Life Masteries Institute (LMI), Mark and Rosanna Boersma and many friends would like to welcome you to Riverside Retreats. Our hearts desire is to create a FUN experience for you and all your loved ones. And … beyond having FUN we also have a passion for HEALING by helping people discover their IDENTITY and LIFE VISION. By sharing the journey of our story and the picture story of our property, we hope that it will inspire you to become everything you were created to be.
NOTE: If you have any questions on any part of this workbook connect with the individual who invited you and/or individuals connected with Life Masteries Institute (LMI) and/or call / text 630.393.9909.
NOTES & Names Of New Friends
Imagine … meeting one person where you can change their lives and they will change your life forever. To do that … we need to meet and talk to someone. You are a far more interesting person than you realize. �� We’re serious! Throughout this booklet, there will be things which will help you to learn how to connect with others if you are more on the shy side. ��
Imagine … you becoming … everything you were created to be?
What would that look like?
What would you SEE in your life that you’re not SEEING now?
What would you HEAR? What words, sounds … how would you listen differently? What would you FEEL? Riverside Retreats is really nothing without the people. You … Yes YOU … makes Riverside Retreats what it is. When we sit alone … or … when we are with close friends … or … when we are with new friends, we decide what types of conversations we want to have. Are they surface conversations or deep ones? Oh … one more thing. If this booklet overwhelms you … wait until you meet Mark and have a conversation with him. ��
So … take a few minutes of alone time and write what your life has been BEFORE you attended Riverside Retreats. And then … write what you would like it to be AFTER. BEFORE …
AFTER … Now … if you think you have a pretty amazing life and it couldn’t get much better … well … maybe it’s just … that you don’t have a large enough vision of what your life could become … the legacy you could leave? Dig deep … and just imagine
Children and adults alike LOVE adventures and at Riverside Retreats we seek to have new adventures with every visit. Scan the QR codes for each station, watch a 2 minute video and go on an adventure we hope will be FUN and full of discovery and healing.
Scan the QR code and watch the short video about this station.
It’s always more fun to go on an adventure with children than it is only as an adult. If you didn’t bring a young child this time, connect with one of the other parents / grandparents and connect with them and their child / grandchild and do an adventure together. The “Garden Adventure” is a great place to start!
It’s the circle of life. Things are born / bloom, grow and then die and the circle of life continues. Each station has a short 2 to 3 minutes which will help us to get into flow with our own heart, mind and soul, through nature and then seek to learn how to do that with those around us. Close your eyes and think / dream / meditate on how you might like to be healed and/or empowered on your adventure today.
Watch the video, be present and write down what comes to mind.
Rosanna loves to garden, so naturally, with four acres, she wanted to have a garden. It started out
…… simple and small
…, but like any good garden, it grew and grew and grew.
Mark and Rosanna’s ten grandchildren
LOVE to have adventures with Grandpa. And Grandpa loves to have adventures with them.
Riverside Retreats is all about helping you create an adventure of a lifetime. The first adventure we would recommend could be called the adventure of self and starts in The Garden, Station #1. It seems that we often don’t really know ourselves very well, and it’s a sad thing not to know oneself. When we realize that God “knits us together in our mother’s womb” … and we really realize that at a deep heart level, it’s crazy… just crazy—how that changes … well … everything. So we start this adventure in Rosanna’s garden, a cool place.
“Who Are You?” What is our identity? Is it … in our job, our spouse, our children, friends, things or is it in “Becoming everything we were created to be?”
“Who Are You?” … Write down key words which describe you, things others may think of you. Ask others who know you, the “one word” that comes to mind when they think of you. And/or maybe think about what you would like written about at your funeral. And/or write down what you would like to be known for. And/or you can write a number of “I am … ” and write down what you believe you are and/or who you are.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You likely will not finish the full adventure today which is fine. Take this booklet home and work on it over time and/or bring it back to the next event and/or talk with Mark / Rosanna about coming over some time to just ruminate … think about life and work on it on your own.
After the garden adventure, the next station is the “Bear Deck.” Scan the QR code and watch the short video about this deck.
What are you passionate about? Draw a circle. See the next page. List all the passions you can think of around the circle.
