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Category: Camp

10 Reasons to Send Your Kids to Camp

Ten Reasons You Should Send Your Kid to Camp          And One Reason You Might Want to Go, Too! By Pastor Karl Bastian, Kidology.org   There’s something almost magical about summer camp. The crackling campfire, the chorus of frogs at night, the sound of kids laughing as they run between cabins and canoes. But it’s not just the scenery or the s’mores that make camp so valuable—it’s what happens in kids while they’re at camp. If you’ve been on the fence about sending your child to summer camp, here are ten compelling reasons to make it happen this year. It’s more than just a break for them (and maybe for you)—it’s an investment in their heart, their mind, their friendships, and their faith. 1. Camp gets kids into God’s creation. In our digital world, kids are constantly surrounded by screens. Camp pulls the plug—literally—and immerses them in God’s handiwork. From towering trees to twinkling stars, nature has a way of pointing us back to the Creator. As Romans 1:20 reminds us, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made…” When kids hike a trail,…

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It Just Stacks Up!

If you are a regular reader on Kidology.org, you know my passion for relational ministry, a term I started using over twenty years ago before it was hip. (Download my free book on the topic.) Jesus did a lot of teaching – but first he formed relationships with those He wanted to reach. It is no different in children’s ministry. When we play with kids we create a relationship, and out of that relationship we can have a huge impact! One of the BEST tools I have discovered for connecting with kids is with Speed Stacks. I helped introduce sport stacking to the world of kids ministry years ago when I discovered what a magnet it was for drawing and engaging kids. As I promoted it on Kidology, Speed Stacks credited me with expanding the growing sport from schools to churches across the country. I even headed up the effort to introduce sport stacking as an official Awana Game. (See Awana.org/sportstacking) I even got to be their spokeman! Kids LOVE sport stacking with Speed Stacks! It is fun, easy to learn, and is probably the best sport when it comes to allowing kids of all athletic ability compete equally. Regardless…

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We All Got “Stuff”

Tonight I kicked off a new week of camp speaking at Camp Timber-lee. I’ve been a camp speaker here since 1997. They keep having me back, even after I moved to Colorado, which is an honor. This year’s theme is ‘Anchored’ and it’s a super topic – for when we have our lives anchored to God, we can survive the storms of life. I’ll be covering the ‘Water Stories’ of the Bible. Tonight we began with the Wise and Foolish builder in Matthew 7:24-27. For each story we will be looking UP (something we learn about God), IN (something we learn about ourselves), DOWN (identifying a ‘bottom line’ Eternal Principle) and then OUT (what will we DO differently as a result of this story?). One of the neat things about tonight’s chapel was when I introduced a new puppet tonight, named Shredder (a skater dude). He embarrassed to share his real name, so he goes by this cool nick name. He mentioned that he ‘s got some ‘stuff’ going on in his life that he could use God’s help with. When I asked what he meant, he said he didn’t want to give details in front of all these kids,…

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Hello Sky Mountain Campers!

Hello Sky Mountain Campers! Welcome to my blog! If you typed in www.kidologist.com – you are at the right place, it just switches to Kidologist.com once you get here. This is my “home” on the web, and from here you can “jump” to all my different websites. I’ll be updating this post as I get more pictures and videos posted, so be checking back, but I wanted to get a post up right away, before I left camp! If you want to e-mail me, here’s what to do. I don’t want to post the e-mail online, otherwise I’ll get a bunch of SPAM! (that’s junk e-mail) But YOU can e-mail me! Here’s what to do! Just e-mail the name of the name of the cool Robot Puppet that I had at camp, followed by @kidology.org – and that will go right to me! If you want to write a letter to me, just e-mail and ask for my address, and I’ll send it to you. Got that? For example, IF the robot’s name was BOB, the e-mail would be BOB@kidology.org Of course, it wasn’t BOB, but YOU know what it was! I look forward to hearing from you, and I…

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The Gospel According to Flying Chickens?

I’m currently speaking at Camp Timber-lee, and posted on Facebook that I got to share the Gospel with flying chickens this morning! Gave me the idea… I wondered if anyone might like to take a stab at guessing how one might share the Gospel with flying chickens! For the BEST “Gospel Presentation with Flying Chickens” provided in comments, whether it is the one I used, plain funny, or another great original idea – I’ll mail you one of MY flying chickens! I’m teaching this week on Spiritual Climbing, a topic I have done here many times, so I wanted to a take a totally new approach (my past series is available on Kidology) so I am going through the Awesome Adventure Series (gave a copy to each camper) adding an object lesson with a piece of hiking equipment I use when I go hiking and comparing to spiritual growth, but for the game, I created 12 games with these flying chickens I got on sale at an outlet store! The store couldn’t believe it when I took every chicken in the store up to the counter! But when you find something that is usually over $10 for only $3 –…

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