MOPSTalk Zone 22 ~ Eastern PA and NJ: MOPS Theme for 2007/2008

CONVENTION UPDATE

Ta da! A Convention announcement!
We just signed the papers and we thank you for your prayers as we worked on moving, well, a whole lotta details in just a few days.

Drum roll #1: The Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee, FL (Orlando area) was able to welcome us (in the midst of many conventions needing to move).

Drum roll #2: We're able to keep the registration fees the same, so some of you might decide to come early or stay late, and enjoy the Orlando amenities with your friends (or family).

And thanks for all the great ideas of cities! You helped our future dreaming. 'Twould be fun!
And again, it will be great because of Who we'll be with: "Where(ver) two or three (thousand) are gathered in my name, there am I with them." (Mt. 18:20, our year's theme verse with my additions).

Naomi Cramer Overton

Convention Details:
The MOPS International Convention will be at the Gaylord Palms, Kissimmee, FL (Orlando area). Dates will be the same, August 5-7, 2010. Speakers and artists will be the same great lineup — Julie Barnhill, Margaret Feinberg, Donald Miller, Naomi Cramer Overton, Shelly Radic, Go Fish, Mandisa, The Katinas and Richie McDonald.

Convention registration will re-open on Monday, May 17.
The early bird registration deadline will be extended to June 7.
We are working with the Gaylord Opryland for an official letter we can provide to anyone who has already purchased airline tickets to use with airlines to avoid rebooking fees. This letter should assist you in rebooking airline tickets — it will be posted online at www.MOPS.org/convention.
We continue to pray for families and businesses affected by the flooding and we have sent MOPS materials to local MOPS leaders who are distributing supplies in the Nashville area.

MOPS International Convention 2010

August 5-7, 2010
Gaylord Palms, Orlando FL

Check back often for more information!

Your MOPS International Convention Checklist:

Register for Convention (re-opens May 17)
Reserve a room at the hotel (register first!)
Schedule shuttle transportation

Thursday, March 01, 2007

MOPS Theme for 2007/2008

Mothers of Preschoolers
the HOME factor BEGIN HERE...GO THERE

In our homes of origin many of us learned the deepest lessons about relationship, developed life routines and acquired our tastes and preferences. And now, as moms, we long to create homes where our families can thrive and grow — and we can too.
Our homes must be safe places – physically and also emotionally safe. In them we bond, we eat and play and rest together, we decorate and provision our special home spaces. The theme the HOME factor: BEGIN HERE … GO THERE enriches our perspective and hones our abilities to create a cocoon of home.
But at its healthiest, our home experience should fill us and launch us into wider circles of investment and influence where we interact with our world. We return HOME to reconnect and refuel — but we’ll move from the HOME outwards to make a difference.
The heart of the HOME is also a picture of God’s desire to interact with us and deeply love us where we really live. He desires to make his home in our hearts. He expresses it this way in the theme verse: "...he lives with you and will be in you." John 14:17
Three key elements of this theme to explore throughout the year:
Our homes are where we bond, cocoon, build inwardly.
Our homes are where we refuel so that we can live fully in the world beyond.
Our homes are a picture of Jesus' dwelling within us.

Theme Resources and Graphic Elements
Key elements in the HOME factor: BEGIN HERE … GO THERE include simple houses representing HOME in all its diversity of size, shape and location. The butterfly represents the heart of the home, touching rooms with its glow and leaving the cocoon to soar. The earth represents our home planet, where we live in community.

Theme DVD

A 2007-08 MOPS International Theme DVD comes free to each MOPS group as a benefit of on-time Charter Renewal. This DVD will provide inspirational and practical tools to equip MOPS leaders to carry out the theme in their group. Use the Theme DVD at a Steering Team planning retreat. The Theme DVD will help your team understand the theme, simplifying theme-related planning so you can concentrate on relationships rather than details. Renew by April 30th and receive your Theme DVD in mid-May!

Dwelling: Living Fully from the Space You Call Home Book and Curriculum

Anchoring the theme is a new MOPS book and curriculum titled Dwelling: Living Fully from the Space You Call Home by Mary Beth Lagerborg, author and Director of Media for MOPS International. At the heart of Dwelling is the quest by the author to find the foundational principles for building the type of home we all crave – no matter what the home we grew up in is like, no matter what our current income or address. Through interviews, excerpts from literature, and her own experiences shaping a dwelling place for her family, Mary Beth helps us craft a home where we can live fully from our own private spaces. She then compels us to take all we gain into life in the larger world. Dwelling is warm, hopeful and practical.
The companion curriculum for use in MOPS groups will provide six video Home Tours plus additional resources for Discussion Group Leaders. Each tour will feature topics such as understanding and making room for different personalities, dining in, home as a safe place to make mistakes, comparing your home with others’, feeling trapped at home, decorating and organizing, having company and being involved in community.

Deeper Theme for Convention

The MOPS International Convention takes the annual theme a bit deeper for leadership training and spiritual enrichment of leaders. This year the convention theme is Dwell Well: Heart — Home — Planet, also based on John 14:17.