Ask those who know you, do they see any passions you may have that you didn’t list.
Why do we even have all our passions?
What if it was to do something amazing?
Something that none of the 8+ billion people will do?
Actually it makes sense when you think about it.
Here are some examples of others' passion circles. Sarah’s is one of our favorites. She’s 5 years old.
Ste
Step 2: Write out every passion you have ever had.
Step 3: Talk with one of the sponsors to help you discover your first version of your life vision from your passion circle.
Analytic Personality ~ So … we are starting to learn how amazing / special we are and we have written out our passions … what what?
Mark and Rosanna were married in 1984. They have seven children and ten grandchildren and another one on the way.
Rosanna has her elementary education degree and home schooled the children for years. Mark is an international speaker and author. He is working on writing his 17th book with Elaine Yoder “Clean Windows” “Learning to see what we can’t see.” Mark is writing his 18th book with Nora Raber titled “Your Voice In My Headset” which is a book about Friendship.
Mark has traveled around the world and owns 9 companies and has an extra 20 to 30+ hours of free time a week to pursue his life vision which he was given at the age of 8 years old.
More on that a bit later. In all of Mark’s books he’s written he seeks to teach and learn about personalities.
There are 4 major personality types, 16 if you look at two levels, 64 if you look at three levels and 256 if you look at four levels. Between the Geo Test and the Pain Quadrant test there are 65,536 possible combinations.
Over the years Mark has volunteered his time and given his expertise to Life Masteries Institute (LMI). Weekly he does between 15 and 25 podcasts to transfer his vast experience in personalities, life and business to LMI and a Life GPS mobile app.
In the book he’s writing on friendship with Nora Raber they are seeking to “crack the code” on what they call deep Level 4 friendships
If you would like to join friendship group with Mar through the LMI mobile web ap scan the QR code and take couple of minutes to register. This mobile app will help you identify you personality in 17 seconds. Once we identify someones personality we know their strengths, weaknesses, what they like, why they may like us and/or why they won’t. We can even have a great idea, if they are married, what type of personality their spouse is and what they love about their marriage and what they may not like so much.
To join Nora and Mark on their weekly podcast and/or to obtain past podcasts scan this QR code for additional information and past podcasts.
What are our dreams and goals? What are our passions? What is our life vision? What do we want in any area of life? For the analytic deck we can take our goals and determine what actions we want to do to achieve those goals.
What goal do we want to achieve?
TIP: Best to make goals measurable with a specific due date.
What ACTIONS are needed to achieve goals?
TIP: Make actions specific and clear. Time block actions.
For business owners and/or those who would like to own a company complete a 3 minute personality survey. Any challenge / problem we have in any area of our life is likely due to us not asking the best question. We often know the answers to our challenges / problems, we just know the best questions to ask. The 3 minute personality survey helps us to better understand ourselves and those around us.
Who do you know who is an analytic?
How can we have better relationships with analyticals?
Riverside Retreats Sponsor
We would like to thank our sponsor companies. Their commitment, time, financial support, and help in reaching the local community and beyond is greatly appreciated.
The analytic deck is sponsored by Compass Accounting.
Compass Accounting
What is the biggest challenge you are facing in any area of your company? Often, business owners do not fully realize how great accounting and financial systems can help solve most business owners' issues. Yes, we do taxes, bookkeeping, accounting and also help identify how to help bring greater profitability to all your product / service lines.
Is your tax / accounting firm:
● Treating you like the valued client that you know you are?
● Seeking to help you in determining how to best pursue your financial goals and dreams?
● Passionate about providing you with services, resources, tools and expertise to assist your business to achieve its full potential?
● Active in studying your finances to seek to be a trusted business partner in helping you become the best steward of all that you have been blessed to have?
For a free evaluation of your personal and business needs
Expressive Personality ~ When we understand our passions and connect our passions into our dreams and goals and the actions we need to take to achieve our dreams, our goals … to become everything we were created to be … crazy fun/exciting things happen.
What do you think of the video for this deck (Watch QR Code) … the Expressive personality? Did you know that we all have some parts of every personality inside us?
