Missouri in May

Missouri in May

By Kevin Bonnar

Kicking Bear Ministries kicked off the summer camp season with two camps in Missouri this year. We started off in Braymer, MO on May 19th/20th and then back to Warsaw, MO on May 27th.

The 13th year of the Braymer camp started off on Friday night at beautiful Braymer Park. The kiddos were having a blast on giant inflatables while families got registered and set up for camping. We had an amazing supper served by Sisters in Service and then were treated to a great Gospel message from the Gideons and Pastor Kevin.

After the message, everyone headed to the field to play games and get on the tug-of-war rope. As the bonfire was lit behind us the marshmallows started to fly and after much laughter and fun, the fireworks show started. The fireworks this year were amazing and would rival any town’s 4th of July show! As we tucked into bed that night hearts were full and the anticipation of Saturday filled the children’s dreams.

Saturday started off with a bang, literally! After a great breakfast kiddos were taken through safety meetings and then headed over to the skeet shooting and bb gun range. It was really cool seeing kiddos put the sites on clay targets and pop cans and then celebrate with the crowd with many direct hits. After shooting guns we all headed over to the archery range for more fun.

The highlight on the range this year was definitely when one young camper named Corbin took his opportunity in the hunting blind station to demonstrate how to call in a turkey and then with a perfect bow shot actually shot the head of the target off! Boy did we laugh. Check it out here!

After time on the archery range, we all got a trailer ride up to the fishing pond. As our camp champion Larry put it, “The fish bite was slow this year, but the bite of the Lord was not.” You see after the message Friday night there was a stirring in some of the older kid’s hearts to be baptized. So after fishing we put the poles away and everyone gathered for the first-ever camp baptisms for Braymer. Four youngsters declared their love for the Lord by being baptized that day! We can’t thank God enough for such an awesome way to wrap up camp this year! A huge thanks to everyone for such an awesome kick -off to the summer camp season! For more highlights from camp check out their Facebook page: Braymer Kicking Bear Camp.

The next weekend, Kicking Bear Camp Warsaw was held at a new location downtown at Lay Park. God blessed us with an absolutely beautiful day as families gathered and kiddos played kickball. The new set-up in the park was really cool.

We tried something unique with this camp and split the campers into teams for a little friendly competition. After picking names for their teams they tackled the archery, bb guns, and tomahawks, working together to add tallies to their scorecards. This fun format really had kiddos focused and the camaraderie of working together was fun to see. After hitting the course, kiddos moved up to the Kicking Bear Tough course and pairs of campers raced through the various obstacles. So fun to see the intensity as we had friend vs friend and even brother vs brother match-ups on the course.

This built up quite the appetite so we gathered for lunch and Pastor Kevin shared the Gospel message as well as the salvation prayer. It was awesome to talk about life choices with the kiddos and to let them know that the choice to follow Jesus was the most important one they could make in their life.

We closed up camp with some animal calls and marshmallow slinging. What a great day of fellowship and fun!

One thing we celebrated about the Warsaw camp was meeting a camper named Trent. Trent reminded us of one of the coolest parts of Kicking Bear camps, which is seeing campers learn new things and find success in them! Trent was able to get into all of the shooting stations in the chair he uses to get around and he completed the trifecta by sticking arrows, pinging bbs, and launching the tomahawks. Some of the biggest smiles of the camp were from Trent and the friends surrounding him as he found success while having some fun! A huge thank you to the Warsaw crew for an amazing camp this year!

“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13