Saturday, June 24, 2017

Kanakuk DayOut 2017

The week after Cayman, Kinley and Ty attended Kanakuk Day Out day camp at our church's Roanoke campus.  
Kanakuk is near and dear to my heart because I was a counselor for Kanakuk in the summer of college.  
I was super excited for both my kids to have their first Kanakuk experience.  
The Harigs and Williams attended this week of Kamp too.  
These kids have been going to summer camps together for many years.  
They know the drill and love going with each other.
Untitled
Untitled 
With Pastor Tim
 Untitled 

Carpool is always a favorite time of the day. They request songs, play games, and just laugh nonstop. 
Untitled 
Drop off was so fun each day because they had counselors in costume ready to meet and greet the kids with such excitement.
Untitled 
The boys' counselor, Brock.
Untitled 
The girls' counselor, Keely.
Untitled 

Ben and I both went to closing ceremonies at the church to check it out. I was loving what I was hearing about the teaching the kids were receiving each day.  They really drive home the Gospel story and we get emails every day of Kamp called the Daily Kampfire of exactly what they are learning.  

The general storyline was:
Day 1 - He Created it All - Creation, Image Bearer, Harmony
Day 2 - We Lost it All - Sin, Loss, Shame
Day 3 - Jesus Did it All - Jesus Lived, Jesus Died, Jesus Conquered
Day 4 - We Get it All - I am Forgiven, I am Loved, I am Righteous
Day 5 - I'm Third - God First, Others Second, I'm Third

The energy was high and exciting and they had motions for every key word for each day that the kids could recite so that was super cool to see how they were learning and memorizing the Gospel message.
Untitled
Untitled 

Afterward we went to each kid's tent circle where the counselor's gave them each an award and just affirmed each kid with words and praise and character qualities that described them.
Untitled
Untitled 
Gotta admit a couple of Ty's descriptions surprised me :) 
 
It is amazing how this girl pegged Kinley to the tee after knowing her for such a short time.
Untitled
Untitled 


Untitled

The BEST part of the week was that after the 3rd day, Kinley's counselor told me that Kinley had prayed to accept Jesus into her heart! 
 It was so exciting and I couldn't even contain myself.  
Kinley told me all about it and the prayer she prayed.  
It's crazy because we have had discussion after discussion with all our kids about Salvation and the Gospel message.   
We have prayed since before they were born that they would accept Christ at an early age.  Something about this Kamp just drove the message home to her.  
She understood and was excited about following Jesus.  
She has since told everyone she sees in her quiet, shy way as soon as she sees them.  She has walked right up to so many and just said "I accepted Jesus into my heart."  She wants everyone to know but she doesn't want a lot of attention.  
It is so precious and I almost cry every time.  
 I am just so thankful for this Kamp this week and all the prayer and time and commitment those counselors gave to my kids and how clearly they communicated the message of Jesus to them. 

We are following up Kinley's profession of faith with more prayer and teaching and learning.  
We are reading and talking about baptism, which she wants to do, but is a little shy and nervous about the attention she might get from it.  
I can't wait to see how God just continues to soften her heart and draw her to Himself and can't wait for the day she decides she is ready to be baptized.  
I am praying that the Holy Spirit inside of her continues to make Scripture known in a deeper way and her relationship with Christ builds from knowledge to fully-devoted follower.  
What a journey she is on and I am BEYOND thankful to be along for the ride. 

No comments: