April has been "exuberant' for Texas this Spring. My "North Dakotian" Daughter tells me, I do not even know the definition of "exuberant" based on their Spring weather. I suspect she is right, living much closer to the North Pole than I. Burrrr! It is refreshing for me to understand that we both live in a wonderful world and country where new opportunities (and weather systems) abound. The ARKGroup is challenged with new school, church and community projects. How fortunate we all are to have our lives of questions, promise, challenges and opportunities to impact the lives of children who are our future and are the future of the world. THANK YOU for your care for our children. Their lives are in your capable hands.

As a continuing Reminder: New Training DVDs are available: ARK Facilitator Training, The ARK Group Process and an Introduction to the Course hosted by Pat Summerall. Order yours today at www.thearkgroup.org. This excellent training guide will supplement the ARK lessons DVD's, manuals, workbooks, texts and advertising materials -- equipping you to begin ARK programs today. ARK programs provide breakthrough parenting and teaching "skills courses." With your help, we can make ARKRelationships the norm for the 21st century family, church, school and community".

For our Friends and Followers in the Dallas area, we are thrilled to announce our new ARK for Churches Programs. Thanks to a wonderful gift by a local benefactor, we are able to provide ARK for Parents Programs to local churches. The program includes facilitator training, lessons on DVDs, books, and a host of supporting materials and services. We invite you to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. Contact us today by e-mail, letter or by telephone in Dallas at 817- 268-2100 or Houston at 281-537-1301 to reserve a spot for your church. We will be hosting a numbers of seminars at a central location in the 1800 block of North Washington Ave thanks to the generosity of Dr. Curtis Wallace and the Pilgrim's Rest Baptist Church. Commit now, to enable your church family to become the parents and intentional adults in the lives of children that will change the world by your care.

What are some of the challenges / opportunities that are so important? If I could pick just one that woke me up this morning which I believe "You will help" to provide ideas that will become pieces of the pie for the solutions: it is the challenge of delivering the "golden rule" to our friends, neighbors and to those families and fellow human beings we don't know personally in this world. Now what do I mean by the "golden rule" you may ask? It has been stated many ways and in many languages in the great Faiths Traditions. Simply put, it implores us to treat others as we would wish them to treat us. That is a great opportunity disguised as an insoluble problem is it not?

These past weeks have been filled with many sadnesses and disappointments from Virginia Tech to Darfur. For me, the week has not been so much about the haves and have-nots of suffering, hunger, injustice, non- decency, non-reasonableness, unkindness and the directions of chance. Rather it has been about the present versus the future - today's generation versus its kids and unborn grandchildren. It is about "our interests and our actions" . It is about our raising our ethics of stewardship. Stewardship about what we do as parents, grandparents, neighbors to insure our children and their children can have a better future in a "golden- rule" world.

There are questions which we must ask as parents, neighbors, adults and teachers as we decide how we will help the children who are present in our daily lives to grow their "thinking futures". For all children which graces our lives, I propose we consider how we will address these 'Life Positions" with them:

• When will I share the ethical values of our culture?
• How will I explain the ethical blindspots which are based on individual opinions?
• What will be my contributions to helping kids understand the depth and discipline of faith and the role of spirituality and its providing rituals and customs with meaning and purpose for individuals and their world?
• Where will I begin to grow the ethics of "inalienable rights" to form the foundation of human rights and justice to maximize the benefits of our communities?
• How will I introduce the understanding of the rightness or wrongness of an action determined by its consequences in bringing the greatest happiness to the greatest number of individuals?
• When will I discuss the ethics of duty and the value of an individual who should never be used as a means to an end?
• What will be my opportunity to share the concepts of virtues such as attitudes, dispositions and character traits that will enable children to act in ways that will develop their potential?

In many ways our parents, their neighbors and our teachers' teachers rose to such a challenge in World War II - when an entire generation rose to a great challenge. That is why they were called the Greatest Generation. Our kids will call us the Greatest Generation if we rise to our challenge and become the "Golden Rule" Generation.

We at the ARKGroup are convinced that individuals can begin today to nurture the life of a single child (their own, a neighbor's, one in our classes or in our neighborhoods) and with each tomorrow, the world will be changed, opportunities will develop, and life will be more fulfilled. We encourage you to get involved. We suspect that you have been waiting for someone to ask. Call us. We will be happy to help.

Read on...

