Sukkot 2015 Participant Guide

Sukkot 2015 Participant Guide

Welcome to the Feast We have put this guide together with the hope that it will help you to have the best possible experience. We encourage you to prepare mentally, physically, and spiritually for the time you will spend with your brothers and sisters in Messiah. Before You Arrive Items you NEED to bring: For the Hotel Style rooms (Log Cabin Lodge, Mountain Lake Lodge, Little Cabin, and Chalets): o Sleeping bag or sheets to fit either a full or queen size beds (whichever you reserved). o Pillows, towels, washcloths, toiletries, soap, shampoo, etc. If you have a balance to pay, please bring cash (we will not have easy access to a bank to deposit checks and we may not have internet access to process credit card payments). Clothes for a wide range of temperatures - it can be quite warm or cold in the mountains. For those that signed up for the inclusive meal plan, you may want to bring additional beverages and snacks for between meals. Note: must be stored in your room and consumed outside of your room or in the fellowship hall. Items you MAY WANT to bring: A shofar - if you have one. (Time permitting, we may have a shofar clinic). Instruments, flags, banners, etc. - for praise and worship. Games your children can play with other children. Cooler - for personal food or beverage storage. Note: the kitchens are for meal plan only and no personal food may be stored in the kitchens. Laundry supplies and quarters - the ranch includes a coin-operated laundry facility, so bring your laundry supplies and plenty of quarters if you anticipate doing laundry. There is also a Laundromat located in town, about 10 minutes from the ranch. A First-Aid kit with bandages, thermometer, and general medications. Sukkot 2015 Page 1

A brief reminder: Devarim / Deuteronomy 16:13-17 instructs us: o To rejoice as a family (verse 14); o To bring an offering / gift according to the blessing which Yahweh has given you (verses 16-17); o Please pray about what you can do to rejoice as a family (both with your physical family and with your spiritual family); o Please pray and meditate on how Yahweh has blessed you and bring a gift/offering in accordance with that blessing; and o No formal offering will be taken up. There will be an offering box on a table throughout the week that you can place an offering in anytime. Upon Arrival On-Site Leadership - People to go to about any issue that may come up: Rabbi Steve Berkson - Site Director o Shamash Robert Locey - Assistant Site Director Rebbetzin Julie Berkson - Kitchen, Youth Classes and Youth Activities o Neyla Locey - Main Kitchen o JoAnne Mitchell - Blue Kitchen (bread, salads & desserts) Evangelical Team - Photographs and Videos o Marty Shrabel o Chelle Fuller Check-in: Check-in at the M.T.O.I. registration table located in the large meeting hall in the Log Cabin Lodge. All balances due for registration, housing, and meals should be paid at check-in. If you arrive during one of the Holy Days or on Shabbat, please check-in right away but pay any balance due after the Holy Day or Shabbat ends. Sukkot 2015 Page 2

Please pay in CASH. This will make it easier for M.T.O.I. to pay the balance owed to the Mountain Lake Ranch. Someone will direct you to your room, RV site, or campsite. If you need any help with getting settled in or anything at all, please let us know and we will have someone help you. During Sukkot Marketplace There may be a small number of vendor tables. They will be located in the Mountain Lake Lodge. The Marketplace will be closed on the Holy Days and Shabbat. Kitchen The kitchens are for the meal plan ONLY. o No personal food is to be stored or prepared in the kitchens. o If you have medications (such as insulin) that require refrigeration, please see Rebbetzin Julie Berkson or Neyla Locey Kitchen volunteers - please arrive on time on your assigned day. Set-up and clean-up volunteers - please arrive on time on your assigned day. Ice is available on the grounds, for a minimal fee. Ice can be purchased through the kitchen leaders. Shabbat and Holy Days All feast participants are encouraged to be mindful of their behavior, and that of their children, (as applicable) on Shabbat and Holy Days. These are to be days set apart to Yahweh. Let s treat them with the respect and honor they should be accorded. Any questions about what is acceptable or not acceptable can be directed to a member of the Leadership team. Sukkot 2015 Page 3

Community Meals All feast participants are encouraged to fellowship with one another during the meals. Those participating in the meal plan are expected to help in the preparation, serving, and cleanup of meals throughout the feast. Outdoor picnic areas MUST be cleaned up after each meal. We are in a natural environment, with all of Yahweh s creatures. To maximize the safety of all, eating areas must be cleaned after each and every meal. Curfews This year, we are implementing a series of curfews. This policy is in no way to be understood as taking responsibility from the parents. Parents are encouraged to set their own personal curfews appropriately for their children. Leadership is setting these as general guidelines to ensure the safety and comfort of all feast participants. A general noise curfew will be in effect starting at 10:00 P.M. Please be sure that any activities done after 10:00 P.M. take sound into consideration. Y.M.T.O.I. Katon (children 12 and under) have a curfew of 10:00 P.M. Parents are responsible for ensuring that all Katon aged children are in their rooms or the under their parent s direct supervision. We do not want any children running around any of the buildings or the property after 10:00 P.M. Y.M.T.O.I. Gadol (children 13 to 19) have a curfew of 11:00 P.M. Parents are responsible for ensuring that all Young Adults are quiet between 10:00 P.M. and 11:00 P.M. Parents are also responsible for ensuring that all Young Adults are in their rooms or under their parent s direct supervision at 11:00 P.M. Sukkot 2015 Page 4