When life gets rough … when troubles hit like a tropical storm … When we don’t know if we can keep going, our life vision helps us push through and our passions give us energy, we never dreamed we even had.
“When our life vision is bigger than death, we get over stuff.”
It seems … that often … in life that we have to do a LOT of things we may not like to do to get into a position where we do what we LOVE to do. When we learn to bring our passions into everything that we do, even in the hard times, the worst the life has to throw at us we are able to do things that most people never even dream of.
Praise God that no one has ever been seriously hurt transforming this property.
Mark is a bit strange … and that’s an understatement.
Mark has given friendship a lot of thoughts over the years.
Who do you know who is an expressive?
How can we have better relationships with expressives?
Riverside Retreats Sponsor
The expressive deck is sponsored by Dreamscape Creations. Kenny Bontrager worked together over a two year timeframe to take Mark’s visions, sketches and turn them into what you see today.
2- Dreamscape Creations
What dreams do you, your family, or your business have when it comes to building, landscaping, or transforming a space into something truly meaningful? Whether it's creating a home that reflects your lifestyle or a business environment that inspires success, we’ve developed an innovative process to help you design spaces that align with your vision and support your goals.
And we have a foundation to create plans to help us achieve our dreams and goals. We have been given the gift of many passions which will help us to achieve everything we were created to become.
Amiable Personality ~ So … we’ve discovered our Identity and our Life Vision and have a better understanding of how we were created to become something amazing.
The larger our life vision, the more significant a life that we desire to live the more we are going to need people. Mark openly shares “I love people … I just don’t like people.”
Mark has social autism so he struggles with understanding people and it frustrates Mark to no end when he sees the crazy amazing potential in people … that they won’t or can’t tap. Mark feels, at the very core / essence of who he is … at the DNA level that if people were to just realize how amazing they were created to be that the whole world would be a better place.
The Amiable Deck creates a connection to people which helps us to realize that Riverside Retreats is nothing … without the people. How do we have more, better and relationships which are life long?
Rosanna is a strong amiable. We tend to like people who are like us and fall in love with people we are opposite. Mark is a Driver personality so that’s given Rosanna and Mark so many opportunities to grow and learn together.
Learning to be self aware is one of the hardest things we as humans seem to struggle with. That along with learning to “think differently” is what helps us to become all we were created to be.
Who do you know who is amiable?
How can we have better relationships with amiables?
~ History ~ FUN! & Healing + Vision
Do you remember when you were 8 years old? Think back to when you were that age. What are your specific memories? What are some of the highlights …some of your fondest memories?
When Mark was 8 years old, he had an experience that set him on a path to start Riverside Retreats 50 years later. Riverside Retreats was conceived to help people, to help you discover why you were created and put on this planet.
“Why was I created? What was I put on this planet for? We hope this history helps to bring you back in time … in your life … in the lives of those who have come before you.
Mark and Rosanna Boersma purchased the property in 2021 from the nicest gentleman who had lived there for almost 30 years. He was elderly, and the property had gotten away from him a bit.
They lived for 35 years in Warrenville, Illinois, 28 miles west of Chicago.
They get asked a lot “What caused you to move to Bristol, Indiana?”
Before that … Mark and Rosanna were married in 1984, when she was 19 and Mark was 20. They have 7 children and 10 grandchildren.
Their story is … well … let’s say a most interesting story.
There’s a long answer and then there’s a short answer. We’ll give you the short answer. They knew they wanted to move out of Illinois, which sadly, probably needs no explanation. But they were not originally going to move to Indiana.
They were planning on selling their large, beautiful home where they raised 7 children, purchasing an RV “Recreational Vehicle”, and
traveling the country for a few or many years to find a place where they could discover where they might like to retire.
Our passion is for people to have FUN and FIND HEALING. We hope the “Adventure map” helps everyone discover their life vision and live it every day.
“When our life vision is bigger than death, we heal!”
They planned to spend a few months in the Summer each year on the East Coast, where their oldest daughter lived with her husband and children. Then, maybe in the Fall, they would travel to Indiana and Illinois, where four of their children live. Then, they would head out to the West Coast, where their oldest son lived, and then visit their daughter, who now lives in Colorado. When their children got sick of them or … maybe they needed a little break from their children, they would then wander around the country.
