Support Team 2010 Update!

After 65 days of 2009’s regular Intensive Season, followed by 22 days of Ortho-Bionomy classes, michael and Jeanie had a few days to finally unpack the van from the last road tour and then repack it and depart for Bristol VA/TN. During the second week of October, they caught several of Ryan’s (this is Jeanie’s son) senior year of college football games, the plan was to

 return to HeartLand the first of November. However, van issues made a change in the plans. michael returned to Theodosia and led a 4-day Intensive that was added to the schedule. The attendees begged for one more day, so of course michael agreed and it became a 5-day. He returned to Bristol a few days later and joined Jeanie and her family for Thanksgiving while still waiting on the van to be repaired. During this extra time in VA, michael and Jeanie helped make molasses on the family farm, which was a great experience and provided about 2 dozen quarts for HeartLand’s kitchen. It is one of the most alkalizing foods there is and definitely one of the most nutritious sweetners.

The first of December, michael and Jeanie returned to HeartLand for a couple of weeks before going on up to Kansas City, MO to spend Christmas with Michael Jay and then over to St. Louis to visit with Christa Joy (for those who may not know, these are michael’s children). Then began the journey southward, meeting up in Atlanta, GA with Terry, David, Julie and Karen (some of this year’s Support Team from HeartLand). The whole group continued to Brooksville, FL where a 6-day Co-Dependence to Inter-Dependence Intensive started on January 1, 2010. Arriving a few days early to set up the kitchen and teaching center, they held a New Year’s Eve celebration around a fire under the stars. What an awesome way to begin the New Year.

January 6th, the Support Team headed back up to Missouri and michael and Jeanie headed further south to Clearwater where they spent a couple of extra days with Ryan and Gabby (Ryan’s fiancee) before going to Dunedin, FL. Settling in for some time of writing and playing catch up while also beginning the tour schedule. Time was also spent contacting churches and friends in Florida to complete the tour. Thank you Patrick McGhan for arranging this perfect space to stay for a few weeks.

michael and jeanie blitzed Florida from January to April, then took a Transatlantic cruise to France, England, Holland and Germany. This offered 8 days at sea with no phones or internet to distract michael from writing. Arriving in England, Paulo Biancard & Giuliana had arranged for a Why … Again?! workshop. Awesome to take the work to England. Back to Florida for more workshops before heading to Bristol, TN. Several weeks spent in Bristol for Ryan’s college graduation (May 8th) and then marriage to Gabby (May 22nd) – busy month for the family. Then on to Asheville, NC, Charlotte, NC, Birmingham, AL and Fayetteville, AR before getting back to HeartLand for Intensives. 

The Support Team this year is over the top! David is still holding the fort for us when we are on the road, he has been our Lead Support for 3 years now and doing an awesome job. Moving all the projects forward and ordering any supplies needed, keeping michael up to date on everything is just the beginning. David manages the Building the Braincells Game, teaches, leads the Support Team meetings, processes people and is “there for us” any time with any request. Plus he is involved in the actual projects, getting his hands dirty with everyone else. Thank you David!

Jerry moved back to Asheville, NC after the Intensive Season was complete in August 2009. His contributions while at Heartland were appreciated (see notes under 2009 Team).

Terry Bowling has now moved to HeartLand and has already been a tremendous asset. He is our artist in residence and project coordinator. He continues to create, design, organize and implement the design and construction of the expansion, improvements and ongoing maintenance of HeartLand. His words are, “I am maintaining alignment with my secondary purpose in creating a world where communities thrive in support of Primary Purpose Development: to develop a Viable Conscious Spiritual Body.” He headed up several projects listed under the 2009 Team report.

Chuck and Magda made a 6 month commitment to be on the Team. Chuck has participated on the Team for several years now during the winter months and he knows what it takes and is very familiar with the garden and other HeartLand projects. We are glad you are back Chuck, your skills are appreciated. He has been greatly influential in everyone on the team using Responsibility Communication when something comes up. He brings Magda and her wonderful presence with him this year – taking the work, his work and their relationship to a new level. Magda has been with us during Intensives and is always willing to do her inner work and now she offers her abilities to make HeartLand operate on a different level as well. She has been great in working with our Database and getting the information up to date and creating a learning manual for anyone else who works with it in the future.

Karen arrived just prior to Intensives in 2009 and continued for a 6 month program which then extended into early 2010. Her kitchen and raw food skills are outstanding but she also drives a tractor and gets into the garden, building, whatever is going on. Karen is multi-talented and is a great asset to us all. And … we will be including many of her own recipes in our next printing of “Raw-Cipes”. She has now moved on, however, she has stayed in Theodosia and is continuing to use her skills in the kitchen / food arena – way to go Karen.

Lisa came during the Intensives 2009 and is now participating in the Support Team Program. She has likewise done everything from putting information into a DVD inventory system, getting us up on Facebook, cleaning up and remodelling buildings, painting, working in the garden … you name it she does it with enthusiasm. HeartLand has bee hives now and Lisa is really doing a good job with the “ladies” as she calls them.