Photographs and Videos We will have a photographer and videographer at the feast this year. At the end of this guide is a release statement. Please read it carefully. If you do not want yourself or your children to be in the photographs or the videos, please communicate this to a member of the on-site Leadership Team so that they may communicate accordingly with the evangelical team. Doctrinal Discussions and Differences We are going to have a very mixed multitude, coming from many different backgrounds, experiences, and doctrinal understandings. Some of the attendees will be very new to all of this and others will be veterans. Please use discernment when considering entering into a deep doctrinal discussion with others. In Titus 3:9-10 Rav Shaul (Paul) tells Titus that arguing about the Torah is unprofitable and useless and that it is the divisive man that is to be rejected. We absolutely encourage doctrinal discussion and even a healthy doctrinal debate. What will not be acceptable is the attacking of someone for not seeing a doctrine the way you do. Please do not bring documents, pamphlets, booklets, CDs or DVDs to hand out. This should not be looked at as a place full of people you can convince to come over to your way of understanding a particular doctrine. If you have something you would like to share with the group, please give Rabbi Berkson a call at (423) 825-4975 to discuss it. Please, in all discussions treat each other with respect, meekness, kindness, gentleness, patience, and above all, love. In other words...the way you would want to be treated. A note regarding the names people use when referring to the Father, Son, god-head, etc. We are going to have a mixed multitude of members of the Body of Believers attending this celebration. Most will not have met each other before they arrive. All will have come through their own Sukkot 2015 Page 5

unique path. All are walking out the path the Father has them on. Please be gentle, patient, kind, and loving in handling the variety of names that will likely be used by people. Remember: we all see through the glass darkly and are walking out OUR OWN salvation in fear and trembling. Leaving to Go Back Home Please, let s do our best to leave the property in a condition that will make our heavenly Father proud. If you were given a room key, please return it to Rabbi Berkson before you leave. We are planning to use this facility again for the next feast and want to be sure that the property owners are excited about having us back. Sukkot 2015 Page 6

Photo and Video Release Form M.T.O.I. is using the services of the evangelical team to capture photographs and videos of activities and participants in this year s feast. Your consent is assumed, based on the foregoing information, unless otherwise communicated directly to the on-site Leadership Team either verbally or in writing. You authorize M.T.O.I. to use your picture, including photographic, motion picture, and electronic video images and/or your voice as captured and included in sound and video recordings. If you have any minor children, your authorize M.T.O.I. to use pictures of your minor child(ren), including photographic, motion picture, and electronic video images and/or their voice as captured and included in sound and video recordings. You grant to M.T.O.I. the right to use, publish, and reproduce, for all purposes, pictures of you in film or electronic (video) form, sound and video recordings of your voice, and printed and electronic copy of the information in any and all media including, including the same for your minor child(ren), without limitation, cable and broadcast television and the Internet, and for exhibition, distribution, promotion, advertising, sale, press conferences, meetings, hearings, educational conferences and in brochures and other print media. This permission extends to all languages, media, formats and markets now known or hereafter devised. This permission shall continue forever unless you revoke the permission either verbally to the on-site Leadership Team or in writing to M.T.O.I. You further grant M.T.O.I. all right, title, and interest that you may have in all finished pictures, negatives, reproductions, and copies of the original print, and further grant the right to give, sell, transfer, and exhibit the print in copies or facsimiles thereof, for marketing, communications, or advertising purposes, as M.T.O.I. deems fit. You waive the right to receive any payment for M.T.O.I. to use any of the material described above for any of the purposes described in this form. You also waive any right to inspect or approve finished photographs, audio, video, multimedia, or advertising recordings and copy or printed matter or computer generated scanned image and other electronic media that may be used in conjunction therewith or to approve the eventual use that it might be applied. The safety of your children is forefront in the creation of all marketing materials. Creative license will be used to manipulate all captured media with safety in mind. This may include the use of group photos, blurring techniques, softening filters, etc. Should any of the children be wearing any identifying material, such as name tags, customized or personalized clothing, every effort will be made to remove the identifying material to ensure that the name of the child(ren) does not become public knowledge. If you have any questions or concerns, please communicate them directly with the on-site Leadership Team. Sukkot 2015 Page 7

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Mountain Lake Ranch s Guidelines The following guidelines were provided to us by the Mountain Lake Ranch: Children must be supervised at all times. Children are not allowed to go to rooms unsupervised: o This is imperative in the Log Cabin Lodge because of the lofts. No jumping on the beds. No crayon on walls or furniture. No drinks, juices, etc. spilled on carpets. No wet beds, mattress pads or blankets. Children must not go to the pond without parental supervision. (Please note: the pond is not available for swimming.) No string stuff or paint (even finger paint). Please keep food or snacks in the fellowship halls, and not in the rooms. o Absolutely no food in the Log Cabin Lodge room lofts. Watch children on all staircases inside and outside of the buildings. Please don t allow children to play with the blinds in the windows or with the heat/air units. Please don t slam doors. In the blue lodge, use the wide stairs and not the narrower stairs by the kitchen. This is a private, winding staircase and not as safe as the wider stairs in the hallway. Please keep doors/windows closed as much as possible to conserve on the heat or A/C. Please pick-up all trash regularly and keep reminding the children not to litter. Thank you so much in advance for your attention to these guidelines. We believe that they will help us all to have the best Feast ever. Rabbi Steve Berkson M.T.O.I., Site Director Sukkot 2015 Page 9