That was their plan.
Life has an interesting way of … well … throwing things at you that you never dreamed of. Things which seem so tragic, so much pain and hurt that your only hope is that you’ll have supernatural healing.
June 17th 2020 this happened to the Boersma family where their oldest son Jonthan, who was 30 years old, died of suicide where he lived in Tuson AZ. This is a tragic story … but one of healing and led to Mark and Rosanna purchasing the property in Bristol.
That changed their plans. Ben, their second youngest son, decided to move to Indiana and work in the RV factory with their son-in-law, Jason Miller. They started looking for a home for Ben in Indiana.
Life is funny, isn’t it? How can it change in an instant? While looking for homes their son Ben could buy, they found this home in Bristol, Indiana, on the river, with 4 acres and a pond. With the RV, Mark shared with Rosanna that she would get one shoebox she could keep, but we needed to get rid of the rest. ☺ So they started getting rid of things … and now … Mark laughs at the irony of it all where they now have more stuff than they have ever had, even when they had seven children living at home.
Mark shares that he was healed from Jonathan’s death in 24 hours and says, “Healing was easy … staying healed is the hard part.” They moved in 2021, and the hard work … of staying healed began.
Now Mark and Rosanna have ten grandchildren and all of them love to do adventures. Riverside Retreats was designed to create adventures which are not only fun but also the building blocks to heal.
If you know Mark, he’s kind of a strange guy. He likely is one of the most passionate guys you’ll ever meet … but you may not know it when you first meet him.
With seven children, ten grandchildren, all the businesses he owns, all the writing he does, the 15 to 25 weekly podcasts that he does … how does he play pickleball 5+ days a week and still have 20 to 30+ hours a week of free time? Years ago, he was asked what his secrets are and he created ten videos on “The Secret About Time.”
One of the things he’s most passionate about is Deep Life Long Level 4 Friendships. To learn more about how to have them and/or to have one with Mark check out this QR code.
If you would LOVE to have more free time … to pursue your passions … your life vision, join the 30 Day Challenge on “The Secret About Time.”
Rosanna’s passion is for plants, growing beautiful things which bring joy, healing and pleasure to many people.
Rosanna is currently working on plans to build out a greenhouse / butterfly house next to her raised garden.
In today’s world … There seems to be a drought for living things that grow and change. Rosanna and Mark both believe that when children / people are exposed to things that grow, that change that life and die … that show us the circle of life.
Their vision is for the greenhouse / butterfly house to help people change their lives.
Imagine … bringing your children / grandchildren over to the Butterfly House and seeing the wonderment of life come to life. Can you SEE the sheer joy / giggles and wonderment in their eyes and feel the energy throughout their entire body as they experience the many colors, sizes and shapes of all the butterflies.
If you / your company would like to be a part of this adventure text Mark at 630.393.9909 to share your possible interest in participating.
Driver
Personality ~ If you’re interested in developing Level 4 friendships check out this QR code. When Mark and Rosanna moved to Bristol in 2021 Mark put the following ad in the People’s Exchange and it changed his life forever. Kenny Bontrager responded to this ad.
Have you ever felt that God brought the right people into your life at the right time? Kenny was working in the RV factory and wanted to start a company. That is a most fascinating story, and it all originated with this ad. Jim Bontrager, not a direct relative of Kenny, another friend of Mark, gave Mark that ad. While they may not be directly related … Let me tell you, those Bontragers are pretty crazy! Ask Mark or one of his family members about the pontoon boat ride with Jim and his lovely wife. Trust us … you can’t make this stuff up!
Jim gave Mark one of the best gifts h started a book titled “Mark Boer Kenny and Mark worked together fo created most of Riverside Retreats along with Luke Miller started a co company named Dreamscape Creatio
Who do you know who is a dr
How can we have better relationships with drivers?
One of Mark's passions is helping 1,000 young people through Riverside Retreats start their own successful businesses and learn how to give back to the community. Mark really has a passion for helping single moms, kids at risk, individuals who have been incarcerated, and others who have not had the many blessings that Mark and Rosanna grew up with.
