Nav/Ad Elective Badges

HERITAGE

A Trailman's heritage can refer to practices or characteristics that are passed down from generation to generation. It's the head start you were given by the exporers, inventors, builders, reformers, and defenders who came before you. It's what a Trailman is as an American, with your heritage forged from great dreams, hard work, and heroes' blood. As a Christian, it is the great faith of patriarchs and prophets who caught glimpses of God's glory. In short, it is the combined influence of everything that came before you.

A study of your heritage should give you an appreciation of the opportunities your forefathers have given you, an awareness of how your heritage has shaped you, a commitment to remember it'ssinificance, and a resolve to avoid the mistakes others made.

HOBBIES

Hobbies allow you to expand your horizons and put your main interests into perspective. Some hobbies have led people into careers that changed the world. Your hobbies may not become a career, but they can still play a significant role in who you are. 

Hobbies can sharpen your mind, improve relationships, promote fitness, and relieve stress. They can send you on adventures, expand your knowledge of science and art, and teach you valuable skills.

As your experience grows, you may contribute part-time in a field that requires specialized knowledge, equpiment, r preparation. These jobs may be as tame as helping with landscape maintenance at your church, as challenging as volunteer firefighting, or as technical as cinematography. Volunteerism is a great way to combine a hobby with service. 

LIFE SKILLS

You will master at least four vital life skills on this Frontier. First Aid training fosters a regard for the value of life and the reduction of suffering. Emergency Preparedness equips you with rescue skills now because you won't have time to learn in the hour of greatest need. Family Man emphasizes growth that prepares you to be a worthy husband and father who knows how to find fulfillment, maintain healthy relationships, and strengthen the image of your Creator God within you. Personal Resources prepares you to be a good steward of your time, talents, presence, and finances.

OUTDOOR SKILLS

To place your feet on the crags and know their character of stone, to wade through the sea of prairie grass, or to find yourself lost in the murmur of a cold mountain stream are some of life's most memorable experiences. You can enjoy these adventures and share them with the friends you make in your Troop.

During your Frontier ventures, you may realize how the challenges and opportunities you face outdoors parallel your future life. A camp duty roster and an employee job description have much in common; so do feeding your patrol and providing for your family. As you master your outdoor skills and use them with the right attitiude, you are preparing for success in your future roles of husband, father, and citizen.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

We travel, read, listen, and watch to learn. We also gather knowledge through scientific research. Some of what we learn allows us to do new things or to do old things better. We treat disease better, communicate better, calculate faster, and explore farther because of the dedicated work of scientists, inventors, and engineers. 

Your Trail Life Troop leaders understand that these changes shape the world you live in. They want you to understand these fields of study so you can be part of that shaping process. 

Science adds to mankind's knoledge through a carefully controlled process called the Scientific Method. Its strength is to build up a source of proven knowledge that can be relied upon. Its weakness is that it can only investigate what can be observed and tested by humanity. It cannont prove something does not exist; It can only prove something does exist if it can be directly or indirectly observed. The Scientific Method cannot make moral judgments or separate beauty from ugliness. It cannot tell you why thngs happen, only how they happen. In that sense, many of the greatest truths of our existence lie beyond its scope. We need both faith and science to gain even a rudimentary grasp of the wonders that exist around us and those that lie deep within us.

Technology is the use of knowlede to solve practical problems. Since it is built upon knowledge, great advances in technology usually follow great advances in science. Applied scientific knowledge is a powerful force, but it comes with great responsibility.

SPORTS & FITNESS

The Sports and Fitness Frontier will expose you to opportunities to improve physical skills you possess as well as develop new ones. 

Great confidence comes when we discover we can imporve our personal fitness. We are spirit, soul, and body. Just as we can feed and strengthen our spirit through prayer and study of God's Word, and we can strengthen our mind through study,  we can also strengthen our bodies through sports and fitness.

You'll be challenged to complete goals and to function as a team, to push yourself to do better and to hone skills. 

VALUES

Some would argue that the progress you'll make on the Values Frontier is the most important of all. And they may be right. 

Your values shape you and ive you the structural integrity both to stand strong in difficult times and to love people you may disagree with.