Category Archives: Camp

EBO gifts at work this summer

Posted on by

Summer is upon us with all of the wonderful ways that Kentucky WMU involves children and students (youth) in missions.

Mission Adventure for Kentucky Kids will take place June 16-18 in Richmond and June 23-25 in Bowling Green. Red House Baptist Church will host in Richmond and Calvary Baptist Church in Bowling Green. Each three day mission trip includes prayer walking, worship, Bible study, mission projects and Kentucky Kid fun! Ministries include sorting, organizing donations of food and clothing, home meals delivery to the homebound, games with children at a shelter, making cookies for international students, and more.


Equipment TrailerKentucky Changers will do home repairs for low-income home owners in Hopkinsville (June 11-17), Calloway County (June 18-24), Greensburg (July 2-8), and Frankfort (July 9-12).  Building on the 2016 theme, “Stay Connected to the Source,” students will be challenged through nightly worship to stay connected to Jesus in all of life. Volunteers of all ages assist with teaching construction skills, supervising projects, cooking, checking out tools, and many other tasks to support the students as they serve.

Overnights for Mothers and Daughters and Girls in Action will take place at Cedarmore (July 1-2) and Jonathan Creek (July 8-9). Participants will meet a missionary and enjoy summer fun while they learn. Acteens Quest, our newest overnight, will be held at Jonathan Creek (July 8-9) followed by a state Acteens Activators Team trip (July 11-17) to New Orleans to work at the Baptist Friendship Center.  Acteens Leaders are invited to their own event, Acteens Quest for Leaders, August 5-6 at Liberty Baptist Church, Campbellsville. This will be a time for leaders to get acquainted and share ideas.

Camp Courage, a campout for boys will be July 29-30 at Laurel Lake Baptist Camp in Corbin. Boys will participate in a variety of outdoor activities while learning about missions.

We are most excited to report on the completion of a new Kentucky WMU storage facility at Cedarmore. With the addition of Kentucky Changers to the WMU family, the need for adequate storage of all the required equipment was huge. We are grateful to Mercer Baptist Association for the use of their storage building for the past two years. We also appreciate the partnership with Crossings who allowed us to construct a building at Cedarmore.

Whether supporting summer activities led by Kentucky missionaries, helping with WMU sponsored ministries, or funding outreach by church planters, EBO is at work all summer long!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

EBO is vital to summer ministries

Posted on by

The Eliza Broadus Offering will be at work all summer during mission trips for children, camp overnights, Kentucky Changers, and the rescheduled Creative Ministries Festival 2.0. Your gifts to the Eliza Broadus Offering help us keep participant fees lower by covering some of the expenses of these ministries.

Mission Adventure for Kentucky Kids is a NEW mission trip opportunity for children in grades 4-6 and their leaders. Two mission trips are planned and will include Bible study, recreation, crafts, missionary speaker, and local mission projects. Join us in Princeton, June 11-13, or in Inez, June 25-27. kywmu.org/missionadventure

Kentucky Changers are ready for four packed weeks of ministry projects to assist low income homeowners. Roofing, outdoor repairs, painting, building wheelchair ramps, and more are all part of the summer fun. Nightly worship with dynamic music and speaker make each day even more meaningful.  Changers will be working in June and July in Richmond, Marshall County, Maysville and Henderson. There are still openings for Marshall County, June 20-26, and Henderson, July 11-18. Bring some students and find out how rewarding hands on missions can be. kywmu.org/changers

Overnights at Jonathan Creek and Cedar Crest are a great opportunity for girls and their mothers or GA leaders to spend a night at camp. Come participate in outdoor activities, Bible study, crafts, and meet a missionary. Join us at Jonathan Creek, July 10-11, and at Cedar Crest, July 17-18. Early registration rate of $55 per person through June 12. kywmu.org/overnights

Camp Courage will bring boys, dads, and leaders together July 31-August 1 at Laurel Lake Baptist Camp in Corbin. A variety of outdoor activities as well as the ever popular RA Racers will be part of the fun and missions learning. The theme is “We Are Faithful Messengers” drawn from 2 Cor. 4:13. kywmu.org/courage

Creative Ministries Festival 2.0 has been rescheduled for August 14-15 at Living Hope Baptist Church in Bowling Green.  Register now for a great missions experience of both learning and doing creative ministries.Don’t miss guest artist Jeff Smith, director of Salt and Light Ministries in Richmond, VA. Plan now to attend great workshops including: Puppets, Balloons, Interpretive Movement, Sign, God Rods, Skits, Juggling, Face Painting, Magic, Lip Synch, Clowning, and Human Video. Find out what “Taking It to the Streets” is all about!   kywmu.org/cmf

Remember that the Eliza Broadus Offering is received all year long! Help us reach our goal of $1,250,000 to support these and other ministries across Kentucky.  As of this writing, we just have $101,000 to go to reach our 2014-15 goal. Donate online or through your church!  kywmu.org/ebo

 

MAKK front

Changers Still Room 2015Overnights 2015

 

 

Camp Courage 2015

CMF Rescheduled

 

 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Tyler’s story

Posted on by

Tyler Thomas 1In my last blog on Life Changing Commitments, I shared about the call from Terry Thomas to tell us about his son’s commitment to Christ. Because Tyler’s camp experiences had contributed to his understanding of the gospel, I asked if we might share his story.  His dad sent me this note:

Mrs. Bolton,
Jon relayed the request about including Tyler’s story in your blog. We discussed it with Tyler and he said it would be OK with him to write. We are excited that you made the request.

