Space Coast Success!
By Kevin Bonnar
Our friends at Grace Church in Melbourne, FL hosted their third year of Kicking Bear last month and it was a huge success. Pastors Aaron and Nicole Olinski and their wonderful body of believers at Grace have really embraced the three year plan that we use for starting new camps around the country. Year one we brought a crew from Kicking Bear and the bus loaded with gear down to get things started. Then last year a smaller team for support flew in, as Grace had acquired the equipment for camp through an awarded grant. This year just Pastor Kevin headed down to help out from KB base camp. We were also able to host a Champion Training course at Grace last year and have three of those trained return to help with camp this year. Pastor Tom Andersen and his wife Sherilin, and our good friend from Trinity Sportsman Ministries Dennis Pawlowski were all on hand this year and they did a great job of putting the training into action for camp. The gradual release of a three year plan and having folks complete Champion Training are an awesome way for us to continue to grow the opportunities around the country as well as have local churches and ministries take ownership of camps as we head on down the road to the next interested area.
One thing that will always stand out to me about the Grace Church family is their amazing volunteers. Again this year they had just the best bunch of folks step up and serve. The camp is located right on the church grounds and families were treated to archery, bb guns, tomahawks, tough course, water balloons, tug-o-war, boat building, marshmallow fighting and even a sweet potato launcher! I also have to say the Grace has some of the coolest arts/crafts options for kiddos. The local Sheriff’s Department brought in a bloodhound and shared with the kiddos, biggest ears I’ve ever seen on a dog! The meals were great, the weather was beautiful and the Gospel was shared with all. We are really blessed to be partnering with Grace and year three was a huge success. A cool thing for me is that I have been able to be there for all three years and I have also got to see the church grow!! They have added a wing to the building, a sweet playground, outdoor archery course, and they are even getting ready to acquire more land. On top of that they have added so many new friends and families to their church! Sitting in service on Sunday it was amazing to take that all in and just celebrate what God is doing in Melbourne. Grace’s motto is to “transform the Space Coast with the radical love of Jesus”, really blessed to see that transformation for this wonderful body of believers, thank you Grace!
If your faith community is interested in being the next success story alongside us at Kicking Bear please email info@kickingbear.org to find out more!