At Journey, real world connections and experiences are crucial.  Too many young adults feel ill equipped for the new chapter of being an adult because they didn’t learn the structure and systems of budgets, taxes, apartment hunting, or other key skills needed after graduation.

During this quest, there are so many experiences tied to architecture and construction.  Heroes are in the stages of prepping for building permits.  There’s an application process, accountability for approval, and implications if building permits are lost or not accessible for inspectors.  With critical documents, there is a tedious process to endure replacing those papers.  MHS has had a taste of this experience.  With missing documents, work had to be paused, searches ensued, and the process of reapplication (with fees) began.  These lessons are hard to walk through, but teach heroes responsibility or accountability.  As the situation progressed, the MHS leader valiantly and humbly chose to replace the permits at cost to themselves.  Part of owning a company or firm is taking responsibility for your team.

Blueprints have been a battle of perseverance, but with collaboration and a sprinkle or grit, MHS is moving on towards Phase 2: Building the Dream.

 

As the heroes focus on building skyscrapers this week, they learned the importance of a solid foundation. Researching and getting inspiration from the tallest skyscrapers in the world, they noticed the firm foundations of each building to support the whole structure. When they designed their own skyscraper, the heroes reminded each other that the foundation needs to be big and strong. Thus, when it came to constructing, they knew that they had to use the biggest and strongest box in the pile to be able to support the other boxes they intend to stack up as high as they could.

These young heroes are just as aware of their need for a firm foundation when they start their day with worship, prayer, and time in the Word. More and more heroes are bringing their own Bibles from home. They look forward to their ten minute devotion time, reading their Bibles, praying, and being silent before their God. When they come together after their devotions, the heroes speak with so much wisdom from the Holy Spirit, sharing about a Bible story, a Bible lesson, or anything that the Lord has spoken to them during their quiet time with Jesus. There could not be any stronger foundation than their special time with Jesus each morning.

During their Socratic discussions, the heroes continue to learn about Keys to Excellence. Each day they learn a new “Key” and share their personal experiences demonstrating excellence. Every time they review the Keys to Excellence they have learned, the heroes are able to recall each one, namely, perseverance, ownership, flexibility, balance, integrity, commitment, speaking with good purpose, and failure leads to success. Not only do they recall them, but the heroes also remind each other throughout the day about these Keys and apply them to their experiences.  

Some heroes were counting the days to Easter and they were really excited to celebrate what Jesus did for them on the cross on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter Sunday that they wanted Fun Friday to be an Easter Egg Hunt! But they faced an unfamiliar challenge on this Easter Egg Hunt. First, they talked about past experiences from egg hunts wherein some got more eggs than others. Some heroes sadly shared about a time when they were unable to find as many eggs as they wanted. And the heroes who shared about finding the most eggs also admitted that they felt sad for those who did not find many eggs. Thus they all agreed to work together on this unique egg hunt. They would help find all the eggs together and regardless of the number of eggs they find, they had a mission: to find twenty sparkly eggs, each with chocolate bunnies inside. They would need to rescue all the bunnies to have a chance to take them home for Easter, with no bunnies left behind, including all the other eggs they find. If they were unable to find all twenty sparkly eggs, the bunnies (and all the other eggs) would need to stay at school until they find all their brothers and sisters. Throughout the egg hunt, the heroes who filled their baskets of eggs would empty them into one big pile of eggs, counting the sparkly eggs they have found. Some hesitated as they held on to their treasure, but were soon convinced by the other heroes that they are working together to rescue the bunnies.  Unfortunately, at the end of the hunt, one of the sparkly eggs could not be found. Despite their disappointment, many heroes encouraged each other to “keep trying… keep looking for that one last sparkly egg…because failure leads to success.”

