Rain brings a blessing

It rained this morning. Not that it is unusual that we get rain, but we just haven't had much this summer.

It was a blessing in disguise for sure. We woke up this morning to a soft fallen drizzle. It was just the kind that makes you want to sleep in a little longer.

Before the day started, the blue skies rolled in and it was back to business for kamp. It's another a beautiful day in the Ozarks here and the kids are having tons of fun.

Last night we had kamp fire night. Each bunkhouse heads out to their own kamp fire spot and has an evening meal, time around fire, and then good smores and share time. Good things always happen and last night didn't disappoint. We had several kampers become Christians last night which is way cool. It never ceases to amaze me how the Lord continues to bless us. I am so thankful for His grace on this place.

Another nice Day!

Kampers love to compete. They also love to set records.

How about 10,586? That's right.

Second term 5th period tramp class was able to set the Kwest record for most consecutive bounces in a 35 minute period during the Blue day rotation. Pretty cool.

That's a lot of bounces. In fact, I am not sure how they did it, but they pulled it off while Garrett Love was teaching some pro techniques. My hats off to him and the boys.

Today has brought us another fantastic day of nice weather. We are experiencing July type weather with high temperatures which make for a nice mixture when we head to the water for aqua skipping (the new sport at Kwest), as well as blobbing, ski, canoe, kayak, sail, swimming, wet n wild, and a host of other activities that wind up getting us wet and keep us cool.

I am glad term 3 kampers are here. Tonight they will get to be a part of Klife and have skits, competition, some singing, and a fun challenge that will Dare them to Dream the way God wants them to dream. It's going to be fun.

One neat thing we have been doing lately is that we bring the whole kamp together for all kamp swim fun just to cool off. It's awesome when we open the slides and the rest of the fun things we have at the pool complex.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a little cooler which gets me excited to see what we can do to have more fun than we have had today.

Off and Running for term 3

We are off and running for our 3rd term of kampers.

Last night we kicked off the term with an awesome picnic and a action packed opening Klife.

After Matt and his crew grilled up some "Boo-yah" burgers, Luke Finch and Jerri Thomas had the kamp rolling in laughter as they kicked off our term with some Kuk vs. Komo thumb wars and some outrageous skits.

By the way, the komos beat the kuks last night so they have opening bragging rights.

Unreal deal seems to be a stacked cabin on both side. Cabin 12 is known as Unreal Deal here and it's amazing to see the group that the Lord has brought together. They will be great at leading our kamp.

It's a hot one today and the kids all have their individual class schedules now, know what tribe they are in, and have visited our pool complex (see picture above) more than once already. I love summer and I love the pool.

Tonight we have our opening ceremonies with real Indian Dancing at the tribal ring.
It's shaping up to be an awesome day!

Sweet time of the day!

There is nothing like a Klife at kamp.

It's always a blast to be at Klife.
It's a sweet time of the day.

Attention Mom and Dad: High School Ahead

For most Kwest kampers, high school is just around the corner. Before you blink, it will be over and graduation will be another one of the many memories in your mind.

High school is challenging for sure and there will be many situations that attack the bedrock of a budding Jr. High kampers faith. If you are like me, you want to do as much as you can to help firm up where your child stands before they hit the roaring waves.

This summer at Kwest, we are firming up the faith of the kampers who walk through our gates by challenging them to capture four foundational dreams for their lives. We dare them to Stand, Follow, Lead, and Live out what they know to be true. Throughout their time at Kwest, kampers hear messages that allow them to make choices in the areas that mean the most to help with growing their own faith in Christ.

Standing on the Word of God, following Christ with all you have, making a choice to lead a life of purity, and living out a day to day walk will all be decisions that everyone makes this summer. Our prayer is that Kwest kampers choose to pursue all of these dreams and make them part of everything they do.

Daring to Dream some things this summer will allow them to navigate the high school rapids that lie ahead. Ask your kampers what they heard through Klife talks while they were here. We want you to help make their dreams come true.

Sunday Afternoons

Sundays are always sweet here. Yes, today is a Sunday at Kamp. It's a little scheduling thing we do to help the kamp week flow well. Joe spoke this morning at I'M Third Church, we had fried chicken at lunch (a standing kamp tradition), and we have Sunday Funday. The guys competed in some football, baseball, and beach volleyball while the girls bonded with some hilarious games that led to building sundaes in the dining hall after a fun sun soaked afternoon.

