February 2012
2 posts
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Constructive Coaching in ICCFS
By Rebecca Au
Could you put into words what makes a good speech?
Before I began critiquing the presentations of my peers, I couldn’t easily describe to you what makes communication excellent. But if you’re watching a speech and you listen closely, it is possible to discern what works and what doesn’t. Do you want to keep listening? Do the ideas make sense? Is there anything about the delivery...
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WatchThe 2011 ICC interns demonstrate the power of the spoken word in a Choral Reading of The Prayer of Saint Francis, presented at this year’s IGNITE Leadership Retreat.
Respond: Does this spark ideas for ways you can use your voice more expressively?
December 2011
4 posts
6 tags
National Student Leader Council
Have you ever noticed how people – especially those a little younger than you – will tend to copy what you do? That’s a taste of student leadership, in which youth are being role models to their peers and coming alongside them to teach and to serve. Maybe you or someone you know is in a position of student leadership within a local Chapter.
The Institute for Cultural Communicators has just taken...
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Men's Muncheon [IGNITE 2012]
By Daniel Patrick
What do you get when you put a bunch of just guys together with lots of food? The IGNITE Leadership Retreat’s Men’s Muncheon! Last year, the whole event was full of unforgettable memories.
This year, we have all kinds of awesome plans for this very special occasion and you will not want to miss it… that is, if you are a guy. of course. In all seriousness, it is an incredible...
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Iron Sharpens Iron
By John David McLean
The announcement of a new resolution brings feelings of apprehension, excitement, and a sense of adventure. I am so thrilled about seeing everyone at the ICCFS tournament at the IGNITE Winter Retreat, where we will not only be debating a new resolution, but also have the opportunity to practice our speeches and build community. This tournament will be the first tournament of...
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Simulation Like Never Before [IGNITE 2012]
By Joshua Boulden
We’ve competed to locate the one responsible for the EMP bomb that devastated the world. We’ve contended to find the world’s most dangerous terrorists with the ISA. We’ve battled to control cyberspace and defeat all oppressing adversaries in Hacker. Now is the time to once again come together in a clash of the globe’s most powerful nations to take possession of the most valuable...
November 2011
10 posts
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Model UN Success in Maryland!
by Elias Gunther
Recently, students from seven chapters in Maryland gathered in Annapolis. Their mission: to stop terrorists from blowing up the world. Okay, so maybe they weren’t really stopping terrorists, but that was the situation for the Model UN session on 11/11/11 where I was able to serve as Secretary-General. At this event we had 41 delegates (from ICC Chapters) representing 21...
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Western Mountain Party! [IGNITE 2012]
By Rebecca Au
One of my favorite aspects of banquets and parties has always been getting to dress up. At the Western Mountain Party at the 2012 IGNITE Leadership Retreat, you’ll get the chance to do just that – you have the option to come attired in a Western-themed outfit - while you contemplate a community that was formed around campfires, square dances, and live music. The party will let us...
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Winter and Mountains [IGNITE 2012]
by Kali Hendon
It was mid-January and I was on my way to ICC’s first ever Winter Leadership Retreat, IGNITE. Although I knew my roles at the event, I never expected the location to play such a huge part in the entire atmosphere of IGNITE. At the time, I was serving on ICC’s 2010 intern team, and I was absolutely thrilled to be assisting in the creation and hosting of this event. When we arrived...
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Community of Service [IGNITE 2012]
By Catey Yuen
Washing dishes. Moving chairs. Walking in the cold in the sunrise. A community of servant leaders.
All of these impressions help make up the experiences that you will have as a Recommended Staff Assistant, or RSA, at IGNITE. We are looking forward to a great time learning how to be leaders on and off the platform, and explore what it means to have community as people dedicated to...
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The Initial Adventure [IGNITE 2012]
By Seth Kays
As soon as you arrive at the upcoming Winter Retreat, you will immediately be immersed in the IGNITE experience. We are planing an exciting initial adventure for all the student speakers who attend, involving as much of the Cedine campus as possible. In other words, if Walt Disney - a man known for his innovation - had set Disneyworld in the mountains of Tennessee instead of the...
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Of Parachutes, Six-Year-Olds, and Teamwork
By Colleen Au
I was apprehensive, but excited. Like last year, my Chapter, SayWhat?, had partnered with a local church and their weekend-long conference to plan and implement the children’s program for six- through twelve-year-olds. This year, our program focused on the Beatitudes and the Fruit of the Spirit. Our ICC Chapter was even publicized in the conference pamphlet as a ‘special...
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Worship In Community [IGNITE 2012]
Why do we worship with people? When I picture worship some the first pictures that pop into my mind are music, dim lights, people with eyes closed, sitting or standing, hands raised. Sometimes, when I worship in a group I try so hard not to think about what the people around me are thinking that I’m distracted from actually praising God. So, why do we worship with people? Wouldn’t...