Mark shares, “Without question, without Kenny, Riverside Retreats would not be anything close to what it is today. The hard physical work, along with the friendship, loyalty, and faith that Kenny has demonstrated, has helped Mark continue to “stay healed,” and Mark is forever grateful to God for bringing Kenny into his life.
Mark would like to thank Kenny’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bontrager for the years of investment they invested into building Kenny into the man that he has become today.
Mark's heart desires are that fathers, sons, and daughters, and mothers, have deep connections with their children and come to Riverside Retreats to have fun, create memories, heal, and understand how to have lifelong relationships with one another. to learn how to really care, to really love, to really have deep, lifelong relationships that are supernatural in nature.
Rosanna's heart desires that couples, families, and friends, father and sons, fathers and daughters, mothers and sons and daughters would come to Riverside Retreats to have fun, create memories to connect and would build lifelong relationships which would help during those really hard times that seem to come with life.
There’s something magical about being a mother and father where you come together in love and passion and create something from really nothing. The “Driver Deck” along with all the other decks, water features and everything else were conceived in the mind and then they became a reality.
Why is the “Driver deck” away from all the other decks? Hmmm … it seems like a lot of drivers have social autism and struggle having Level 1 friendships.
“What does every woman want from a man?” Mark asked this question to a number of people, years ago and his friend Dave Libby said “To Be AWAKENED!”
Check out this cute video of a baby sharing the secrets that … well … Very few men know and probably not a lot of women either.
Check out video #23 and while you’re there check out a few other of the interesting videos and the podcasts that Mark has done with others on each of the
So … is that w man is looking a woman? AWAKENED? what we’re a for from one a from friendship
The 30 foot w Riverside Retr much fun for the kids and the children at heart.
So … what can we do … to learn to be AWAKENED? What can we do to help others become awakened? Continue to read on and we think you’ll discover the answer for yourself.
Riverside Retreats Sponsor
We would like to thank our sponsor companies. Their commitment, time, financial support, and help in reaching the local community and beyond is greatly appreciated.
The AWAKENING waterfall is sponsored by:
Oak Grove Tax Services LLC
Our entire team is passionate about Results ~ Relationships and Relief.
We Are:
● Results ~ We work with you on a personal level to determine the best solutions for your unique needs, then leverage our seasoned expertise to achieve the best possible results.
● Relationships ~ We are your trusted partner in success. Our firm is large enough to offer a full range of professional services at a fair price, but small enough to give you the individual attention that you deserve
● Relief ~ Rest assured that when a need arises, our firm is ready and capable to handle everything for you so you can focus on what matters most to you.
● Financial Coaching ~ Navigating the financial landscape can be confusing. It’s easy to get lost and miss your financial targets if you don’t know the tricks of the trade. Oak Grove Tax Service LLC is standing by to help you reach your goals in less time with financial counseling in Shipshewana and LaGrange, Indiana, welcoming clients from Sturgis, MI
For a free evaluation of your personal and business needs …
Have you ever been hurt at a heart level? How do we heal at a heart level? Does healing require “Being heard at a heart level?”
Matters of the heart … is what “The Heart Deck” is all about. Yes … for sure … the heart deck could be about romantic love, but it’s SO much more than that as well. It could be a mothers heart for her adopted child who she loves as her very own.
To become a Level 4 friend, it seems that we need to learn and do the hard work to heal. Babies and young children seem to be natural healers. To be healed at a heart level, it seems like we need to be heard at a heart level.
Who do you know who might have a natural gift of healing? Often this person might be the person who first is willing to care for you as an individual more than they care for your friendship. What does this mean? They are willing to tell you things that feel like they hurt, at the deepest part of who you are, when in reality they are drawing out the hurt that you’ve experienced at the hands of others.
Riverside Retreats Sponsor
“Your Voice In My Headset” is a podcast and a book Nora and Mark are writing.
Hmmm … “How many Level 4 friends do w really have?” Why are Level 4 friendshi so valuable?
Mark’s strange … or … is he? Is his process for deep, Level 4 friendship the same as everyone else? Once Mark was told that the experts say it takes over seven years for people to even open up to share anything at a deep level. But does it have to take that long or can it take a few months, or even weeks or even days or minutes?
