September 19, 2009 by jcollins.

Today was the last official Rebelution conference of the ‘09 tour…
It was the best finale to the year I could imagine! Yes, set-up yesterday was very trying on us and the Harris’ crew but today was worth every second of it…
The morning started off early (6:00 a.m.). We headed to the conference center and started prepping the keypads. All went well, and soon we let my friend Samantha and her family in early. (I guess for once we were those ‘higher connections’ everyone talks about…:)…)

Everything went perfect during the distribution! This was an awesome ‘touch-team’! They got everyting done promptly, efficently, and happily. Kudos to the DC Rebelution Touch-Team!!!
I sat with my debate friends for most of the day, and for once, experienced the conference almost like an actual attendee. It was even neater when I soon found out I had another friend there from the NCFCA… Timothy Pierce. I had debated him at a practice tournament in January during last tournament season. He is a philosopher-wannabe whom I find to be interesting, as he takes a pure logical look at everything. Different from me and my other L-D friends like Samantha and Justine who just look for an understandable connection that is logical. It was good to catch up with him and discuss this year’s new Resolution- Resolved: that competition is superior to cooperation as a means of achieving excellence.

About a hundred people said they’d like to accept Christ and about that many must have stood up- more than ever before I would say! It was amazing. Like no conference before, Mr. Harris and many others were brought to tears before it was over…

This was my favorite conferance so-far I think. I probably say that after every conferance but this time it is completely true!

We went to dinner with the Fansler family (Chick-fil-a) then picked Daddy up at the airport…
I hope we can come back to DC next year!

Signing Off After THe FINAL Rebelution,
Katie

P.S. Less than a month left till we get home!!! See y’all soon!!!

Posted in Gregg Harris, Rileytheband.com, Sono Harris, James Harris, Isaac Harris, keypads, www.theextremegroup.com, philosophy, logic, Timothy Pierce, Katie Collins, touch-team, Sarah Harris, Bret Harris, rebelution, NCFCA, Debate camp, audience response, Total Interactive Events, homeschool, Samantha Fansler, L-D debate, Alex Harris, Harris family, Harris, Justine Strickler, text message service | No Comments »

September 19, 2009 by jcollins.

Yesterday before heading out to Samantha’s family’s house to play we dropped Daddy off at the airport. Then we spent the morning-early afternoon with my debate friends. We said goodbye to Justine, Luke and John, as well as their Mother; and discusssed meeting the Fansler’s at the Rebelution site in the morning. Then Mommy, Sam, and I headed to the conference center to set-up.

For my sanity and the sake of the chapel I will not give details as to what happened exactly, only to say that it was obviously not at a church, from the way the AV guy treated Sam (and others) during set-up.

We were thrilled to find the entire Harris family had come, and enjoyed seeing Mrs. Harris, Sarah, Isaac, and James! Sam had a blast with James when late Saturday afternoon, they were restless and decided to play silent ghosts (shadowing me around), pretend airplanes (vroom…), Army (”What’s your name?” “Put up your hands, or prepare to die!” etc…), and other boyish games!!!

I was able to talk to both Sarah and Isaac which is always enjoyable!

Mommy had several conversations with Mrs. Harris with whom she does not normaly get a chance to sit down with…

I LOVED seeing all my friends today, especially Samantha. Justine, Samantha, and I did something at Camp that we have continued. Everytime we say good-bye to someone in the NCFCA whom we may very well never see again we have said, “Bye, see you at Nationals.” We probably won’t get to Nationals (ever…) but it is a good, encouraging, way to say Good-bye.
So, for now, “bye see you at nationals” (for the rest of y’all we will see you when we get home!)

Signing Off,
Katie C.

Posted in Isaac Harris, Sarah Harris, James Harris, Sono Harris, Gregg Harris, Bret Harris, Alex Harris, Justine Strickler, Samantha Fansler, Harris, Harris family, L-D debate, NCFCA | No Comments »

August 25, 2009 by jcollins.

Hey,
Let’s take a survey, ‘Do you agree with this Resolution? Resolved: Competition is superior to Cooperation as a means of acchieving Excellence.
Well, if you’re competing in Lincoln-Douglas Debate (NCFCA) this year you probably have a opinion. Personaly, I don’t think either is superior until you narrow the topic. Competition should be superior in the Free Market, and cooperation in team sports, but anyhow…
This will be an interesting year overall. The coaches at the camp said lots of students will be debating economics, Mommy had to give me quick lessons about the free market, and economics between rounds at the Tournament ( or ’round robin’) ending the camp.
I met at least three great friends who I will keep in touch with; and several people who I will probably, never meet again in a debate tournament; unless we all get to Nationals, which is pretty unprobable. I trained under three great coaches; Cody Hersche, Samantha Nasser, and Andrew Roblyer. They all write for the Red Book and are awesome teachers!!!

Most of my friends even competed in the ‘Round Robin’ at the end of the tournament which was awesome! I did better than ever before there, going 3-3 (winning three rounds, loosing three rounds), which itself will speak for the conference. I was able to refine my cross-examination skills, and during the three rounds of the ’round robin’ that I was negative, I learned to do ‘pure refutation’ a non-case technique for arguing against your competition-upholding opponent. It is obviously a technique that works considering two of the three rounds i won, I was negetive during…
We all headed to Chili’s for a dinner to remember. Hopefully, we will see two of my friends at the D.C. Rebelution conference, something I am looking forward too…
Overall, I love L-D even more than I used to and the more fun the round, the better it gets…
I’ll post pictures soon,
Katie …
P.S. If you are between the ages of 12 and 18; participate in the NCFCA, you will learn skills you will never forget, and certainly use in the meantime!

Posted in NCFCA, Debate camp, Uncategorized | No Comments »

August 24, 2009 by jcollins.

Colorado Springs-Monument Church- Late Sunday Evening, Mommy was checking to be sure everything was a go for Debate Camp, starting at noon Wednesday. She briefly read an ad and sent an e-mail to the corospondance-person at Monument Publishing. About an hour later after a long conversation, I was ‘unofficialy’ signed up for Apologetics Camp as well, starting at noon- tomorrow.

For those of you unfamiliar with NCFCA Apologetics speaking standards, the apologetics genre is a difficult one. First of all, there are one hundred topics given at the begining of the year for each participant to prepare material for. Once in the round you pick three topics from the table, select one for your speech and have four minutes of prep-time. Participants bring already prepared cards in for the different topics in a box, then prepare their speech from what they have. This can be intimidating to first yearers like me, which is why I was excited, and rather nervous to go to camp…

I was thrilled at the chance to learn how to defend my faith over the next few days. I made a few new friends, and was happy to be studying under two very simple to understand Coaches, one of whom I knew from our Rebelution conferences. Joanna Griffith was, amazingly, a national NCFCA ‘Apologetics-er’ her very first year… she and Coach Bettis turned the world of Apologetics; previously a non-penetratable, nerve-wracking, speech; into a topic even easier than my beloved L-D debate. Tuesday evening, our group of approximately 20-35 students was split into several groups of 4-5. I gave my first official Apologetics speech on the very difficult topic of the trinity in front of a group of four boys… not the ideal group but, it was good. Later that evening I gave another, more official speech on the topic- ‘If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent one.’ (Voltaire) I think it went very well, being about 5 min. long with about 20 min. prep.

This was Training Minds’ very first Apologetics Camp, lasting from noon Monday, all day Tuesday, and till about two Wednesday where Debate took over… I would encourage you to check this out, hopefully they will continue this for the future…

From apologetics camp,
Katie C.

Posted in NCFCA, Debate camp, Uncategorized | No Comments »