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Anticipating the Ladies Luncheon? [IGNITE 2012]
by Kathryn Clarkson
What do you get when you fill a room with girls, fun games, yummy food, and inspirational speakers? We would like for you to find out at the IGNITE 2012 Ladies Luncheon! Last year was filled with a ton of fun and happy memories. Fellowship is something that we as Christians desperately need in order to maintain a healthy spiritual life. We hope that this will be an opportunity...
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Energizing Track Titles
By Joshua Boulden
Jump Start, Track 1, Track 2, and Fast Track are the names of the different tracks that we lead for Communicators for Christ conference participants. All are good titles, but not what you would call exciting or invigorating to the speakers. “Track 2 Reloaded” was the new name for Track 2 that John David and myself came up with at the beginning of Tour Prep to...
October 2011
2 posts
7 tags
The Evolution of an Evening Program
By Catey Yuen
In between the Ohio and Texas conferences, our program, The Future is Now: Get Ready! has been through a gauntlet of changes and improvements. When the team first became acquainted with the program back at the training center during Summer Prep, we loved everything about it and found a lot of truth and growth in delivering the pieces in it.
When my family saw the Evening Program in...
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Experience IGNITE 2012
by Daniel Patrick
If I could use one word to describe IGNITE, it would be… AWESOME! IGNITE is an incredible experience full of unforgettable memories. I made so many friends who have continued to be a blessing and encouragement in my life as I continue learning what it means to be a leader in this culture for Christ. IGNITE is probably my favorite National ICC event because it is fairly laid...
September 2011
8 posts
5 tags
A Day at United Nations Headquarters
by Josh Craddock
As soon as the delegate from Syria opened her mouth to denounce Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights during a meeting on the rights of persons with disabilities, I knew that Model United Nations was just like the real thing.
Two years ago, I interned with the Institute for Cultural Communicators on their 2009 Communicators for Christ tour. Fellow intern Hannah Ketring and...
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Renewed Perspective at the Retirement Home
By Kathryn Clarkson
Perspective is a way of thinking - and it can be a beautiful thing. It can also become a stumbling block and a trap. I was struggling with some different things this last week and my perspective was that things needed to change, that I needed to change, and that other people needed to change. I was frustrated and tired and I began to focus on what wasn’t the way it should...
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Vespers
By Hannah Kelly
Vespers: a time of evening prayer, a time of worship, and a time to be together an
d lay aside ourselves to praise our Creator.
A few evenings ago, our team took a few hours to simply be with Jesus, together. Collectively we have been studying the Lord’s Prayer and learning the beauty of rhythm as a team. As music played softly in the background, and candles lit the scene, Seth...
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Bonding Times at the Farm
By Avery Lill
We heard rustling and laughter behind the corn stalks next to us, so we decided to scream. After all, when you wander around in a corn maze at night, half of the fun is in trying to scare your friends who are also wandering around in the maze. Our scream was followed up by a blood-curdling yell from the other group. They tore around the bend in the corn maze. Apparently, as...
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Provided For
by Rebecca Au I was looking forward to coming to my home state of New Jersey for a tour conference, because I could reconnect with my own Chapter and other friends from my state. But New Jersey housed our largest conference yet and I wondered what new challenges we’d encounter.
Surprisingly and beautifully, my whole experience in New Jersey was a blessing. The food coordinator, Mrs. Trefsgar,...
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Future Agent Communication Training with NJ’s...
By Daniel Patrick
Beginning Public Speaking students are the best! Apprentices are the best! Apprentices and Beginning Public Speaking are the bestest! A huge thank you to the Apprentices for all their hard work all throughout the New Jersey tour conference, but especially during the Beginning Public Speaking program (BPS), designed for students ages six to ten. We really could not have done it...
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Array of Cultures in New York City
By Kathryn Clarkson
Once upon a time ten interns were given the opportunity to go to New York City. These ten interns decided to have fun so they took their metro cards and marched off into Chinatown. After a while of trying on ridiculous-looking clothes and glasses some of the interns decided to go to a cute little New York pizza place and some of the other ones decided to go to Times Square....
August 2011
5 posts
4 tags
Friday’s Focused Training
By Avery Miller
Starting the day right doesn’t always make the whole day turn good, but on the Friday of the Georgia conference, the goodness just kept coming. The whole 2011 intern team started off the day with a lovely cup of Starbucks, and then arrived on location for our very first Leadership Training Day. It was a small group – around fifteen students - that showed up for this special...
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Leaders Keep Learning
By Rachel Kays
I absolutely love being a leader—mostly because I get to be in charge. After apprenticing a few times, I learned that you need to be able to serve before you can lead. This was one thing I wanted to experience again when I applied to Apprentice at the Georgia CFC conference. I also wanted to learn some new things, which is why I felt excited but a little apprehensive. Would...