Sandy moved to HeartLand last year and in addition to getting moved into her new space (Gratitude) she prepared a majority of the meals while the rest of the team worked outside. Sandy is the “mother figure” who loves taking care of people and does it well. She is also responsible for all the blankets and covers in the HeartCenter plus a lot of the dishes in the kitchen. Sandy has now moved to Branson but we will think of her every time someone “covers up” with one of the afghan’s. We wish her well with her next adventure.

Julie who has lived at HeartLand for several years now supports us in many ways. She continues to assist in cleaning up the property as well as special projects when she can. She traveled with us to Florida to support with worksheets and assist in setting things up. She spends many hours each year with Intensive paticipants in processing outside of class time.

Jane (our newest neighbor) is like a sentinel, one who keeps watch for some anticipated event. She has her own stuff going on getting settled into a new home and yet she helped organize a ceremony with a bonfire, drumming, a labyrinth, etc. to set the stage for the new year (2010) and what it will bring to our community. We welcome her with open arms.

Two of our new neighbors have offered their skills to the mix as well. James did some editing on our upcoming new DVDs and Jim has assisted in the garden. Thanks guys.

The team is currently upgrading the greenhouse in order to produce an abundant source of high quality food throughout the winter. They are achieving this by incorporating passive solar methods of heat storage using recycled rice hulls as a wall component.

In addition to the greenhouse project, they are preparing for the addition of new bathrooms at the Heart Center and the removal of some interior posts that will allow for a more open and spacious intensive space. The bathrooms will connect to an innovative septic design that uses plants, worms and bacteria to decompose the waste and purify the water in a process that does no harm to the environment. This modifying of the Heart Center will also require more “tiles” to be laid (2009’s big project). Very exciting!

The team has become part of the area garden club that meets in Ava at Jean’s Healthway. This is a great source for giving and receiving information on how to grow our own food and share experiences as well as get to know the neighbors better.

As always, thanks to Jack and Ute for their support of HeartLand. They pick up produce orders for us during Intensive time, they offer fresh herbs from their own garden, they gave us starter plants and advice on the gardens and are great friends to all. We do appreciate you!

And, not at HeartLand, but definitely on the Team, supporting the work by offering his skills is Dale Hoffman in Asheville, NC. He is currently doing some major editing work on our new DVDs to get them ready for duplication. This is a project we have had “in process” but on the back burner for 2 years and it will be great to see it completed. Thank you for jumping in and getting this one done for us!

Work Month was May 1 – 31, 2010 and we had three awesome workers show up all the way from Australia – Daniel, Aaron and Sue. They assisted in the renovations to the HeartCenter including the new addition to the roof as well as working in the gardens and helping with some upcoming changes to the website. They pressure washed buildings and cleaned roofs and built walls and filled sand bags and anything else that was needed. Thank you all for coming so far and being such awesome workers and helping to get us headed in the right direction for this coming season. We hope to see you again soon.

As of June 2010, just before michael and Jeanie made it back to HeartLand, we had Trish, Tim, Jodie and Desirae join the Support Team. Tim and Jodie were valuable in the hard work needed in the Heart Center remodeling (assisting Terry). They helped install air conditioners in the cabins this year too. Desirae and Trish headed up the kitchen this intensive season. Thank you to each of you and we wish you well in your next journey in life.

Then, Paulo Biancard came all the way from White Haven, Cumbria in England and moved into Gratitude (an apartment in Heaven, our home) for several months. He was so handy in fixing almost anything that was broken. He repaired equipment, plumbing, air conditioners and assisted in the construction in the Heart Center. Thank you for blessing us with your presence and we look forward to your next journey over.

Don and Dorothy Ann Jackson, long time friends and supporters of this work, are moving to Mountain Home to become ministers of the Unity Church. Until they find their permanent home they will reside at HeartLand. We welcome their loving presence and support. Their being here opened the door for us to do a 5-day series of workshops in Mountain Home with awesome response. Don and michael did some TV and radio publicity as well.

The team assisted in work projects off-site including helping with some construction at the Unity Church and at Don and Dorothy Ann’s new home.

HeartLand has donkeys – you’ll have to check out the pictures on the new Facebook website or the HeartLand photo album. They have a sweet spirit and the team as well as intensive participants have enjoyed feeding and petting them.

The team was awesome support when they jumped right in for an additional 9-day intensive that was added in October. Their flexibility to keep going when they thought the season was over and buildings were ready to be closed up is so appreciated. The construction in the Heart Center had to come to a halt and clean up (again) was required so we could use the building for this added intensive. Thanks everyone for making it all happen.

Several of the buildings still need repairs and we really want to get the pool operational (we’ve said this for several years but it has not made it to the top of priorities as we have not had a “pool person” come onboard yet). We still hold to this happening. And the list goes on …

And there is still room on the Support Team Super-Intensive for this next year. Any carpenter / builder / handyman or office types ready to take a year off from the world to have the most healing experience of your life?