Janae's Ireland Trip

Janae went to Ireland this summer with several other Vanguard Students to work with a local church and their outreach kids camps.  I don't have pictures of the kids, but here is some excitement from the trip.

Australian Adventures

Wayne Tesch and I ventured down under to Australia to speak to the Directors at Southern Cross Kids' Camps in October. 

Below is a short video of the stories and adventures we accomplished. 

For more info and videos from the Australian Camps, click on this link.

https://www.sckc.org.au/

Southern Cross Kids' Camps numbers:

Camp and Mentoring Club Stats and Facts

Here are some of the numbers from Camp and Mentoring Club this year.  

Each number has a lot of history behind it, either a life touched, a life volunteering or money or time being expended.

Thanks for all you do to help make these numbers a reality!

MUD Matters

Here are two versions of the devotional I delivered this spring at our Regional LIFT Conferences.

My goal was to not only give a good devotional thought to those attending, but also to make it memorable and transferable so the Directors could take it back and do the same devotional for their volunteers during their annual training.  

After the videos, there are several photos from around the country of volunteers participating in the Mud that Matters.

The first version has been shortened to 7:30, followed by the original 21:00 version if you have more time.

7:30 version

21:00 version

 So California

 Texas

Montana

Illinois

Nebraska

Impacting Adults Who Impact Kids

Our Mission at RFK is to create life-changing moments in the lives of kids.

Some times that means having a direct impact on the child, and sometimes that means having an indirect impact.

In this case, RFK in Norman OK.  has made such an impact on one of the adult Camp Counselors that the Counselor changed her major in college to a Bachelor in Social Work so she can now work with this population of kids full time!!!

RFK has birthed in many young, and not so young, a new direction in life.  These people are creating even more life-changing moments for the kids we serve.

Former Camper Email 2017

This letter is FULL of incredible insights, memories, and connection points from a Campers perspective.  Please enjoy seeing God's providential hand standing by this young man through time.

Email received from former camper. August 2017

My name is Anthony M*******. I am writing this letter to express my gratitude for this ministry.

I grew up in an abusive home and ended up in foster care on a few separate occasions. When I was about 10 years old I was sent to camp from my foster home (probably to give them a break; I was a difficult kid to deal with).

I had never heard about, nor seen in action, the love of Jesus. RFKC was an experience like never before. The foster homes I was in varied in religious beliefs from Catholicism to agnosticism, but when I went to RFKC I experienced, for the first time in my life, the consuming love of Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

 I had the Gospel explained to me in a way that I could actually understand. My birth mom was a Jehovah's witness and I assumed that made me one until I met a group of apologetically strong man of God that explained sound doctrine to me.

I ended up attending camp for a few more years until I reached the cut off age. My final year of camp some of the camp staff committed to discipling me outside of the camp through the proper channels of the Connecticut foster care system (DCF at the time). Over that next year I began regularly attending a Bible teaching church. 

Eventually I moved back home with my birth mom, who was a non practicing Jehovah's witness. We moved around the country on section 8 housing and I was exposed to a lot of other opposing worldviews. I eventually determined I would become an atheist as it was the easiest worldview to adapt to in any environment without any training necessary. I also liked the idea of no eternal consequences for my actions.

Fast forward a couple year I became the statistical foster youth ending up in jail on multiple occasions and homeless on other occasions. I made a family out of the other people who were doing and selling drugs with me and the only time I went to church was to use and manipulate the "dumb religious folks" around me. 

After years of living far outside of the will of God I had an extremely eye opening experience when God allowed me to see in the Spirit, the very real darkness that surrounded my life. In a rock bottom moment I decided to turn to God and I remembered the only God I knew of that I had actually experienced. All of a sudden atheism seemed so foolish to me and I began a journey of rediscovering Jesus. If it wasn't for RFKC, I wouldn't have known where to turn. 

Now I am a father in a fatherless nation, and husband in a time broken families, and a man of God leading my family, church and community into deeper obedience to the great command and great commission and a relationship with a great God. I truly wish to thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

Incredible Volunteers

We have some of the most dedicated hard working and heart giving volunteers around.  Here are a couple of group shots from this past summer.

I like group shots because they show the real volunteers who are doing the work.  We talk about an army of workers making a difference, so here are some of their unique pictures.

Lakeland FL. Camp #359

Midland MI Camp

New Jersey Camp Commissioning Service.  Notice the volunteers are holding up the camper T-shirts to represent the campers who will attend the following day.

South Dallas Camp

San Jose, CA Camp

 Sioux Falls, South Dakota Camp

Wales, United Kingdom Camp

 These last two are both Fort Worth TX

Starting a Revolution (video added)

While visiting Camps and Directors in the New England states, I found myself driving through Massachusetts towards Maine when something clicked in my mind about Lexington and Concord where the “shot was fired that was heard around the world.”  I did a quick maps check and found out I was only a short distance from the “start of the revolutionary war.”  Naturally I had to stop by and check out such an auspicious place in our country’s history.

I can’t say it was holy ground, like Israel might be, but it was patriotic ground for sure.  I truly felt something special, something heart warming and something deeply appreciative about standing on the battleground.

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Below are few pictures and a brief video.  If you get a chance to visit Lexington MA.  please do so and let the land and the story give you an American perspective!

 Oldest Revolutionary War Monument in America, 1799

"They nobly dared to be free!!"

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Statue of Captain John Parker who led the militia and voiced these incredible words to start the revolution…

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