Category Archives: Foot Washing

2015 Burning Man Individual Sale ticket registration is now open

2013 Burning Man ticket

Thinking about going to Burning Man this year?  If so, NOW is the time to register for a free Burner Profile (https://profiles.burningman.com) in order to participate in the Individual ticket sale.  Having a Profile setup isn’t a guarantee you’ll get a ticket, but it is a pre-requirement.  If you’re thinking of buying a ticket, you’ll want to head straight over to the Burning Man Ticketing page now: http://tickets.burningman.org and read carefully the details, rules and deadlines.

The Healing Foot Wash camp this year has a vital core of folks who love and practice Christian Science, and it welcomes people of any faith who would love joining in this joyous service.  If you’d like to learn more please visit http://healingfootwash.org.

If you’d like info about the ongoing “CS@Burning Man” efforts, please visit their Facebook page.

Washing Feet at Burning Man

This is a video at Burning Man in 2013, showing the simple method we used to wash over 200 people’s feet at our Christian Science camp.

This year we’re planning on washing over 1,000 people’s feet. We’ll also be offering Christian Science prayer / treatment for anyone who requests it at our camp, along with three metaphysical talks by John Tyler, CSB, hosted at Sacred Spaces (4&Gold) and Center Camp. If you’re going to Burning Man this year, look for us in the Isfahan and 9:15 neighborhood. We’re looking forward to washing your dusty feet!

A warm thank you again to everyone who has helped us in any way this year. Our hearts are filled to the brim with gratitude.

3 weeks until Burning Man! Notes from tonight’s call (* including TO-DO items for you)

You bring love from my feet to my heart -- Alana
You bring love from my feet to my heart — Alana

Thanks everyone for being part of the call tonight. For those who were not able to join, here are notes from the call:

Books donated (estimated totals, we know there are more in Reno waiting for us and in transit):
Bibles: 50+
S&H: 90+

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has helped raise awareness of our mission and helped with fundraising. This year we’re hoping to wash 1,000 people’s feet, and still have some additional expenses we would like to cover. The supply truly is there, and thank you to everyone who has been supporting this project metaphysically.

5 people have volunteered to participate in helping the group acquire 1 additional ticket in the upcoming OMG sale. Please make sure you have registered for it by tomorrow at 12pm (when OMG sale registration closes). Patricia will email if we need to change the plan of having everyone who can try for 1 ticket each. http://profiles.burningman.com

All local Bay Area participants (and friends) who do not have previous hard commitments will gather at the Berkeley CSO (2601 Durant Avenue, Berkeley CA 94704) on Sunday 8/10 (1 week from today) starting at 12pm to do the initial shake-out of our major camp pieces (tent, shade structure) and to also take inventory and begin organizing. Food will be provided. Please feel free to invite any friends who might be interested in helping us out.

Everyone else is encouraged to be part of the regular 5pm PST group call, which will be focused on metaphysical preparation, inspiration and sharing.

Please take care of your personal packing needs soon — Burning Man will be upon us sooner than you think! Start taking personal inventory of what you have and what you still need to get. Particularly if you are in the Bay Area, local stores will start selling out of Burning Man related gear soon, so get what you need now!

Read the official Burning Man Survival Guide yet? http://survival.burningman.com

Transportation assignments:

Berkeley Rental Truck
Gabriel (driver)
Amanda

Berkeley Car #1
Cristi (driver)
Drea
Julian
Genevieve

Berkeley Car #2
Anna Lisa (driver)
Rachel
Mark
Alexis
Loren
Patricia (return from Burning Man)

Tennessee RV
Mike
Nancy

LA
Michael
Ansley

Reno Burner Bus
John Tyler (round-trip)
Michelle (round-trip)
Patricia (one-way in)

Number for next week’s metaphysical call:

(619) 326-2772
Access code: 1246521

Agenda: Metaphysical preparation

THANKS EVERYBODY, and see you all in 3 weeks on the playa!!!