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Douglasville, GA: Mango Smoothie Style
By Catey Yuen and John David McLean
Our first conference was like a mango smoothie – it blended together all of the amazing experiences we had during our summer preparation to make something wholly awesome and unique.
We arrived on Wednesday at our conference site, Pray’s Mill Baptist Church. As Seth explained, “The staff at Pray’s Mill Baptist Church was extremely helpful in making sure our...
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Commissioning Weekend With Our Families
By Kali Hendon
During the last few days of July, the families of the 2011 Intern team made their way to Tennessee for commissioning. During the three days spent with our families, our team was tremendously blessed. For most of us, it had been nearly a month since seeing our families, and for all of us it was the first time meeting quite a few of the other families. On Friday evening, the families...
Evening Program Premier
By Josh Boulden
Photo courtesy of Alice Hendon
After a month of training, days of rehearsal, and hours of preparation the time had arrived. The beginning of commissioning weekend, it was the moment we had all been waiting for: the first time we would see our parents and family since leaving home, and our first presentation of the evening program for a live audience. We arrived at the facility...
July 2011
10 posts
5 tags
People, Prayer, and Preparation
by Seth Kays
While here at the ICC Training Center we have been preparing for both Summer Camp and the Fall tour in a variety of ways: mentally preparing for running the events, physically preparing classes and pieces of the Evening Program, and also preparing ourselves spiritually to teach others to communicate for Christ. Besides spending time in daily worship and devotions as a group,...
Gaining Confidence
By Kathryn Clarkson
His eyes were filled with terror as he glared at me. I could nearly see the wheels in his brain turning as he tried to guess the probability of staging a successful escape. He was next Beginning Public Speaker in line to present his story and let me tell you, he was dead set against giving that speech.
I asked him “Do you think that you can stand up and give your speech?”...
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Lessons from the Adventure of PREP
By Weston Craddock
The most recent adventure I have had the great joy of taking was my experience at Summer PREP, which stands for Pursuing Responsibility and Excellence Purposefully. During the week I was at the ICC Training Center in Murfreesboro, TN, the PREP Team learned about each other’s characters and personalities, learning to cook meals, work outside, and knit our team together. We also...
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Serving the Homeless in Nashville
by Lane Baker
Mission 615 is a ministry that provides meals, clothing, and a warm smile to the homeless of Nashville, Tennessee. A typical day at Mission 615 is packed with hard work and love. In the morning, the team prepares for the Super Saturday children’s service. Children from Inner City Nashville are bused into Friendship World Outreach’s Pegram Campus. At this location the children play...
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Guys' Night: Tables and Salt
by Daniel Patrick
A table – the legs support it and it is good for serving food. Plus, it protects you from a tornado… so long as the tornado doesn’t actually come anywhere close to you! This past Friday, here at the ICC Training Center, the men had guys’ night where we actually spent a lot of time and effort building this table. We definitely had lots of fun just being guys, but we also...
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Girls' Night at the ICC Training Center
by Avery Lill
Awful hats. Heavenly desserts. Sword fights in the grassy lawn in front of some shops. Deep conversations. Less deep conversations. It was Girls’ Night: a night to take a break from preparing for ICC training events and enjoy being girls together.
Armed with our cameras, the prep team, intern, and summer staff girls headed to a nearby shopping...
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WatchSummer Camp will be here in only six days! Here’s a preview of what Track 2 is going to look like this year.
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WatchNational Convention Day 5 Theme Video: Transformation!
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WatchNational Convention Theme Video Day 4: Anticipation!
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WatchNational Convention Day 3 Theme Video!
June 2011
14 posts
4 tags
WatchNational Convention Day 2: Foundation
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Translators, not linguists
After eight months, my German vocabulary is steadily improving. I can just about order food in restaurants – as long as someone can check my pronunciation beforehand – and I can probably follow about thirty or forty percent of conversations in German (and more if I know the context). I even had an almost entirely German conversation about the British royal wedding with my landlord, with comments...
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WatchNational Convention Day 1: preparation!
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Regent Hosts Institute for Cultural Communicators
By Rachel Judy
June 16, 2011
During the week of June 5, Regent University hosted the national convention for the Institute for Cultural Communicators (ICC). Approximately 120 students and convention staff stayed on campus for five days of presentations and workshops designed to improve skills in public speaking and communication.
ICC is geared towards students ages 6 through 18. At the...
“I have just been reading updates to the ICC page on Facebook. Congratulations on...”
– - Michele Hop
2006 Touring Intern with the Institute for Cultural Communicator’s fall Communicators for Christ Tour
Summer Camp 2011 is coming up!
WatchAnother video created by Track 2 students; they had a lot of fun with this one!
WatchTrack 2 speakers spent some time at the National Convention creating their own media! We’re so excited about the direction our leadership and communication training is going with media incorporation!
Teamwork Activities with Interns & RSAs #NC2011