Mary Miller, Nora’s sister, asks a most interesting question. “How do we develop Level 4 Friendships and how do we keep them?”
Mary introduced Nora to Mark on the heart deck for Spring Fest, Saturday May 24th, 2025. Approaching a five month friendship anniversary, for Fall Fest, October 17th, 2025 it’s crazy all that has happened.
After the death of their precious son Jonathan, June 17th 2020 Mark and Rosanna have shared many times. “Getting healed was easy. Staying healed is the hard part.”
One of Mark’s favorite movies is Ford vs Ferrari. There are so many things in that movie. One that Mark likes the most is “Who Are You?”
At Riverside Retreats we hope that we will help you discover “Who Am I?” … and help others around you do the same thing.
The “Heart Deck” is a special deck. It’s for “Healing At A Heart Level” … it’s for “Matters of the heart.” … of course, it could be for romantic matters of the heart as well. When our hearts are strong … our mental health is strong.
Imagine … if what we all learn together in visiting Riverside Retreats live or virtually and what that could do to the world. When we put ACTIONS to IMAGINATION what do we get? An AWAKENING of the heart and the forging of life-long, deep relationships which are life changing, community changing and world changing.
This letter is … well … what “Riverside Retreats” is all about. It’s about learning WHEN, HOW and WHO to be vulnerable with.
So … WHO do you know where their lives could be changed forever … IF … you do as Mary did and invite, encourage, nudge someone along?
Deep friendships are the coolest thing. When you think about it … it’s kind of like the “Friendship Deck” which is over the pond.
There’s the shallow end of the pond (Level 1 Friendships) and then the deep end (Level 4 Friendships.) There’s nothing wrong with Level 1 friendships … but … they aren’t Level 4. Just saying. ☺
Friendships are complicated … right?!?! What if … we could take the complexity out of friendships … and give you a “Friendships Adventure Map” and help to determine who you should seek to have Level 4 friendships with?
Imagine … learning how to determine who in your life you would like to have a Level 4 relationship with … and then doing just that.
Nora's life vision is much similar to Mark’s. It’s HEALING.
When you think about it … “How can we become all we were created to be if we don’t heal?” It’s clear to Mark that Nora’s life vision and her natural gifts to help people to heal are a critical ingredient to Mark achieving his life vision.
A few years ago, Mark came across “Flow” and has been curious about it in every sense. Think about it. “Why do we ‘just connect’ with some people and not others so much?”
Why do we tend to like others who are like us and we tend to fall in love with those who are opposite of us?
Level 4 friendships are all about flow. In Nora’s and Mark’s book, they are pursuing flow in friendships.
What can we do to be in flow with our parents and siblings? What about flow in marriage? What about the flow of friendships with people we work with?
Check out the song that Nora, Mark and Mark’s oldest daughter wrote together. > https://vimeo.com/1110175037?fl=pl&fe=sh It’s really about “being in flow” … thinking / hoping we are … and then it becomes very clear that we’re not in flow.
How do we get in flow … and … how do we keep in flow?
Learning about personalities helps us to better understand ourselves and those around us. Connecting our passions and life visions together will help us to “get in flow” … and … “keep in flow.”
Mark and Rosanna own many companies, and Mark has an extra 20 to 30+ hours of free time a week. His wife and children share that he has too much free time, and he wouldn’t disagree with that.
The neighbors knew early that these guys were a strange group of people going canoeing in the middle of winter.
Mark’s dad grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and was a pastor his whole adult life. Rosanna grew up in Morris, IL, with two sisters and two brothers. Mark has three brothers and two sisters.
One of the first things they did was figure out what to do with the sea wall there. The challenge was that it flooded up to five feet, so Mark had to figure out how to engineer something where the deck would withstand the water, and sometimes harsh winters.
As a young boy, at 8 years old at Camp Fairwood in Wisconsin, God had a conversation and said two things to Mark. The first thing that Mark heard God say to him was, “Mark, you’re an average to below average kid.” Even at the age of 8 years old, it was very clear that this was true. The second thing he heard from God is … “If you are a good steward of what I give you, you will change the world.”
