How It All Began

Before Creation Exploration was, there was a vision to one day have a retreat center for single moms.  I'd read about a place called Pacem in Terris in the book, God, I Need Help!:  A Woman in Distress Discovers God is Absolutely Dependable by Linda Joyce Heaner

 

Several years later, I was blessed with the opportunity to go camping at Cottage in the Woods with friends.  I loved the concept!  These folks had taken their land, and slowly, over time turned it into a camp/retreat facility that operated, by faith, on a donation basis.  I could never have afforded this as a single mom!  We were there in early September after a wet summer and there were frogs everywhere!  You couldn't walk to the lake without sending frogs scattering!  Then we were there again the following spring in late May and there were no frogs.  I said to the friend I was with, "I want a place like this, but more so!"  I'd been praying about what God wanted me to do with my life.  She looked at me and said, 'You said the same thing when we were here last fall."  I did not remember having said it, but I took her words as a confirmation.

 

I had nothing!  I was a single mom, living in housing projects.  I prayed, "How can I possibly do THIS?"  The answer came in our homeschooling motto, "Do what you can, where you are, with what you have."  Thank you, Theodore Roosevelt!  Thank you, Lord!

 

So I started doing nature study with my kids, in our yard.  Soon the neighborhood kids were bringing me coffee cans and yogurt containers with "What is it?" mysteries to be solved.  

 

That fall (Sept. 2010) I started my first homeschool group, right where we were.  We had a half dozen families.

 

I read Richard Louv's, Last Child in the Woods and many other books that continued to inspire and propel me in the direction that would eventually lead to what today is Creation Exploration.

 

For many years, I'd said to my kids, "I would like to live in the middle of 100 acres somewhere."  It seemed highly unlikely as I could never afford that much property and I did like being close to town and people.  I just wanted space.   Then we moved in November 2010 to an apartment on an old farm property, in the middle of 100 acres my landlords family owned - with a major road running right in front of our house, just four miles from town, proving God does have a sense of humor.

 

In the spring (March 2011) we started fresh, with local homeschool friends,   Over time, we grew, folks came, left and new folks came.  We explored the farm pond, the fields and the lake that was behind the property.  I did exploration field trips, and presented workshops on the importance of play, nature study and nature connection and homeschool conventions.  There was even a 10 week summer program for a church during this time.

 

In July 2011 I had begun working on the Kamana Naturalist Training Program, through Wilderness Awareness School in Duvall, WA.  Since then I've completed Levels 1 & 2, with plans, as time and funds allow to complete all four levels of the program.

 

Hundreds of kids have been on Creation Explorations with me since that weekend in September 2010.

 

This fall (2018) I self-published four books to help folks integrate nature study into their everyday life, whether they homeschool or not.

 

The desire remains to open a nature retreat center on ocean front property on Penobscot Bay, where families can come for a day, a weekend, or a week, to hike, explore the coast of Maine, to unplug, to learn, to just be.

 

Things have entered a new season, where many of us are praying about what God has next for Creation Exploration, waiting to see what doors He will open and where we will go from here.

 

Raylene M. Hunt, B.S., Ed.

Nature Connection Facilitator

Kamana Naturalist - Level 2

Posted November 2018