie | Garrett Boon December 6, 2008 | Comments (0)

First sale

I sold my first toque yesterday!

Kikkert bought it for $10. I feel happy. I also beat Tanton in ping pong yesterday. Here comes the Boon.

The other day I had a record of records day for my other website, www.garrettsbridges.com. I had over 5100 unique visitors in one day. That is more than double my previous record. Over 13000 pageloads across the site. I was pretty stoked. I made more through Adsense that day than I had any other day, despite the CTR being low. I also saved $200 by paying for school now through the nice exchange rate. That paid for my ticket home. I am also way ahead on my homework, at least for now.

I had a sweet talk with Dustin last night. He introduced me to a “steamer,” which is basically heated and frothed flavored milk drink. It was pretty good. I would buy one again.

General, Prairie | Garrett Boon November 21, 2008 | Comments (3)

Prayer

Most merciful God, we confess we have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed. By what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole hearts, we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and humbly repent. For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us. That we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways, to the glory of Your name. Amen.

From the Book of Alternate Services

Life, Prairie | Garrett November 16, 2008 | Comments (4)