Architecture Quest

Week 2

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Launch Key of Excellence	Commitment Why is it important to be committed to doing excellent work? What would happen if you are not committed to your goals? How will you face challenges that may distract you from being committed?	Failure leads to success Think of a time that you failed. How did your failure lead to success?	Speak with good purpose Why is it important to speak before you speak? What ways would you speak with good purpose throughout the day?	Flexibility Think of a time when things did not go your way. How did you react to the situation?	Ownership Think of a time you took ownership of your mistake? How did you fix your mistake?
Relaunch	If you were an architect, would you look to the future and try to create something new, or would you look to the past for inspiration? What about in this quest? What will you do? Will you innovate, or pull from the past?	The goal for today is for you to begin discovering your style as an architect. Do you think you’ll be an architect who breaks boundaries and takes risks or an architect who studies history and revitalizes the great ideas of the past?	This book, Designing Your Life, is all about applying design thinking to your life. In it, the authors talk about the five mindsets of a designer: Bias to action Reframing problems Awareness Radical collaboration Curiosity Which of these mindsets will allow you to be most successful during this quest?	How to Think Like an Architect: The Design Process What ways do architects think like scientists? What ways are they different?	How to Draw Like an Architect, Part 1: The Floor Plan” Would you focus on designing the inside or the outside of your skyscraper?
Close	Why is it important to have a strong foundation?	What will you start doing, stop doing, and continue doing next time?	Which mindset of a designer did you use today?	What was most challenging about the sketching phase? Did you find you were able to move through ideas quickly or did you and your partner get stuck throughout the process?	How did you feel about working together during the Easter egg hunt?

Week 3 Plans

Week 3 Bridges

Bridge Challenge Design and build the strongest bridge you can that spans a distance of 45 centimeters (about 1.5 ft.), using any of these materials: drinking straws, paper clips, paper, tape, string or yarn

Paper bridge Can you build a bridge that holds 100 pennies, using 1 sheet of paper and up to 5 paper clips?

Mondrian-inspired abstract art

Suspension bridge What’s the secret of suspension? What’s the strongest cable?

Design a bridge

 

During project time this week, the ES and MHS heroes researched about a building in Las Vegas that had to be torn down. There were 5 different articles about who was to blame. The heroes drew from a hat to learn what “role” they had in the building process of that Las Vegas building and had to present their argument to prove their innocence in the process. This placed the heroes right into the story, and wow did it get interesting!

Two heroes who were the CEOs of the construction company came to me and said, “Miss Amy, after reading the articles, I think we are guilty. What should we do?” Deciding they would want to admit their mistakes more questions were asked of them. Those questions opened their eyes to what could potentially happen to them, their families, their company, and their employees.

Upon realizing the detriment of what pleading guilty could do the oldest hero, without skipping a beat, he looked at his partner and said, “I’m going to throw him under the bus.” That hero quickly looked back and replied, “Well then, I am going to throw you under the bus!” How quickly they turned on each other.

During our debrief that day, their story was shared as an example of what temptations can arise when mistakes are made by companies and partnerships. If you believe you are at fault, “Would you take the blame?” One hero said, “I tried to pay off the judge (which was one of the roles during project time), but the judge didn’t take my bribe.”

As the heroes continued to discuss the thought of making sinful choices, shared what we – as disciples of God – should do no matter how hard it might be. One commented, “We need to own our mistakes no matter how hard the consequences could be.” Another stated, “Think about it… Let’s just say you get away with it… So now you are living with that guilt for the rest of your life. That’s not the kind of life I want to live.” When tempted with sin, these heroes said they would rather admit their wrongdoing and learn from the experience. What a great example of humility and a desire to have a growth mindset.

Have you asked your hero:

1. What they are working on right now for the Architecture Quest?
2. Who their new ELS buddy is?
3. What the discovered on their field trip today?
4. What the word, “Hosanna” means?
5. What was Jesus saying without saying it when he road a colt to the temple?
6. When Portfolio Reviews are?
7. Who their Principal Architect is?

We had a great time visiting with our buddies this morning and going to Steelcase for our field trip.

“We both fit!”