)'(

Gabriel

P.S. Please ask anyone you can think of to sign up for our Prayer Watch team: http://doodle.com/hpecc4kux5qf9tb2

Burning Man by the Numbers

http://www.scottlondon.com/photography/burningman/
Photo credit: http://www.scottlondon.com/photography/burningman/

We invite you to join us on the playa in spirit through your prayerful and financial help. Here’s a quick breakdown of Burning Man 2014 by the (approximate) numbers:

  • 8 days  – August 25 to September 1
  • 68,000 people
  • 120 miles north of Reno, Nevada, USA
  • 7 square miles of playa (fine-powdered alkaline desert; about equivalent in size to downtown San Francisco; BLM land that transforms from barren desert to “Black Rock City” and back once a year)
  • 1,000+ Porta-Potties
  • 1 Center Camp where you can purchase ice, coffee and hot cocoa; ice is also available at two other locations; no other commerce is allowed, period.
  • 1,000s of theme camps – from Aloha Camp (island vibes, Aloha spirit and Hawaiian culture) to ZAP! (a giant lightning bolt striking the playa).
  • 1 foot washing camp* – ours! “HEALING FOOT WASH: Life, Truth, Love”Healing Foot Wash banner
    • 15+ on-playa participants
      • 15+ pairs of goggles and dust masks
      • 15+ bicycles
      • 1 gallon of water per person per day for drinking + food
    • 1 playa kitchen organized by our fabulous kitchen team and staffed by each participant in turn
    • 1 evapotron shower system
      • 497 baby wipes 😉
    • 10+ foot washing stations
      • 2000 feet washed (goal, up from 400 feet last year)
      • 1/2 C water + vinegar per foot wash
    • 3 lectures by John Tyler, CSB, a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship
    • as-yet uncounted number of used Bibles, Science and Healths, MyBibleLessons, Quarterlies, Sentinels, etc., for gifting
    • ++ Prayer Watch volunteers – PLEASE PRAY WITH US! <–sign up for a watch
    • 1/2 of needed funds have been raised – every donation counts! Our participants have purchased their own $380 tickets, and paid for travel and food. However,  we have lecture**, truck rental and a some miscellaneous expense to cover.

Thank you for joining us in spirit through your prayers and donations. It is never too late, nor too little. This camp belongs to everyone who wants to share their love of Christian Science with the world. We appreciate your support and promise to share our experiences with you when we return!

*according to a search for the terms “foot” and “feet” in the theme camp list
**lecture expenses include tickets, travel and food for our lecturer and spouse

Agenda for Sunday 7/27/14 – 5pm CS@Burning Man Conference Call

Healing Foot Wash banner

I know it must feel like it was just yesterday that we had our last conference call, and we have another important one coming up on Sunday. If you’ve been missing these and can be on the next few calls that would be great… it really helps the team feel cohesive when we’re all participating!

(619) 326-2772
Access code: 1246521

** Agenda for 7/27/14 **

** Metaphysical inspiration **

** Fundraising update **
– Funds received to date
– Reimbursement request process & expectations (Name, Description, Amount, receipt)

** Tickets update **
– Has anyone not received their tickets yet (that aren’t at Will Call)?
– Who is still looking for tickets / steps we can take as a group to support

** Communications update **
– Everyone please submit recent picture + short bio for Participants page on site
– Banner artwork for camp entrance
– Playa cards artwork for handing out

** Foot washing **
– Be prepared to wash 1,000 people’s feet this year (~5x last year)
– More stations, be thinking through sustainable process, how we encourage visitors to participate as washers and in our camp. We may be playing much more of a “host” role this year, encouraging volunteers to stick around
– At ~1/2 cup per person, 1000 = 500 cups = ~32 gallons total of water for foot washing

** Official Burning Man Survival Guide **
– How many people have read this year’s version completely?
– This is REQUIRED READING for ALL camp participants. Please do this sooner rather than later. Online version: http://survival.burningman.com, you should have also gotten a copy with your tickets if they’re delivered.

