The Tulsa Workshop & Aimapalooza

Dear fellow AIM Alumni,

I wanted to personally invite everyone to the Tulsa Workshop, which is coming up on March 24-27. We’re going to begin on Wednesday night(which is a new aspect) at the Pavilion and we will end with a final session on Saturday beginning at 4pm. I am genuinely excited about the speakers we have lined up and wanted to note a few that share a connection to your heritage as an AIM student. Craig Hicks(AIM ’86), Tim Rush(’90) and I(’92) are going to speak. Also, many of you will recognize Mike Tanaro and Eli Hooper, who have been part of dozens of Camp Adventures, as well as Trey Morgan, who preached in Tulia, TX(on of our area churches) for several years. On Saturday, Misty (Kirkley) Algaier’s(‘97) husband, Sean, will speak, sharing from his experience of being on last season’s Biggest Loser on NBC. This is in addition to Terry Rush, Jeff Walling, Patrick Mead and many others who are extremely encouraging and challenging speakers. You can find the full schedule at www.tulsaworkshop.org.

Even more exciting to me is what happens on Friday night beginning after the evening keynote(Mike Cope). All AIM alumni are invited to be part of AIMapalooza. This event was begun out of sheer sadness. I was so sad that every year I would bump in to so many alumni and not have any time to really talk to them. We initially were going to do it at our house, but it quickly outgrew it so we have been meeting at the Memorial Drive Church of Christ building in the upstairs area. AIMapalooza is a very casual event where 40-70 of us eat and drink (whatever items that we all bring), sing, and visit, visit, visit. We officially wrap up around 11:30, but you can stay as long as the conversation lasts. It is such an encouraging event and this year we are thrilled to share with you a few of the things we’ve been working on with the AIM Alumni Association. This group is a grass roots effort to help AIM graduates come off the field with more support, information and encouragement so that their transitions can be smoother and healthier for them spiritually and emotionally. This effort is slow-going(since we all have full-time jobs), but continues to progress and, in time, we hope to offer some concrete help that will be a great blessing.

So, if at all possible, please join us at Workshop and AIMapalooza this year. If you have any questions about either, just let me know. We can’t wait to see you!

Jason Thornton