Mark never forgets those things and has devoted his life to figuring them out … “How in the world does he do that? I mean, there are 8+ billion people in the world.” But as an 8-year-old, he just thought … “That’s pretty interesting.” And he went back to eating his treat by the canteen at night at the camp.
So … what childhood memories do you have? Mark and Rosanna's passion … vision is that when you visit Riverside Retreats, your life, the lives of your family, and all those around you will change forever.
See … Mark believes that God speaks to everyone when they are a child and plants the seeds of greatness in everyone. It seems though, that … often … life gets in the way of listening to what our creator created us to BECOME.
Alvin Miller, a friend of Mark's, gave Mark some interesting insights at one of their Coffee Connections weekly chats. Mark was frustrated and asked Alvin, “How do you have significant conversations with people?”
Alvin said, “To have significant conversations, you need to be vulnerable.”
Yes, Mark and Rosanna hope that you will have fun, laugh a lot, cry a lot, and relax. But our hearts desire that you have significant conversations… with yourself first and foremost, then God, then your family and friends, and then strangers.
Maybe that significant conversation happens when you go on a kayak adventure with friends or strangers?
Mark’s parents were two of the most frugal people in the world. So you don’t pay someone to do things, you do things yourself. So he did. He rented an excavator for a couple of years and then a Bobcat from an amazing Amish couple, Ira and Elaine Yoder, down the street, and got to work. He cleared out over 200 feet of trees along the 500 feet of riverfront and built a kayak launch.
Then, a long and winding deck that follows the river's curves was built. Start your adventure here.
Mark is an international author and speaker, and what’s crazy is that he doesn’t like to write or speak and doesn’t think he’s very good at it. His international speaking coach agreed with this. He went through her 3-day boot camp and after the first day she said … “Mark, I have to be honest with you. You are the most god awful speaker I have ever heard.” Mark was 27 years old and said, “Well, Linda, that’s great! I have nowhere to go but up.”
Mark struggled in school. He didn’t like school. He laughed and said that if the Amish ever wanted to be like the Baptists and recruit, all they needed to do was tell boys like him, “If you’re Amish, you only have to go through 8th grade.”
If Mark had known this, he says … “I would have told my parents … Dad, Mom we’re going from being Baptists to being Amish, and if you don’t want to do that, then I’m going to find an Amish family who will adopt me.”
OK … In the 16 books that Mark has written, every one of them has something about personalities. Mark and Rosanna have been married for over 40 years. Rosanna was 19 years old and Mark was 20. The first couple of years … if we said it was rough … that was an understatement. Personality Masteries and an amazing training / mentoring system from Life Masteries Institute (LMI) a non profit that Mark and Rosanna both do a lot of volunteer service with, has the most amazing training.
People wonder why the Driver deck is not along with the other three decks and … well … you know … the Driver personality loves people but doesn’t like them.
So many projects going on at so many times, it was pretty crazy. While all this work was being done neighbors would ask Rosanna “What does your husband do for a living?” More on that later along with some interesting things that their children thought about as this transformation was going on.
Let’s jump over to the Amiable deck. This is the personality that Rosanna is. We need to like other people who are like us and fall in love with people who are opposite of us. That is for sure with Mark and Rosanna. They are so very opposite!
This workbook is a “work in process” and we value ALL input into it. Please text or email Elaine with any suggestions you might have on how it could be improved and/or “mistakes” that were made, on purpose, just to make the analytic personalities feel good. ��
What insights / thoughts / ideas /dreams did you have from your Riverside Retreats adventure?
More insights / thoughts / ideas /dreams …
This is Mark’s passion Circle. Where do your passions overlap Mark's? Do you see how your passions combined with his passions could change the world? Would you like to join Mark’s friendship world? It’s an interesting world for sure.
Share FREE 3-minute personality survey with others: > https://synergytools net/md3/SurveyLink aspx Use QR code for 17-second Life GPS Personality >>>
Community Events
Coffee Connection
LIVE: First Saturday of every month
• 8 AM – Amish segment
• 10 AM – Open to all 7720 W 200 N, Shipshewana, IN
Breakfast provided: RSVP: Elaine 574-312-5318
Rosanna 630-649-4059
“What
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