** Metaphysical Support **
– Everyone please spend some time metaphysically supporting this camp, and each of our individual participants
– Some are still looking for tickets, some are financially tight, let’s focus on knowing our true and full supply
– Final camp arrangements are still happening, we have an assigned general location, let’s also pray to know that our specific location and neighbors will be harmonious, beneficial

** Next Meeting Reminder **
– Sunday 8/3/14, 5pm, normal conference call number
– Next two weekends after that will be work at the CSO weekends, PLEASE put this on your calendars

Anna Lisa’s article about last year’s Burning Man experience is live on ChristianScience.com

Burning Man hands
Photo by Anna Lisa Kronman

Anna Lisa contributed a lovely write-up of her experiences as a camp participant at the 2013 Burning Man festival that has now been published on ChristianScience.com.

We prayed thoughtfully and earnestly for ourselves and all those who would be coming, but we arrived with few outlined outcomes. We planned to gently embrace this city of lively seekers by seeing their spiritual worthiness as we washed dust from their feet. What a surprise that in doing so, we discovered we were in the middle of church! Being in this very unique environment led me to some new thinking on what constitutes Church. Here are a few ideas that came to me in that windswept space about Church pared down to its core essence.

Click here to read the entire article.

June 2014 Letter to our Church Friends

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Greetings friends!  This is the postcard and letter we sent out to many churches and friends recently.  If you know anyone who might appreciate seeing this, please feel free to share this with them!  There are less than 2 months until Burning Man happens and things are really starting to to come together!  Thanks again to everyone on the team who has been contributing so that everything get done that needs to get done!

5x7_postcard_2014_back_01c

June, 2014

Dear Church friends,

We all love to share “a cup of cold water”, the profoundly good news of Christian Science, with receptive hearts. The purpose of this letter is to acquaint you with how a group of us has been doing that at an unusual venue, and invite your prayerful and financial support as we continue this year. We appreciate your sharing this letter as widely as you can, posting it if possible, along with the card.

The event is Burning Man 2014, a temporary city of over 60,000 who meet for a week in the Nevada desert to share art, music, a gift-based economy, and free thinking. For a number of years, a few students of Christian Science have been a part of this community, sharing the good news of Christian Science healing. This blossomed into a somewhat larger group giving Christian Science lectures in 2012 and again in 2013 to some wide-open listeners.

Our informal group of Christian Scientists will be bringing John Tyler, CSB, a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship, to interested and hungering hearts this year. In addition to supporting the lectures, the group will be washing feet again (a very well-received gift offered last year), giving away copies of the Bible and Science and Health, and offering prayer or Christian Science treatment to any who request it.

Though the group participating in the desert is not large, the positive impact of sharing the Comforter is huge! Support by all who love the good it can accomplish is invaluable, and we invite you to join us in this. Here are three specific areas we welcome your participation:

  • Please join us in prayer in support of our time there from August 24 – September 1 2014: prayer that sees man as whole, pure, good, including all coming to Burning Man. We would appreciate prayer now as well, as we prepare.
  • Send us books to give away! We’re looking for loved, used copies of Science
    and Health
    and the Bible to give away as gifts at our camp. Written in or underlined is OK. Books may be sent to Christian Science at Burning Man, Care of First Church of Christ, Scientist, 795 West Peckham Ln., Reno, NV 89509.
  • Give financial support. Lecture fees, vehicle rentals, gas, and food are some of
    the expenses that will be covered by donations from individuals and churches. Thank you in advance! Checks may be made payable to “Cal Berkeley CSO” with a memo line of “Burning Man”, sent to Christian Science Organization, 2601 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704. Any amount is appreciated.

You can find more information, videos of the Burning Man lectures, pictures, links to articles, and may donate online via PayPal here: https://spiritualplaya.org/donate/.

