Two Decades of Camps in Indiana
By Ray Howell
Jasonville Indiana hosted camp in August and celebrated their 20th year of having a Kicking Bear event!. Nick Fusco openly said, “Kicking Bear has really changed our community”. A really neat part of the Indiana camp is all the hunting and fishing they do with the youth in their community after the camp is over, it brings tears to my eyes to see the power Godly men and women coming out to serve others less fortunate. Check out Shooter’s Archery’s Facebook page to see what I mean. I looked forward to being a part of this event this year. It was mind blowing for me to see how God has orchestrated this ministry and brought it to communities like Jasonville. What is really encouraging are the lives that have been changed throughout the years.
For this camp we set a really wide range of different activities including archery, trap shooting, BB guns, bowfishing, turkey calling, bass fishing, tree stand safety, and shed dog hunts just to name a few. There are so many things for kiddos to choose from that you can see the excitement in their eyes when they arrive and look around!
Josh and Krysten McDaniel and Nick Fusco had everything ready to go with and outstanding team of volunteers.. What an amazing group of people who care about the love of Jesus and their community. One of the coolest things is that many of the volunteers at this camp started coming to Kicking Bear back when they were 4 or 5 years old and now they are returning to serve.
This year we have really been fortunate to put on several Kicking Bear Champion training camps.. They have all been very successful in training new champions to run camps in the future and help us expand the reach of the ministry. We expect that next year is going to be another year with several new camps throughout the US. Kicking Bear Champion Jaden Dale was trained early in July and showed up in Indiana to help run this camp with the Kicking Bear Indiana team. It was very apparent that what he was able to learn at the champion training camp, he then put it to use as a sheep dog watching over every aspect of this camp. Neat part is that Jaden was one of those little firecrackers that started at this camp and wa now back to serve, so cool seeing that kind of fruit from past camps come to life.
For me, I was having a blast just being one of the kids! I caused more water, fights and chaos than I can remember in a long time. When it came time for lunch, there were so many pizzas stacked up you couldn’t even count them all, looked like a mountain of pizzas! The weather was extremely hot, but that didn’t slow people down from tug-of-war running races, spider crawls, and you name it. Then some big kid started a marshmallow fight again. It was totally out of control. God is amazing! How can you have this much fun in His creation and it is totally legal. No cell phones no video games no racism whatsoever. Everybody is having a blast, young and old. I think the most incredible thing to witness at camps is all the people when the gospel is being shared, how quiet it is and all listen fully to the truth. This camp was no different, there was many decisions for Christ, and afterward, we walked down to the pond and people openly showed the world through baptism that they love Jesus and they follow him! There is no money in the world that could change somebody’s heart the way I see victory in Christ. It can only be God. We are truly blessed to serve the one true king. Thank you for your sacrifice Jesus, for all of us!