Awesome August
By Kevin Bonnar
Our first camp of the month was in Linton, IN with our Kicking Bear Indiana team and hosted by the awesome crew from Shooter’s Archery led by Josh and Krysten McDaniels. This camp has such a diverse menu of activitiesfor families including fishing, archery, trap shooting, fur trappers, bowfishing, tree stands, flu-flu shooting and so much more! This year’s camp was awesome and we want to thank the entire Linton community for their support and participation in this longstanding camp!
Our next weekend was a double up as we had camps in Kimball, MN and Elkton, MD. Our Minnesota camp is hosted by our friends from Flex Seals and led by David and Melody Joseph. The site for camp is called the Preserve and it is an awesome place for a camp. This camp has one of the most extreme slip and slides you have ever seen!! Fun was had by all and after sharing the Gospel several youngsters stepped up to be baptized this year!! Very thankful for the Joseph family and the community of Kimball for another awesome camp in northern Minnesota!
On the same Saturday there was a camp fired up by our KickingBear Maryland team headed up by Randy Spencer. Randy has really poured into getting things fired back up in Maryland this year. He worked hard to put on a banquet in the springs to raise funds for equipment and then did all the work to get a camp set up for this year too! Randy and his son Levi even spent every night after work for a week and a half at the local fair shooting on the Safe Archery set up with families and inviting them all to camp. Their hardwork paid off big as the camp was really awesome! One highlight from camp was the local law enforcement bringing out their K-9 unit for a demonstration. We are very thankful to be back in Maryland shooting bows and sharing the Gospel!
After being on the road a little bit the KB team returned to Wisconsin for a camp at Justin Trails Resort outside Sparta, WI. This camp is headed up by our good friend Dawn Justin. Justin Trails is a gorgeous setting for a camp and we are so thankful for it. This camp had lots of community participation with a visit from the Gunderson life flight helicopter, the Sparta Area Fire Department, Sparta Ambulance and Sergeant Fischer from the Sparta Police Department. Sergeant Fischer busting out the riot shield for the marshmallow fight is still being talked about in my house!! We also had our friends from Child Evangelsim Fellowship bring out their Good News Club to share the Gospel and provide face painting and Pastor Matt from Horizon Christian Fellowship gave an awesome salvation message for all. Very thankful for an awesome camp up here in our neck of the woods!
Our last event for August is one that has really become one of our most popular for families and that is our Kicking Bear Bowfishing event hosted by The Siewert Group and this year’s planning was led up by Nkaonyia Yang. We are so thankful to have the support of the Wisconsin Bowfishing Association and AMS Bowfishing for this event. The selfless dedication of so many boat captains to bring out their boats and guide for us every year is so awesome and AMS even donated a complete bowfishing set up that one lucky kiddo took home that night! The weather was perfect which was a real blessing after getting stormed out twice last year. After dinner Pastor Kevin shared a message with all about how fishing can be a greatway to connect with God. We then lined up the captains and started filling boats. Ten boats headed out on the mighty Mississippi River that night and the action was non-stop. We are so thankful for this event and we love that so many families get to enjoy such a unique outdoor activity together!
August was really packed with some awesome opportunities for the ministry and weare so thankful. A month where we really got to partner with folks in unique ways and also a time to be thankful for local leaders across the country who step up to lead teams for camps. We are so grateful for our Kicking Bear family and all they do each camp season. While we still have a couple camps and events lined up for this fall we are also excited to be entering the hunting season! Please join us in praying over all the mentors and mentees who will be out chasing critters this fall. God is good and we are thankful!!
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