Thank you for your interest, prayers and support!

Lovingly,
The Christian Science at Burning Man team

Download PDF: 2014 Letter to churches

2014 Burning Man Camp Placement Questionnaire Submitted!!!

2013_Healing_Foot_Wash_Life_Truth_Love_Placement_layout-revised_02

Close to the last minute (it’s due at 12pm later today) but I got it submitted.  A couple of new points:

  1. If we receive Placement, we’ll be required to arrive before Gate opens to setup our camp.  This will impact our scheduling.  We’ll need at least 1 person on-site to secure our placed location, and they request we have our camp fully setup before the general public begin arriving on Sunday.  We’ll probably shoot for somewhere between 3-6 people to be part of the Build Team, possibly up to 12.  Our earliest arrival date will be Thursday, August 21, 2014.
  2. We had to submit a name that was 33 characters or shorter for our Camp name.  I chose “Healing Foot Wash Life Truth Love” for this purpose, since our previous “official” name was too long.
  3. I requested placement in the 9:00 Portal, 7:30 Portal and 9:00 Streets areas, each with 150′ of frontage area.

Here are some of the responses to key questions in the application:

2014 Burning Man Placement Application

Camp/Village Name?

Please provide the name of your Camp or Village. You will be limited to 33 characters.

You may wish to drop words like “A”, “The”, and even “Camp” from your camp name for better positioning in alphabetical listings.

To honor our principle of de-commodification, we ask that you not include the name of your commercial enterprise in your camp name.

“Healing Foot Wash Life Truth Love”

Interactivity Description

Please describe your Camp and how you will promote personal interactivity of our community within your Camp at this year’s event.  Please be as specific and concrete as possible.  We are interested in reading your schedule of events, your plans for service, gifting and hosting in detail. (This is the most important information we are collecting from you).

HEALING FOOT WASH

Our camp enthusiastically provides foot wash stations in a loving, safe, non-sexual environment where visitors can sit on comfortable chairs and have their feet washed.  In 2013 we washed hundreds of people’s feet, and received glowing reviews from everyone (see below for some of their comments).  Many people were surprised to find us (we were unplaced last year) and visited us each day once they found us.

OUR MOTIVATION

We’re asked why we wash people’s feet? Our goal is simply to love everyone who visits in the purest way we can, by providing a much needed and appreciated service.  We also discuss spiritual topics with visitors if they’re interested, and share additional gifts of loved spiritual books if appropriate.  Our motivation is based in the Biblical examples of foot washing as a pure service of love.

This year we’re returning with more camp participants, and plan to wash even more feet.  It was a totally awesome experience last year, and this year will be even better.

SCHEDULE

We provide manned foot wash stations primarily during daylight hours, from breakfast through dinner time.  Our goal is to have 10 stations ready at all times.  We’ve recruited additional participants to ensure there are always people available to provide the service.

INTERACTIVITY

We encourage our “customers” to return and wash other people’s feet, but they must have their feet washed first.  We provide the supplies (dilute vinegar, soap, water, basins, lotion) and example of how to do it.

METHOD

1) Sit, remove shoes, socks

2) Place feet in clean basin, rinse with dilute vinegar / water mixture using squeeze bottle

3) Apply dilute Dr. Bronner’s soapy water using squeeze bottle

4) Rinse with clean water

5) Towel dry

6) Optional (most people want this) – apply foot lotion and massage feet / calfs

7) Sit, relax, talk

8) Once done, dispose of water in evaporator, clean basin for next use.

We also provide fresh cold water to drink and light snacks like cold grapes.

SHADE STRUCTURE

We provide a 60’x40′ public shaded area that provides relief from the hot sun.  Our foot wash stations are located under the shade structure, but there are no walls, so it is a very nice open, airy relaxing environment.

OPEN TO ALL

We gladly welcome everyone to our camp, both to receive foot wash service as well as to give.