When I asked Tyler if there was something special about Courage or Mission Adventure Camp, he FirstCourage revsaid “The most important part was talking with me and going to church.”

Now, from my perspective, these two events played a very important role in his coming to understand his need for Salvation. He wanted to go to these places with me. The leadership from the WMU as well as other churches provided Tyler with examples of people willing to spend time and energy with him and other children. Time and attention go a long way with boys and girls.

Our first Courage event, Tyler was able to see Chris Clark. He had studied about Chris in Children In Action.

100_2288Our first camp, Caleb Hetrick was his cabin counselor. Caleb was a fellow Homeschooler which made a connection with Tyler. The next two Courage events, Caleb was there and made a big deal about seeing Tyler.

This year at camp, Lucas Young was Tyler’s cabin counselor and connected with Tyler and his guitar. In fact, they played together one night in the cabin. He wrote out the chords for Tyler to play the camp songs.

Showing the Jesus film this year sparked an intense interest for Tyler. We watched the film at home and then walked through the plan of salvation multiple times over the course of a few weeks before he made his decision.

100_2316I give you all this background to encourage you and your staff to continue investing time and energy into these kids. Emphasize connecting personally. All of us come to understand the meaning of salvation through the personal witness of others. The Lord used the camps to touch Tyler’s life. If you ask him, he is probably going to say swimming was his favorite part. I assure you he got much more.

Thanks, Terry, for this note. To all missions leaders, Sunday School teachers, choir directors, and others in our churches who work with preschoolers, children, and youth – THANK YOU!  Please let Tyler’s story be an encouragement to you to keep on investing in the children and youth in your community and church.  Keep sharing the gospel. When you lay a solid foundation for growing faith, the impact will be felt for 100_2254years to come and touch others as well.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Changers and Changes

Posted on by

Changers 2014 026Changers 2014 033I have to admit a huge feeling of satisfaction and gratitude to God as I stood with youth and leaders during the first worship service of the Kentucky Changers week in Lawrenceburg / Frankfort.  When the title slide with the theme for the week came up that included the Kentucky WMU logo, I wanted to shout. The Changers participants were praising the Lord in song, so they would have hardly noticed if I had done a happy dance in the aisle.

It has been a challenging year of transition. I am grateful to the Kentucky WMU Executive Board who caught the vision and agreed to take a risk in taking on this ministry.  It was not in this year’s budget and required faith that the finances on paper would work.  I am grateful to Peggy Murphy who said yes and agreed to leave her post at the KBC to join the WMU staff as the Kentucky Changers Coordinator.  After working with Peggy this year, I am absolutely amazed at what she accomplishes in coordinating four weeks of Changers.  And normally she is working two years out, but this year had only seven months.

Changers 2014 036For those who have not experienced Kentucky Changers, let me say that putting together one week would be a tremendous task. Peggy does it for four weeks in four different locations. Coordination includes working with the local association and local committees, working out housing and meals, working with the project coordinators to find and fund the project materials, registration, insurance, and enlisting volunteers such as crew chiefs, assistant crew chiefs, cooks and many others. Due to our bad winter, schools got out later this year and added to the challenges for Peggy.

I spent the day on Saturday with Changers, helping with check-in, meeting leaders, and attending worship. Then I spent Monday with a crew painting a house for a gentleman with back problems.  The organization amazed me with the tools, supplies, and lunch delivery. Most meaningful of all was listening to a youth participant lead our devotional after lunch and hearing one of the adults cry as he shared his testimony.  Due to working in VBS at my church, I have not been able to be with the Changers for their nightly worship time, but certainly enjoyed hearing the teens on my crew discussing what they heard the night before.

Above all, everyone on the team understands that Kentucky Changers is about changed lives, not house repairs or paint. Changers also pray for the homeowner, interact as much as possible and share Christ. Some Changers participants come because it sounds like a fun trip and they like the idea of helping others. But changed lives is the real purpose of Kentucky Changers, and this includes the students. There are many who accept Christ as Savior or commit to ministry during the week.

Camp 2014 030camp 2014 004Changes are also taking place at Mission Adventure Camp at Cedar Crest. During each week of camp, participants hear the gospel and learn about missions. The Experience 1:8 Team that is serving as our camp staff are being changed as they learn to share the gospel with children. What 1:8 team members learn will be used as they go overseas next week to serve. And the experience in an international setting will make an impact on our campuses as they return to share Christ with international students through Baptist Campus Miinistries.

One significant change for Kentucky WMU is that we will do summer camps in different ways starting next summer. Crossings has announced plans to expand their camps for children and we hope to partner with them in providing missions learning for children.  We anticipate working with an Experience 1:8 team in a different setting to provide missions camps. Details are being worked out but changes are coming.  Our prayer is that the changes will allow us opportunities to interact with more children’s leaders than ever before, encouraging them to engage children in missions.

A friend once told me that there are two things Baptists hate. One is change and the other is the same old thing.  Some changes we embrace (like Kentucky Changers!) and others we resist. Above all, the most important change is a changed life.  Pray for change!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email