Off and Running

After a wonderful night of tribal introductions and newly assigned Chiefs and Princesses, we were off and running to a full day of classes today. The weather was absolutely perfect. Lots of sunshine sent everyone scrambling for the pool complex at free time, and it also gave all of our boaters a chance to be out on the lake with ski classes.

Each kamper has their own daiy schedule, so it's a new page each day for all of the kampers. Almost half of the guys kamp has signed up for adventure speciality (a fun adventure every day for all the sports we offer) while volleyball, basketball, and football all seemed to have the lions share of the kampers each day.

Elective classes (over 25 different ones to chose from) find a spot on each schedule for the girls and the boys at least 3 times to 5 times a day. When you throw in free time (an hour of picking where you want to go each day) along with free tube, and tree tops, the days are always busy here.

Tonight we have Klife. It's the first chance the kamp will have to be challenged to pursue dreams that can change their life and change the world. The book of Daniel will pave the way tonight for our Dare to stand talk.

Stay tuned. Lot's more to come today.l

Burger Time!

We are serious about our burgers at Kwest.

We go to great lengths to make sure that opening night is a great start to a kampers time here at the Westside and that means serious cookin'.

Secret Sauce is key. We have a "one and only" Kwest BBQ sauce (we should probably bottle it, market it, and sell it) that we bathe each and every burger to perfection...not too much, not too little, just the right amount.

Our first night is always spectacular. A big picnic, fun field games, ice brakers, and just getting to know ya time. After a few minutes, you would have never known that we had new kampers. We all feel like family.

Yep, opening night is pretty awesome because we start by takin' our cookin' serious.

Bring on some more booyah sauce.

Parents Parents Parents

Parents day is always a blast.

Everyone is always excited. Reunions, catching up, stories, and lots of family time.
Kwest rolls out the red carpet and tries to do our best to make it all happen and allow everyone to have fun while they are here.

We throw a big picnic, have sports specialty shows, give away lots of awards, and let our kampers show their families around kamp. Bottom line: it's a sweet time.

It's hard to believe that our first 2 week term is in the books.

Looking to the Future

Joe White stopped by tonight to speak at our Klife.
He was able to both challenge and encourage our kids of kwest to think about purity and their future. With a magical message centered around dreaming the dream that God wants for all of us, we looked at what marriage should look like according to God's plan shared in His word.
It was a really fun ending to a very long and exciting day. By the way, our oldest bunkhouses slipped out of kamp today to have their Unreal Deal Trip to Branson. They did some roller skating, pizza, and the now famous Party Barn.
Tomorrow our friends bring friends winner will be taking her cabin on a waterslide adventure over at KKauai. It really does pay to bring friends to the Kanakuk films when we visit your city.

Guard your Heart!

Better guard your heart today.

At our morning flag, the ODs (officer of the day who runs the kamp schedule on time and with lots of energy/fun) let our kamp know that they had better guard their hearts.

Proverbs encourages us to watch over our hearts with all diligence and to guard and protect what we allow into our hearts and who will allow to influence us.

We have some fun games for the entire kamp to be involved with to help them think about it throughout the day.

It's a beautiful day today here in the Ozarks. Being at kamp is great!

Pirates!

Tonight we absolutely blew the roof off of Kwest!

I don't say that very often, but the kamp had a blast as we launched into the greatest Pirate Party of all time.

For openers, we flooded the Kdome courts, made some open ocean waters to sail on, and let the kids have a blast while kickin' and paddling around like a bunch of scallywags thrown over board.

Dinner was special too. After a full day of hunting for clues hidden around kamp (they were stuffed in bottles that looked like they were tossed into the sea years ago), we all joined in the chuck wagon for a meal that even the finest pirate would give his Davey Jones locker. By the way, we ate like pirates too (no plates or silverware, just paper on the tables with corn on the cob, chicken fingers, rolls and some rice.

At the end of the evening, we sent all of the shipmates to the showers and a change of fresh clothes.

Enjoying the open seas and the Kwest kampers...

Set Free

Todd Rapp spoke tonight at K-Life. After a wonderful day of welcoming the new kampers, we had a blast tonight at dinner, flag, and then capped it off with some fun skits, great singing, and a moving message by Todd.
He shared about being set free from the things that weigh us down and slow us down in our walk with the Lord. With Derek Nassick belayed over the audience, it was a message that will not soon be forgotten.

