A Joy Filled June
By Kevin Bonnar
Kicking Bear Ministries started off the month of June by heading to the beautiful Gype Hills of Medicine Lodge, Kansas for our 11th year of Kicking Bear Kansas Camp! A highlight of this year’s camp was definitely the large group worship and message on Friday night with a big ole lightening show off in the distance! We also celebrated with 3 baptisms on Saturday and a community wide outdoor church service on Sunday! Big thanks to First Christian Church, Medicine Lodge 1st Assembly of God Church and Medicine Lodge Methodist Church for their heart to be “one church” and serve the community together. Big thank you to the Kansas crew for being amazing hosts and putting on an awesome camp!
The next weekend of June Kicking Bear had two events up here in Wisconsin. Living Word Christian Church hosted an adventure day on their grounds in La Crosse, WI and our friends from Grace Community Church in the Kickapoo Valley set up a camp right in downtown Ontario, WI. Both events had beautiful weather, lots of fun and the Gospel message was shared with all!
The middle of the month was really cooking for Kicking Bear. From Texas, to Minnesota, to Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan!
The 4 Points Kicking Bear Camp in Pampa, TX hosted by our friends the Ferguson family and just an amazing community of family and friends, really worked hard to put on camp this year. The Pampa area was devastated by wild fires this spring which was then followed up with severe flooding. It took a lot of work and a lot of love to rebuild and bring this camp to life this year. God is good and He provided in amazing ways as donations from around the country poured in to replace lost supplies and the folks down in Texas, who don’t shy away from hard work, really came together to make this day happen. The camp was a HUGE success with around 200 kiddos, 200 plus parents, 14 decisions for Christ and 2 baptisms, praise the Lord! More pics here!
In Minnesota we joined up with our good friends from Whitetail Habitat Solutions for a fun day with families. Folks were treated to special tours with Jeff Sturgis from WHS as he shared all his knowledge of deer habitat and kiddos got to spend time with the Kicking Bear crew slinging arrows, throwing hawks and all sorts of other shenanigans! This event also serves as a fundraiser for the ministry and we are so thankful for all the support and encouragement from Whitetail Habitat Solutions and all who spent the day with us.
In Wisconsin the Kicking Bear team got the opportunity to serve with Camp Send-A-Kid at beautiful Camp Decorah outside Holmen, WI. This yearly camp is made available for kiddos 8-12 years old and is supported by some really amazing agencies like Scouting America and local law enforcement personnel from the DARE and GREAT programs. We are so blessed to have this yearly connection with kiddos and this year was a blast!! Click here to learn more about CSAK.
In Ohio the Kicking Bear team was back at Deerassic Park in Cambridge for our annual event. Deerassic has been the home of some of our largest events over the years. The weather this year was pretty tough with super hot temps, but we still had a cool day having fun with all the kiddos and sharing the Gospel. Thankful.
In Michigan we had two awesome opportunities come our way last month. We partnered with our Michigan Champions by joining up with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at their Michigan FCA Sports Camp with over 530 young athletes in attendance! We will be partnering again to host a Kicking Bear Camp at Cedar Hollow Ranch this September. We also teamed up with our friends at the Ray Park Foundation for a fishing tournament to raise funds for kids to get in the outdoors. This is the 10th year partnering with this amazing organization and despite high winds and storms, this year’s fishing tournament at Lake St. Claire was lots of fun and a huge success. We are excited to team back up again this fall to take kiddos out deer hunting!
We closed out the month of June with an amazing weekend with two events up in Wisconsin. First we partnered with Horicon Marsh Archers to host our first ever camp in Horicon, WI. The weather was perfect, the archery club grounds were amazing and these first time camps really encourage us to keep going to new places and sharing the Gospel!
Our last event of the month was another first as we partnered up with Pizza Ranch in La Crosse, WI to have a camp right outside the restaurant! We got a chance to partner up with Samaritan’s Feet for this event and kiddos got their feet washed and a brand new pair of shoes from this amazing ministry. This camp was extra special as two of founding servant Karen Howell’s granddaughters Tristen and Olivia run the Pizza Ranch location and were so key in planning the day. During our closing prayer we honored the memory of Karen and also shared in the joy of how all those seeds of faith she helped plant over the years in thousands of kiddos across the country and her own family here at home had taken root and helped produce this awesome opportunity to share the love of Jesus. We really look forward to partnering with Pizza Ranch and Samaritan’s Feet for more camps coming soon!
Kicking Bear’s camps are FUN and FREE! Did you know that for 25 years, all camps and events have been completely free of cost for all participants?!! We don’t want finances to be a barrier to block kids from hearing about the good news of Jesus Christ.
Camps cost approximately $7,500 or $50 per child. Would you consider providing the funds needed for a camp or for a few kids to attend free of cost? If God is prompting you to give please, give here : https://kickingbear.org/support-us/
Kicking Bear is seeking to continue to live out James 1:27 and we are asking for your support to continue to do so.
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27 NIV