1. Ask someone to help. We are a community of individuals who want to believe we can make a difference. Let someone prove it to you.
2. Call upon the heritage of your family, community and church. What has been practiced before can provide a basis of experience for a jumping-off , a leap- of -faith approach to growth.
3. Try investing yourself in less of your own experiences and more of the experiences of others. Become indebted to the lives of others.
4. Leverage your strengths by investing into a practice of "unconditional care" for those in your life.
5. Read, Read and Read more and often. Read everything you can find. Use the Internet, your public library, the school and church libraries. Borrow books from your neighbors. Great ideas await you.
6. Figure out how to always take small slices of all the pies. Become a person of variety, plurality and openness. Take a position of being perspectival (that means gathering all the opinions, beliefs, facts and seeking not to value one above the other as you determine your directions).
7. Set up networks of people who you can support and who will support you.
8. Seek the sizzle and not the steaks. Spend more time engaged in hopes, dreams and possibilities.
9. Take advantage of other people's desire to be the best and join them in determining how to use that direction for improving the quality of your life and theirs.
10. Use picks and shovels. Focus on your efforts, not your results. That is what is a beautiful thing about a "Big Life". It belongs only to you and no one else will ever live it.

In all these strategies, I am struck by this world's ability to take the most complex of problems and use the simplest of solutions to engage in the Life we all can live. At ARK, we are about strategies of care and relationships. We believe the principles which are found in our world's great faith traditions are also very simple. We believe that children are our hope and will be the future of the world. We know that adults who are intentional about nurturing young people in an environment of "unconditional love and care, separating the person from the behavior and enabling them to recognize their lives as persons of worth" will grow a better world.

We want to know what you think. What are your ideas? What are your suggestions to share with this very large community of thinkers and doers? What ways can you share to make tomorrow an even greater opportunity for our children's futures?

Please share your ideas and read on...

Should adults tell children that school violence won't happen in their community? How do you assure children about school and community violence? If your child does not bring up this issue of violence, should you ignore it too? What is the best time to discuss and how do you engage a child in a conversation on violence? The best advice and consensus from the community of experts for these questions is that adults, parents and teachers should not provide blanket statements that violence will never happen. They usually recommended that we validate and acknowledge children's feelings. A good way to accomplish this is by focusing on messages about safety. Being honest to say that violence is unlikely to happen because... and helping them to feel they are in control by explaining how to report incidents that cause them worry. Adolescents and teens can be empowered by learning conflict resolution skills and participating in anti-violence programs. It is important that we as adults initiate these types of discussions and make them topics of family and classroom discussions. For children through the fifth grade, these concepts might be difficult to understand. Adults might try discussions on how to respond to "teasing', what can happen on the school bus and about people being mean.

How can you know if a child may need professional help? Look for the following changes.

• Regression in behavior, such as thumb sucking.
• Physical complaints, such as stomachaches or headaches.
• Reluctance to go to school or out of the house.
• Drop in grades or efforts in school, sports, Sunday school or at home.
• Failure to complete tasks.
• Sleep problems.
• Nightmares.
• Relationship problems.

How can adults take an active role in addressing school and community violence? We recommend that you learn about the safety measures and training programs in your community schools, churches and neighborhood centers. Talk to your neighbors, school and church administrators. Make sure you agree that what needs to be done is being addressed. Consider arranging community or school group presentations by local police departments or McGruff the Crime Dog programs. Get involved.

At the ARKGroup, we are dedicated to education and processes that create networks of support and the opportunity for creativity through "new ideas" shared from the experiences of others that will keep our children safe. Our programs can make available a number of strategies in your parenting or teaching toolsets that will result in resilient and loved children whose lifestyles are safe and are characterized by feelings of compassion, satisfaction, happiness and fulfillment.

Thank you for your commitment to the safe environments of our children.

Read on about Bullying from the National Crime Prevention Council...

• Become a program sponsor by funding an ARK for Teachers Program in School Districts: Electronic Packages for $950.
• Funding an ARK for Parents Program in Schools, Community Centers, Churches, Neighborhood Centers, Sunday Schools, Youth Centers: Facilitator Training Programs for $500.
• Purchasing individual manuals for $30 each to support organizations who need materials.
• Purchasing ARK for Kids or Teens workbooks for $30 each for deserving kids' networks.

Your support of The ARKGroup, Inc. creates possibilities in our churches, community centers, and public schools. If you have an opportunity, idea, challenge, or destiny to fulfill through helping children to grow into their full potential, please contact us. Together we can improve the quality of life in our communities--one child, one family, one classroom, one school at a time. Helping other people lifts one's spirits and gives hope for the future.

Read on...