“CUSTOMER” RESPONSES

Some of the comments / notes people left last year:

“This is the best gift I’ve gotten at Burning Man, and I’ve been coming for many years”

“You bring love from my feet to my heart – Alana”

“Best Foot Wash Ever”

“This is Love – Nels S.B. C.A.”

“)'( You guys have made me shoot rainbows out of my toes. You are beautiful expressions of love!”

“Thanks for the fresh feet. Ethiopia Joe”

“A perfect find – Love Lee, NYC”

We are totally looking forward to this year and having a “home” within the Burning Man community for this much appreciated service.

 

Acculturation

Familiarizing newer Burning Man event participants to our culture and community is a vital role of Placed Camps.

How does your camp encourage Participation, teach about the 10 Principles and set expectations about what it means to be a Burner?

Please describe how your Camp acculturates its members and the greater community.

Our camp holds regular (every 2-3 weeks) conference calls going over Burning Man principles and how we plan to express them.  We also have a group that has been focusing on the spiritual as well as practical applications of the 10 Principles, and thinking of inspiring ways of embodying those Principles.

We love all 10 of the Principles.  The Principles we strive to embody / express most in our camp are Radical Inclusion, Gifting (the main reason many of our participants are coming with us), Communal Effort, Civic Responsibility, Participation and Immediacy.

We scored 100% clean on the MOOP map last year (aka we Left No Trace).  Our camp is very low impact, and we emphasize with all new participants the need to really embrace the principles of Burning Man, including subscribing to Jack Rabbit Speaks, reviewing thoroughly the Burning Man website, and learning from our past experiences at Burning Man.

Physical Description 

We need a description of the layout of your Camp. Please describe the physical aspects with as much detail as possible. Include a description of features like structures, buildings, vehicles, tents, platforms, and the locations of your power sources. Maximum of 400 words.

Our camp consists of a central welcoming area defined by a 40’x60′ open public shade structure.  This structure is composed of a central 6’x6′ column with 14′ bracing for reflective shade cloth that extends out in a cross shape.  We have a 30′ dome (from Shelter Systems) that we provide as a public quiet space for reading (as well as camp participant sleeping area).  We have additional tents for sleeping, a kitchen area, a water evaporator.  We use solar panels for our light power needs.  Our lighting is all solar powered LED.  We park cars and RVs in the back of our camp, as our purpose is expressly to be warm and welcoming to public interaction.  We have a private shower that is for use of our campers.  We have bike parking in the front of the camp.

Public Listing on our website:

What you should know when you submit your Camp description for the website:

  1. Please limit your description to two sentences. Remember, this is our voice to the world. Please consider this when submitting.
  2. Please give us the correct URL; any future changes to the web address will be difficult.
  3. All submissions will be reviewed and may be edited.
  4. After your submission it will take about two weeks for the description to appear on the site.

Please include the description of your Camp that you would like to have included on the Burning Man website.

Text for website listing

Come have your feet washed in a quiet, safe and loving environment.  You may come back and wash other people’s feet after you’ve had yours washed, all are welcome!

Regardless of the decision of the Placement team at Burning Man, we’re confident we will be in our right place at 2014 Burning Man and will have the opportunity to be of service to hundreds of people during the week-long festival!

Washing Feet

I’ve begun doing some preliminary reading about washing feet, per last night’s teleconference. I see a Wednesday night topic in the making!

Feet ready to be washedAlso, I really love this quote in relation to Burning Man:

“Cleanse every stain from this wanderer’s soiled garments, wipe the dust from his feet and the tears from his eyes, that you may behold the real man, the fellow-saint of a holy household,” ‘Retrospection and Introspection,’ by Mary Baker Eddy (Pg. 86).

The playa is our ‘holy household’ for the week, filled with fellow-saints! And again, when you read the passage in context, it is clear that this cleansing starts with one’s self.