I made a last minute decision and bought a flight to Portland five days before the YaYA gathering in Boring, Oregon~ Visioning for Our future~ This was one of the best decisions I’ve made recently. Being fairly new to the fellowship of young people, I was slightly intimidated but knew in my heart that I was only going to experience growth by gathering with this group of extremely talented individuals. It was time for me to re-center and engage with the people who strive to bring light into the world.

I’m very much the type of person who sits back and wants to observe. I want to be of service to the YaYAs, the wider UB community and the world, but I do better being told how I can help, rather than coming up with new ideas on my own.

We were all asked: What is your vision for how you personally can help bring Urantia a little closer to light and life? Now? Soon? For future generations? I took some time before I left Omaha to sit with this question and I did come up with a way I could personally help bring Uranita closer to light and life….and it seemed my ideas were much more simple than the rest of the crew in Oregon, but I admire all of their ambition. Ideas ranged from having a Urantia television channel to community centers and one on one connections.

After everyone shared we came up with about six major themes of what direction we want to head in the future and broke off into groups. Two groups I was a part of were:
1) Events and Community Placemaking
2) One on One connection, accountability, peer to peer mentoring.

I feel we are fortunate in Omaha because we already have a space dedicated to the Urantia Book and a decent sized group of readers who support each other on so many levels. I believe this can be an example and a starting place for further growth in Omaha and in other cities across the US and world.

I’m not sure why it’s so easy to forget that I’m a part of something bigger. I think the visioning over this last weekend has addressed this, the fact that we forget we are all connected through the Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man and we hope the future will reveal this to all humanity and allow them to always know their connection.