North Texas Commanders Conference
May 17, 2008
Bethel Church in Temple

Our annual Commanders Conference will be held at Bethel Church in Temple, TX on May 17. This year we are joining our Commanders Conference with a Children's Ministries divisional training day, so there will be workshops throughout the day for Girl's Ministries leaders and Children's Ministries leaders as well as Royal Rangers commanders. So if your spouse is involved in one of these other ministries, plan on coming together to this training day.

In the morning we will have a general session about the forthcoming changes in Royal Rangers. To facilitate that discussion, we will have National Training Coordinator Perry Siddle with us from the national Royal Rangers office. He will be sharing with us during the general session and will be available throughout the day for questions.

In the afternoon we will have a variety of breakout sessions on topics like presenting outstanding devotions with visual aids, making merits interactive (taking the writing out of merits and making them fun), and guided recreation (using recreation time to teach team building skills to our boys). A complete list of the breakout sessions will be posted to our district web site soon.

The conference will begin with registration at 8:00 and the general session at 8:30. The conference will conclude at 5:00.

Cost for the conference is $30, lunch included. If you register after the pre-registration deadline, May 12, the cost of the conference increases to $35. You may register at the door if necessary.

The church is located at 22621 SE HK Dodgen Loop in Temple. A map is available here.

A cover letter about this training day from Duane Swanson is available here, and a detailed schedule of the training for all three groups, and the registration form, is available here.

We had a great time at Pow Wow this past weekend. Total registration was 677. Pastor Jeff Hunter and his wife Stephanie presented a great series of messages starting with salvation on Friday night and ending with communion on Sunday morning. A conservative estimate of 100 boys or more responded to the altar call for salvation Friday night.

The weather was great for Pow Wow until the storms came in early Sunday morning. All morning long I had to remind folks that this was Pow Wow, not Winter Camp! It was a great change from the heat we have experienced at some other camps in the past. God certainly provided ideal weather Friday and Saturday for the services and the activities.

A great big thank you to all of the commanders who brought their boys to Pow Wow. Without you, your boys would not have been there to hear the Gospel message preached through the skits and the messages. And another great big thanks to the commanders who were able to volunteer some of their time Saturday to help with the games, activities, and food service. It's impossible to put on an event like this for the boys without volunteers.

Plans are already underway for the next big district-wide camps. We have the Junior Leadership Training Academy June 22-27 (applications will be posted this week to the district Royal Rangers web site). Then we have a district-wide Ranger Kids Day Camp scheduled for October 25 at the campground in Maypearl. This will be the first district-wide Day Camp in many years, and we are looking forward to a great time for these Rangers. Finally we will have Winter Camp at Maypearl November 14-15. Make sure all of these are on your calendar; we would love to see you and your boys at these events.

Thanks again for your prayers for and attendance at Pow Wow. Boys' lives were indeed changed for eternity.