To all,
     
     Here is my first session update.  Our Church has an outreach in the 
     form of a coffee house down on the bar strip by Akron University.  
     They use it when it is closed for a lot of their youth activities, and 
     that is where we will be holding our DragonRaid sessions on Sunday
     since it is closed.
     
     Anyway, the Youth Raid went very good.  At The Living Room cafe on 
     Saturday, Mark (the Pastor) told me that he thought that probably only 
     2-3 kids would be there for DR.  I actually was a bit relieved because 
     it's always easier to work with a small group.  Well, Sunday morning I 
     went in early for prayer and felt pretty confident.  When they 
     announced for the youth to meet me and my wife (Beth) in the back of 
     the Church to be taken over to the cafe 5 of the normal youth and two 
     visitors showed up.  There were 7 kids!  I was a little nervous.  :)
     
     We borrowed a van and drove over to the cafe, unlocked it, and turned 
     on the lights and everybody got in their places.  At first we tried 
     sitting in some of the comfy sofas and chairs, but it just wasn't 
     conducive to the session, so we moved to one of the big tables.  I was 
     a little shaky, and began really diving fast, but Beth was acting as 
     my helper so she interrupted and suggested I pray first, so I did. I 
     calmed down a bit, and then proceeded to go through some items.  
     
     We opted to hand out prerolled characters, and have them transfer them 
     to sheets.  It saved time, and I was able to go through and explain 
     the character sheets thoroughly.  One of the visitors was reading 
     through the exerts from the LRH that I handed out and she was a bit 
     shocked at a reference to 'passing from the land of darkness'.  She 
     said, 'what are we in darkness?  Wow, that's encouraging!'.  It turned 
     out to be a great opportunity for me and Beth to share how Jesus was 
     the Light of the world and how we as Christians have that light, and 
     yes, this world is dark to those without Christ since satan has 
     blinded unbelievers.  We found out as time went on that she was 
     'unchurched'.  I'm not sure if that meant she wasn't a Christian, but 
     I definitely took note.  At first, she said that she 'didn't want to 
     play DR after today', but towards the end of it she seemed excited.
     
     The other visitor also seemed really into it.  He had previous RPG 
     experience so he seemed the easiest to adapt to DR.  Of course, we had 
     the disclaimer about the differences between DR and D&D. ;-)  
     
     I played the 2nd half of the cassette explaining the Success Grid and 
     Combat.  Of course they all loved the combat (so did I)!!!  Even the 
     girls!  We had 3 girls and 4 guys.  2 of the girls are Mennonite, so 
     it was cool to see them excited about DR.  Actually, earlier in the 
     morning the Mennonite girls' Dad and Mom told me that the girls were 
     so excited about DragonRaid!  It was very encouraging.  In fact, so 
     many parents told me and Beth how excited they were (and most didn't 
     even have kids that were near DR age).  
     
     I made sure I explained to the kids that although combat was fun, it 
     was just a portion of the game, and that there were many other facets 
     of DR that they would enjoy too!  They looked forward to the 
     witnessing aspects since they have gone out on the door to door trips 
     with the Church as part of the 'Church to you' that the Church does on 
     some Sundays.  It was exciting though to see them looking forward to
     those aspects.   
     
     One of the kids is very shy, but he seemed to be interested.  I'm very 
     excited about this group.  There are a couple other kids that are on 
     vacation that I think will fit right in.  They are pretty well behaved 
     so I think that it will run fairly smooth even if it gets a little 
     larger.  I think it really helps to have another adult in there as a 
     helper.  
     
     Anyway, we practiced combat a couple times, and they really caught on 
     quick. I'm sending them out their WR's this week, and will follow-up 
     with them before our next session.  I think that if it takes off it 
     will go to biweekly, or onto another night, two groups or something.  
     The Church seems very open to using DragonRaid however God wants it to
     be used.  
     
     We didn't get to the LR Test Raid, but we really covered the rules and 
     answered a lot of questions, so I think we're all set to dive 
     immediately into the Raid next session.  I'm going to meet with any 
     new kids who come in before then and go over the rules with them 
     (there are at least 2 more) and bring them up to speed.  Next time too 
     we all get free pop from the fountain machine! (they loved that idea)
     
     Well, that's all for now,
     David Staley