Ozark Mind Games 2004 Report: Thursday


Every morning there is an optional devotional led by a different Probe staff member.

Students opened their Bibles and their spirits in the midst of the great beauty of God's creation.

The devotional closed with a time of prayer. Michelle Sweeney prays here.

Breakfast followed the devotional each morning. Many students usually skip breakfast in the mornings when they are at home or school, so we were pleased to see so many show up each morning. Since breakfast feeds the body in a way that allows the brain to function optimally, they really need all the body help they could get!

Alumni Allen Eller and KC Vetter really enjoyed the intimacy of their alumni sessions. They particularly appreciated the informal discussions in the midst of the lectures that the small alumni sessions provide.

Those are Rick Wade's feet in the bottom of the picture. . .


. . .who informally teaches "Apologetics and the Point of Tension" for his alumni session with Allen and KC.

The rest of the students listen intently to Ray Bohlin teach about Genetic Engineering. Each student receives a notebook containing outlines for each lecture that correspond to the PowerPoint slides, with blanks to fill in that help keep them on track with the speaker.

Ray Bohlin leads his reading group in a discussion of a humanist's essay proposing that human genetic engineering is a good and necessary thing.

Always a spirited and animated discussion, the informal session on modesty included a volley of questions and comments from the girls aimed at the guys, and vice versa. The issues we discussed continued to come up for the remainder of the week: how girls should dress, how guys should act toward girls.

The recreation time this afternoon included a volleyball tournament.

The winning bracket got to play their game in the pool!

Those doing the ropes course take their instructions from Amber.

Top row, left to right: Audrey Lopata, Laura Lopata, Tyler Bennett. Bottom row: Erin Singleton, KC Vetter, Nathan Andrews.

While some students got as active as possible during the afternoon recreation time, others chose to sleep, watch movies that the Probe staff had brought, play cards or hang out in the pool.


Audrey Lopata discovered it's a lot higher up when you're actually UP there!

And Erin Singleton discovered why the ropes course is so good for helping people grasp the fact that self-esteem (read: self-confidence) is EARNED, not bestowed!

Laura Lopata waits her turn to leave the relative safety of the tree and launch out onto the ropes.

Emily Wood and Kathryn Jones. Emily is the second Wood sibling to come to Mind Games, which is a tremendous encouragement to us when parents continue to entrust their students with us! We also had some first-borns who promised that they were the only the first in their families to come, but we would be seeing younger siblings in the future. That's something we really look forward to.

Ozark summer staff guys Zack and Loren lead in worship.