1st term 2009 in the Books!

Hard to believe it, but our first 7 day term is already gone and history.
Tons of laughter, lots of new friendships, load of sports skills sharpened and honed, and most importantly, hearts changed forever.

Joe White's I'm third talk 2 days ago was probably the single most talked about highlight of the first week. His challenge to be I'm Third and fly with the eagles (instead of the crows) was a memorable one for sure.

Last nights Amigos, Amigos party was a blast. All the kampers ran to different stations including dancing by the dock, flashlight tag on the courts, the human burrito race, and loads of other Amigos fun.

Today we welcomed our new incoming 7 day kampers. It's great to have old friends, but even more fun to make new ones (I just met Tyler and Brock from North Carolina...they flew in and caught our shuttle to kwest... Tyler is in hoops and Brock is doing tennis, so I can't wait for tomorrow).

Changeover is always a sweet day. I love saying "see ya soon" (I don't like to say goodbye) and enjoy saying hello to the new gang coming in to kamp.

Bring on another week of kamp!

I'M Third Sunday

Today was an interesting day. It was Sunday here in Kanakuk land. That's right. Friday for you guys, but Sunday for us.

To help maximize the 7 day kampers experience, and make it better for our 2 week kampers, we shuffle the days of the week just a little bit and have Sunday a day or two early.

Coffee cake, Joe White speaking in church, the I'm Third message with our Chiefs and Princesses putting up the cross...it was a perfect day (and so was the weather).

This afternoon, both the boys and girls camp have special activities. The girls are traveling all over kamp doing fun games for a relaxing afternoon and break from their schedule of classes. The boys are competing in some Sunday afternoon air it out football, beach style pro volley ball, and even some MLB baseball (played with tennis balls and some fun rules).

Highlight of the day today was church. We had many kids accept the Lord this morning after Joe's talk. Tonight we have camp fire night. Each individual cabin will head off to their own location to have a campfire including supper, smores, and devotional time.

I love Sundays at kamp. There is nothing better.

Trail Dust

Tonight is the traditional Western Party here at the Westside.
Throughout the day we will be playing the Oregon trail day where each bunkhouse will be running around kamp attempting to navigate the dangers of an unsettled western land.
It's a beautiful day and the weather is perfect to enjoy another full day of classes.
Bring on the Root Beer and Watermellon tonight. We will be doing some square and line dancing for sure.

Dare to Stand

Dare to Stand. Are you in?

We topped of another awesome day today with an action packed Klife which included the Trucker guys skit, some great singing,some 3D action and a challenge to make a stand on God's word this year.

Standing clear of the World, standing up to Lead, and standing on Scripture helped paint a picture of what things should look like for those who want to live a life like Daniel did when he was about Kwest age.

We finished off our night tonight with some juice bars before heading to devos.
This first term group seems to really be enjoying the staff and each other. Pretty cool to see it all happening.

Cabin Comp and Tribal Introductions

We are off and running this morning.


After a wonderful night of sleep and a great Blueberry fluff breakfast, we have launched into day number one of the summer (actually day number 2).



After some fun cabin competition games today, our new Kwest kampers will be inducted into tribes. Each kamper that attends Kanakuk will become part of a tribe (the boys will become Choctaws or Cherokees, and the girls join the Kiowas or Kickapoos). Its a long standing tradition that helps every kamper feel a sense of family and team.

Tonight we have opening tribal ceremonies. Our chiefs and princess will be introduced and we will be competing in tribal games for some fun times after supper.

It's a gorgeous day today and every kamper seems to be having a blast.

They're Here!

"All present and accounted for sir!" That's what I used to say to Kris Cooper years ago when I first started working as a counselor at Kanakuk in 1981. We would always stand at the flag and he would ask for a cabin report so he knew where all of our k1 kiddos were actually standing.

As I headed to bed yesterday for our first official day of kamp, it was good to hear that that the Kwest first term campers were "all present and accounted for." That' always a wonderful feeling considering the fact that kids come from all over the world on buses, cars, and plans.

Most of kampers checked in early yesterday, so we opened up the pool and the slides and let them have some fun. Last night we had a wonderful picnic out on the fields after saying good bye to our second session staff (who will return in July).

It was a picture perfect day for everyone. I am so glad we are off and running. Lot's of smiles, laughs, and friendships have already happened. Our goal is to make this the very best days of each kampers entire year. By God's grace, it's going to happen.