Foundation for the Awakening Mind Activities

______________________________________

Activities

The PeaceHouse at 4443 Station Avenue (Rear Building) in Cincinnati, Ohio, has been used for numerous religious education activities dating back to 1996. This description will focus on the activities at the house since Jan. 1, 2003.  The PeaceHouse has been a quiet resting place for David & the Messengers of Peace in between extensive global travels and teaching gatherings.  Many of the donations fund the transportation costs associated with far ranging travel to distant places in the world.  David, the board of trustees, ministers, and volunteers in the ministry receive no salary, and all contributions to the ministry go to the general fund to pay for the day to day expenses of the ministry and the freely Given Internet ministry and the many materials and resources and publications that are made available to the public.

Our religious education resources are given freely upon request as are all public gatherings and talks we offer.  Our hosts may sometimes set fees for our talks and gatherings and workshops/conferences as Guided, but then they donate proceeds to our foundation to help continue our ministry.  The PeaceHouse has been used to host retreats, traveling missionaries, missionaries in training, and guests who visit. The house has been used as a religious lending library, an office for the production and distribution of religious education materials and resources, a sanctuary for worship services, a residence for missionaries, a guesthouse for visits, and a communications hub for a worldwide Internet & travel ministry. The activities at the house have included the translation of writings and materials for web sites and travel, the intensive use of production equipment for making resources, the use of Internet communication technology for the ministry, and planning and coordination of a travel ministry that has extended to 22 countries spread over 4 continents.

Library

The PeaceHouse library has a large collection of books, pamphlets, audio cassette tapes, CDs, mp3 CDs, video cassettes, and DVDs which are made available to the public upon request. The materials and resources are religious in content and have been used by hundreds of people since 2003 as study and prayer supplements and for disciplining the mind to Inner Peace.

Sanctuary

The sanctuary serves as a place of prayer and meditation and study for missionaries and visitors.

Kitchen

The kitchen has served the needs of missionaries and visitors from all over the world. Our community kitchen has a large table, sink, pantry, oven, refrigerator, 2 microwave ovens, and lots of cupboard space for food, and cooking/eating utensils.

Bedroom Offices

A total of 4 Internet euipped offices, complete with beds and desks and office and closet space are provided for missionaries and guest visitors.

Internet, Web site and Computer Resources

Our Internet presence is a vital part of our ministry. It is the means by which many have been made aware of the message that we share and it continues to be an activity whereby all of the resources that we distribute are made freely available. Audio and video files are publicly and freely available to download for anyone with Internet access. We continue to accommodate the demand for downloading our online audio, video and literature files and to prepare for expansion of our foreign language pages.

High speed internet connections and services

As our web site is a vital part of the work that we do, a quality high speed connection at the house is very important. Much of the communication that is done on a daily basis is through Internet phone and email. We have utilized web based long- distance telephone services for international calls, which helps to moderate our monthly phone bills. At the present time we are using a cable modem service and a wireless system for the computers at our house in Cincinnati. High speed internet service is also important aspect of our web design and maintenance, much of which was done from this location.
Computers at the Foundation require maintenance and upgrades on a yearly basis. There has been one computer purchased specifically for the use of web site maintenance and design as well as audio and video productions. This is also the machine that is used to copy all of our DVD?s, so it is already getting quite a lot of use.

Purposeful Communication

Communications are really the backbone of the Foundation. Everything that we do depends upon our communications and the resources that come from it. The web site is but one aspect of this. All of our scheduled gatherings and trips around the country and world require many hours of plan ning and communication. Usually the bulk of this is done before travels begin. Inevitably, changes are part of any journey or group of gatherings. The communications base of our foundation is currently the PeaceHouse in Cincinnati. Communication between missionaries of the Foundation is very important as we all work in our purpose as a team.

A mobile phone is also an important part of our travels and communications. We are able to make and changes plans as we go along and as dictated by the moment.
We have an emphasis on maintaining strong contacts and relationships with those who have been supportive of our ministry. That requires us to have a reliable and reasonably priced long distance service. We currently use Lingo, an Internet based (broadband) long distance service and Net2Phone as a calling card service.

International Resources

Translation of publications

There are a number of publications and books available on our web site free of charge. These have served as tools for thousand of visitors to our web site, as well as thousands of people who have received a printed version of our publications by mail or at one of our gatherings. At the present time, it seems as if Spanish is the language in the countries where there has been the greatest interest in our message, aside from English speaking countries. Two years ago, a publication was made from dialogues done in Argentina (Only One Mind -Una Sola Mente). That is one of our most popular publications and one which is a very good representation of the message we share and is quite useful as an introduction to our gatherings and talks. This publication is available in both English and Spanish. It is also one of the most expensive publications for us to reproduce because of it?s length. There are a number of shorter in depth publications which would be supple mental to ?Only One Mind? and invaluable to anyone who considers themselves to be a student of spirituality and/or A Course In Miracles.

Distribution of foreign language publications

Foreign language publications have been taken with us on visits to foreign countries for distribution, or they have been republished and photocopied in-country once we have arrived.

Spanish web site

A Spanish web site was the first foreign language site that we implemented because of the interest in Spanish speaking countries. Sylvia Gonzalez from Colombia translated our web site into Spanish. That project was a very helpful beginning for the extension of the Foundation´s teachings to those who want read the materials in their native language. This plays an important part in making the teachings available to Spanish speaking people in other parts of the world. It was a means of offering more Spanish resources to the world and increasing the opportunities for more Spanish/English international gatherings.

Projects

Audio and Video resources

We have always done our own CD and DVD duplication. This is a fairly slow process. Generally speaking, production of DVDs is between 10 to 15 discs per day maximum. The computer must be monitored and discs changed each hour during production. We also make available a number of audio resources in CD and MP3 format. There is a high demand for these items. All production and copying of these resources has been done manually. The number produced in 2004 alone was well into the thousands. This is a very time consuming process and always done with the volunteer help of the missionaries.

Photocopying of publications

Several hundred copies of each publication that we normally distribute were made each year since 2003. 100-200 copies of each publication are made every copy run that we make. At this time we do all of our own copying to help reduce costs.

Additional Guest & Visitor Living Space

There are two older RVs that belong to the Foundation. The two RVs are in the back yard of the PeaceHouse and provide additional guest space for missionaries and visitors during the Spring, Summer, and Fall.

___________________________