The date is the same, 19 November, but the venue has changed. Steve Erdmann suggested that we keep the “walk” idea but move the location to St. Peter School. Each man will be in a different classroom that Jacob was in during his years at St. Peter School, and the walk will be from room to room. This does a number of things: it removes the effect of bad weather, it allows us to do the walk then progress right into the ceremony in the Sanctuary, and it provides additional symbolism with the parallel of going from grade to grade to growing from boy to man. Pastor Micah Greiner is supportive of this idea, and we are in the process of making it happen.

Mary Jo has the Sanctuary reserved from 1 pm to 4 pm. The number of men who can participate will dictate the start time. I will limit the ceremony to no more than 1 hour, so by starting the ceremony at 3 pm we will be finished by 4 pm. That gives a max time of 2 hours for the wisdom and council of Godly men. Please email to let me know if you plan to participate. The best case would be 12 men, in which case we will have 10 minutes each.

Greetings from Texas (Howdy, Y’all).

We have rescheduled the Manhood Ceremony activities for Saturday, 19 November. Jacob’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor will be held the next day, Sunday, 20 November.

Manhood Ceremony activities will still consist of the walk at Deer Grove park, the actual ceremony at St. Peter Lutheran Church at 2 pm (in the Sanctuary now instead of Bartz Hall), and the dinner at Piatti Pronti at 6:30 in the evening. I am looking at taking less time during the day on recommendation from Mary Jo, as a whole day may be difficult for some to justify. I’ll think about this more in the next few days. If you have opinions, please get back to me.

I have decided to postpone all of the manhood activities until a future date. I would very much like for all of you men and peers to participate, and a number are unable to on the 13th.

My wife has reserved Bartz Hall at St. Peter School for the ceremony. It will start at 2 pm, and I would like to meet there at 1 pm to set up and rehearse a bit.

This will follow the morning ‘Life Walk’ at Deer Grove Park, and will be followed by a dinner at Piatti Pronti in Arlington Heights for participants (fathers and peers).

More planning details. The plan now is to start in the morning at Deer Grove park early in the morning, around 6:30 am. We should be finished at 10 am or so. The ceremony will tentatively be at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Arlington Heights. I am working on getting Bartz Hall, and the ceremony should go for an hour or a bit longer. Finally, the dinner will be at Piatti Pronti in Arlington Heights, at around 7 pm.

The first and third parts will be for fathers & sons only, and family members are welcome to the ceremony.

The breaks between events will provide time for reflection and discussion between fathers and sons.

I had a thought about how to make this all work. After watching part of ‘Raising a Modern Day Knight’ I realized that I need to have Jacob’s closest male peer friends participate. We could start early in the morning at Deer Grove, perhaps at 7 am, before it gets hot. If we have 10 men and allocate 20 minutes each, this gives 200 minutes (3 hours 20 minutes). There will be some variability due to different walking speeds, but we should be complete by 10:30.

The ‘journey’ will be separate from the ceremony. I would like to have the ceremony in the afternoon, around 3 pm. Although I haven’t planned it, I’m thinking something around an hour and a half, and will have an audience of families and friends. During the ceremony, Jacob’s friends will read their short letters, we men will say some things, there will be a charge (obligations of manhood), a blessing, a ‘knighting’ with the sword, and a prayer.

Dinner will be 7 pm in Arlington Heights. This break will provide an opportunity for fathers to talk with sons about what they witnessed and participated in, and how it relates to them. At this time, I would like to have the dinner in a private room at Piatti Pronti. The chef - owner is a personal friend, and she has agreed to create a special meal for us. I’m thinking at present that men participants and their sons will be invited to the dinner, where we will fellowship together and continue the celebration.

I’ll start a discussion topic on this subject, so please chime in with your thoughts. To participate in the discussion area, you will have to create a log in with a password. Email me if you need assistance.

In watching the ‘Raising a Modern Day Knight’ video again, I saw the portion where affirmation by peers is described. In light of this, I am going to be asking some of Jacob’s friends to write a short letter to him, and ask them to read it aloud during the ceremony. Affirmation of what others believe you are good at is important to all men, especially so to those early on the journey. See the Jacob’s Friends page.

The candidate dates are August 12th & 13th. Jacob’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor is scheduled for the 14th.

This new website exists because I got fed up with the hosting services offered by Apple (.Mac) and my Internet provider, Speakeasy. Although web hosting is an offered feature, it was overly difficult to get working. So, I bit the bullet and purchased a dedicated hosting service and domain name. It took about 10 minutes, and the result is well worth the extra cost.

One of the immediate benefits is correct operation of the Discussion page. We can now have threaded discussions where questions can be asked, comments offered, and information passed efficiently to all involved.

I will be adding more content to the site in the coming week.

First blog post. Thanks to you Gentlemen for agreeing to be a part of this Manhood Ceremony for Jacob Harper. Please see the Participants page for the current list of men.

Planning: the date has been tentatively chosen for August 6th. Jacob wants to spend the summer with his friends, and I fully support this for a variety of reasons. If the date shifts farther out, we will return to the area to hold the ceremony.

Overall vision: my vision is to have the ceremony followed by a bonfire and a meal. I haven’t yet worked out enough details to know if this is all feasible. Please email me with your comments and ideas until I get a discussion area working on this website.

I want for the ceremony to be at Deer Grove Park, with you men placed around a portion of the walking path. Jacob will start out at the beginning and walk to the first man, and then they two will walk and talk together to the next man on the path. I would like to have 15 - 20 minutes of walk & talk, but realize that time will be the limiting factor if all are able to participate. After each man has his turn, they will walk back to a central point. The last man (which may be me) and Jacob will walk together to the central point. I am trying to work out how the conversations can be recorded for Jacob’s future listening and reflection, as I believe that the discussions that will be conducted will be full of wisdom and guidance that will serve him for the rest of his life.

There is a camping area, Camp Alphonse, which has a pavilion and a fire ring. My initial thought is to have the knighting ceremony there with a bonfire. I have to think this through so it is not firm as yet.

I would also like to wind up the event with a shared meal. I haven’t figured out where and how as of yet.