VisionQuest offers flights of faith

The shaman gazed at Lore Raymond with his mysterious, jet-black eyes, then silently handed her a condor's oversized feather.

Though grateful for the gift, she wasn't sure what to make of this offering from the Peruvian holy man. Then he spoke: "With love, with release."

There are moments in everyone's life that define the future. For Raymond, that moment came in August at a sacred site off the Pan American Highway, en route to the city of Puno, Peru.

As the St. Petersburg woman held the glossy feather of a condor, the sacred bird of the Incas, she knew it was time for her dream to take flight.

"It was my green light to do what I had been thinking of for a long time," she says.

And so Raymond, a master of re-invention - she has been an elementary school teacher, university campus director, corporate coach, motivational speaker and interim Unity minister - came home and launched a different kind of travel company.

She calls it VisionQuest: Travel That Opens Hearts and Inspires Action. In July, she'll lead her first trip - to Bali - joined by like-minded women who want to combine a spiritual journey with service to others.

Starting a business in the middle of a recession at an age when some people are winding down their careers doesn't faze this ever-optimistic 55-year-old.

"When you step out in faith, you can't set limits," says Raymond, whose mantra is "Living a Life with No Regrets!" Already, 14 people have signed on for the trip, which will cost $2,500, not including airfare. And she's already planning programs to Assisi, Italy, and Peru this year and to Maui in 2010.

For 11 days, the Bali VisionQuest group will take part in full-moon purification ceremonies, watch shadow puppet performances, visit with mountain villagers and Balinese healers, recharge their batteries at night with a Soul Café and set aside prayer time in temples and at waterfalls.

Just as important: Each traveler will carry one bag for herself and a second 50-pound bag of supplies, gifts, eyeglasses and clothing to be given to a Balinese orphanage and other local nonprofits. If Raymond gets her maximum 20 travelers, that means 1,000 pounds of donated cargo.

Raymond wants the VisionQuest trips to be life-changing, not only for the participants, but for the people with whom they'll connect during the sojourn. She'll encourage the travelers to build personal relationships and to be open to the possibility they may continue long after the vacation is over.

Her own life is testimony to such possibilities.

Ten years ago, mired in her second divorce, Raymond took a two-week vacation to Honduras - and ended up staying five years. She got a teaching job for $600 a month and rented a cabana on the Caribbean beach for $150 a month. But the best surprise of all was the 9-year-old girl named Nazlie who came into her life.

"Nazlie needed a parent, and I had prayed long and hard for a daughter," Raymond says.

When Raymond returned to St. Petersburg five years ago, Nazlie joined her. Although they never went through the official adoption process, the two consider each other mother and daughter.

Next month, 19-year-old Nazlie will graduate with honors from high school and with enough credits for her Associate of Arts degree. Her proud mom will be cheering her on from the sidelines.

Mauri Barnes will have no problem devoting one of her two allotted bags for charitable gifts.

A nurse, she has been on 15 overseas medical missions in the past 10 years. She's used to just bringing a carry-on for her own clothes and filling both her checked bags with medical supplies.

When she learned about the VisionQuest journey led by Raymond, her fellow Unity Church member, Barnes felt called to go. In late 2007, she had started her own nonprofit, Nurses With a Mission, which organizes medical assistance trips to clinics and villages in needy locations. The Bali vacation will be an opportunity not only to focus on her own spiritual life but also to scout locations for a future medical mission.

Raymond pledged to donate 7 percent of her profits from the Bali trip to Nurses With a Mission.

"We think a lot alike," says Barnes, who works as a pool nurse at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg. She loves Raymond's subtitle for the Bali adventure: A Journey Within.

"If you want to change the world, you have to start within," Barnes says. "And Lore has provided us with a perfect opportunity, not only to help ourselves, but to make changes in the world by serving others."

Barnes will lend her doll-making expertise at a Dolly Mama Fun-Shop on May 23, where the travelers and others will make cloth dolls to take to the Bali orphanage. By giving the children a gift that "comes from the heart, and not a store," Barnes sees yet another way to make a connection across the seas.

"In all the traveling I've done, I've learned that we're really not so different. Maybe how we look and how we dress and talk, but inside, we're the same," she says.

"The thing I've learned in all my overseas work is not to make judgments about what I'm seeing. I go in with the offer, 'How can I serve? How can I help?'"

For 35 years, Judith Clements has worked in the classroom as a teacher. Signing up for the VisionQuest trip is a giant leap out of her comfort zone.

Nearly all the traveling she has done has been in her head, through her books and imagination. She has always been intrigued with world religions and places of spiritual power and strength, but she resisted making plans to visit them.

"Basically, I'm a conservative with my money and a homebody by nature," says Clements, who teaches kindergarten at Kenly Elementary School in Tampa. After meeting Raymond at a Unity church, she felt a positive force in her life.

"Lore is helping me get over a long period of stagnation, and this is the perfect way to start," Clements says. "I'm like everyone else, worried about my dwindling retirement savings. But I'm choosing to look at this as an opportunity, not a risk."

In fact, Clements is so enthused about her upcoming adventure that she plans to stay an extra five days, a little writing retreat. She has also engaged her students in the trip, having them help assemble Ziploc bags filled with school supplies, personal notes and pictures, which she will hand-deliver to the Balinese orphans.

"Yes, it's a little big scary," she admits. "But this is important for me to do. Who knows where it will lead? I've waited long enough, and I'm ready to go."

Lore Raymond keeps her condor feather in her bedroom, wrapped in an Andean altar cloth. It's her constant reminder of her mission in life.

The shaman later told her the significance of the gift.

"Lore, you are a bridge builder," he said. "You are a person who helps people connect with their highest good, their best selves, their spiritual selves."

Like many of her fellow travelers on that Peru trip, Raymond felt compelled to leave behind most of her wardrobe, donating the clothing to the villagers.

"I know as one person, I can't save the world," she says. "But I do feel this awareness, this awakening, among people that we all are one. If I can be a bridge builder in helping people make those connections, then I'm fulfilling my destiny.

"I think this is the final re-invention in my life. This is the best time in my life."

DOLLY MAMA FUN-SHOP

WHAT: Doll-making for Bali orphans; bring potluck items for lunch, good scissors, brown thread, old jewelry to adorn your doll, pieces of fabric, lace, etc.

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 23

WHERE: 5799 100th Way N., St. Petersburg

INFORMATION: RSVP to mauribarnes@yahoo.com or call (727) 254-0342.