Set to Serve
By Kevin Bonnar
August was a great month for us because we had many opportunities to serve with our friends! We kicked off the month by helping our friends at Olivet Lutheran Church wrap up their vacation bible school week with a fun Kicking Bear night! The highlight of the night was definitely throwing tomahawks at watermelons, fun!!
Next up we got the chance to serve with Bethany Church as they hosted a foster families fun day. Families could play all kinds of amazing games, enjoy snow cones, and even get back to school supplies! Was an awesome day and there were so many smiles.
We also spent a weekend at Ashley for the Arts in Arcadia, WI. The Ashley family puts on an amazing music festival every year and it was so cool to be a part of it all. We did two days of our archery and tomahawks for families, had a little booth were we met folks and shared about the ministry and also hosted a prayer breakfast on Saturday morning.
We absolutely love teaming up with our friends to serve alongside them. Check out the story below from Chrissy on what our next opportunity to serve looked like in August. It is especially cool how God always seems to highlight a few kiddos for us, to remind us that when we say yes as a ministry, He always shows up!!
KB Adventure Day at Sparta BGC!
By: Goose
On August 14th, Kevin, Sam, and I headed out in the morning with the Kicking Bear Bus to our wonderful friend Rhonda and her pals at the Boys and Girls Club in Sparta! We had planned this back in the Spring with Rhonda, to come during their August field trip day; we had first met Rhonda last Fall when she had us put on an Adventure Day at the Sparta BGC, and we are so grateful to be connected with Rhonda as she has been so gracious and welcoming to us for every opportunity there. We were glad to have had the Sparta BGC kick off our Boys and Girls Club “season” this past year, and are hopeful to make it out to the La Crosse Clubs and further again this year!
We arrived with the bus that morning, and I took in the smell and feel of the crisply chilled, yet sunny morning, as the grass was still wet and the air felt refreshing to breathe in. With set up under way, Rhonda came out and we discussed the plans for the day and recruited 3 of her group leaders to instruct some archery and tomahawks for the kiddos.
Once setup was complete, our first group of kids came out and Kevin sat them all down to go through archery instruction in his goofy teacher type way, and all the kids were excited and ready to go! …All but one. One little boy pulled aside his group leaders and then sat down on the sidewalk in the back; the group leaders shared with us that this little boy was scared that he was going to get hurt. So while the other kids set up to shoot and throw, I walked over to our little friend and sat down with him to talked for a while; he confirmed that he thought he would get hurt. I told him that if he tried, I would put him with my friend Kevin who would make sure everything was as safe as possible for him to not get hurt and then I showed him the nerf style tomahawks and ninja stars that we had which were nearly guaranteed injury free. He decided to start at the nerf tomahawks, and I walked around overseeing safety and taking some pictures of the group.
Kevin started a game where he put hats on the archery targets, and for anyone who hit the hat with their arrow, we would put up a tally mark for their group/team and see which group won between this one and the next—and of course the kids got to keep their new hat with a hole in it (everyone got a hat in the end no matter if they hit theirs or not). The BGC group leaders were doing an amazing job instructing the kids and having fun; and Sam had one girl keep coming back to him as he was her favorite instructor.
Eventually, I saw our little friend from the sidewalk walk into the line by Kevin and once it was his turn, he stepped up to overcome his fear! Kevin helped him pull the bow back and walked him step by step through shooting. After this, he said that he was still scared, but he continued interacting and having fun with the other kids. Soon, we were about to wrap up with the first group, whose tally marks were somewhere around 8 I believe. While most of the group went back inside and the BGC leaders took a small break, a few kids wanted one last shot at the targets… and guess who wanted another go at shooting a hat? That’s right, our little friend from the sidewalk. I stood with him and walked him through the steps again, and he pulled that bow back all by himself like a pro, perfectly into the corner of his smile, aiming, and… hitting the hat—not once, but TWICE! What a great day for our little friend, overcoming fears, having fun, and adding two points to his team total.
We switched groups out and the new group went through the same training as the first and was told about our little contest of shooting the hat. One girl got most of the points for this group as she hit her hat multiple times in a row! She had her own bow at home, and her practice showed! This group of kids was making up new rules while they stood in line that whichever group won got to decided “Kevin’s punishment” and they came up with all sorts of things… none of which Kevin ever agreed to, although this second group were the champions of the contest by I believe two tally marks!
Finally the two groups came together, and we had our notorious games of tug-o-war: group 1 vs. group 2, boys vs. girls, kids vs. adults… and then they all sat down in the grass to listen to Kevin give a good message about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (the fruits of the Spirit). Kevin explained to the kids what each one of these looks like through our actions and highlighted our persevering friend from the sidewalk as being faithful by “not giving up”; Kevin emphasized to them how kids are an important factor in changing the world through showing and extending these actions to others, that this might have a ripple affect from one to another; and he also gave them a challenge to openly point out the actions of kindness that they witness others doing, that these things of goodness would surround our minds and captivate our eyes rather than the darkness of the world.
We finished the day by sending them off with their hats and bags filled with free Bibles, calendars, and some save the dates, and told Rhonda that her staff could come join us any time to help at any of our camps! We are so grateful for these people and these opportunities, and we can’t wait to set the next Adventure Days out at the Boys and Girls Clubs this school year.