The Joe White Kanakuk Kamps Booth at Men at the Cross

 

Kanakuk Kamps just purchased this new display booth for the Men at the Cross conferences. We also purchased the TV, DVD player and the stand for the TV. You might notice in the picture that the TV is not on the stand. Well, we shipped all the parts for the booth to Houston and one of the boxes, the one with the bracket for the TV, got lost in the Toyota Center. The Toyota Center is where the Houston Rockets Play. I finally found the stray box late the second day and had no time to put it together. The Omaha, NE, Men at the Cross event will go smoother in that department. The TV made a huge difference in the number of people who stopped at the booth.

As proof I looked at the web stats for the weekend and Monday before and the weekend and Monday after the St. Louis Men at the Cross event and the number of page views in the St. Louis metro area were exactly the same. We had no decent booth, no TV, etc. at that event. Then I looked at the page views for the same time scenarios in Houston and the page views for the weekend of the event were almost exactly double. I also so an increase here at Inside Kanakuk. So it seems to me just looking at the surface that the booth upgrade was well worth it. It was also fun to get the word out about Kanakuk and to meet some of the Kamp Dads that came to the event.

We had some great volunteers at the booth too. Meredith and her husband (I drew a blank on your name!! So, sorry.), and Kelly helped during the two day event. It was a huge help having people who know about and love Kanakuk and have experienced it. I saw them sharing the Kanakuk story with a lot of Dads. I was running in several directions that weekend so I just didn't get pictures of the volunteers. I'll do better in the future.


Mollye will go to the Omaha event to help with the booth and we'll have some more great volunteers. Special thanks to Brian Mitchell from Kids Across America for helping us newbies get the booth set-up, a couple times :-)

If any of you were in Houston and have any suggestions for the booth I'd love to hear them.

Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

Best Lemonade in Houston at Irma's Southwest Grill

Irma's Southwest Grill Entrance

After the Men at the Cross event in Houston we had a Victory lunch at Irma's Southwest Grill. All I can say is that it was the best Mexican food I've ever had. Shrimp tacos, enchiladas, Salsa that just makes you want to cry when you have to leave, and the absolute best lemonade in the world. Great atmosphere and just a fun time with the Leadership of MATC and the Houston regional team. Great guys and gals who truly have a heart for the men of Houston.

Irma's Southwest Grill's, now famous to me, lemonade.

Enjoy the pictures. Hopefully I'll get around to getting all the names right at some point. Feel free to jump in there and help.

 Joe White with Jeff, Bruce, and Louie Owners of Irma's Southwest Grill

 Joe White with Kampers and friends at Irma's

As a side note, all you Tim Oliphant, American Gladiator fans might like to know that Tim threw out the beginning pitch at the Springfield Cardinals baseball game last night. Then he competed against the crowd, the dominoes pizza guy, etc. in between innings. I didn't get to go because I was standing in a 3 hour line for getting one of my sons fitted and signed up for football.

The only way I made it through that ordeal was talking to Kamp Dad, Dana Barnett [hope I spell the names right] and his son Brandon. It was great to get to know them. We have such great parents at Kanakuk. Huge fans of what we are doing. It's so encouraging to hear and see from you first hand the impact Kamp has on your kids. In my position at Kanakuk I don't get a lot of time with the kids and parents. So, when God puts me in those situations I always feel blessed.

I've been very busy the last few days and appreciate your patience as I get caught up on my blogging. I love these conversations with you. Thanks for checking back.

This week and last I have had lots of conversations about connectersations that the Director's want to have with you and your kids. I haven't seen the Director's so hungry for time communicating with the kids they met this summer. They clearly miss the Kampers and want the summer to last. One of the ways they hope to share more of the year with you and your kids is through blogs. Watch for them to get started in the next month or so. It's going to fun.


Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

American Gladiators, Tim Oliphant on stage with Joe White and Bishop Larry Jackson

 

Tim Oliphant is entertained by questions from Joe White 

At this past weekends Houston, Texas Men at the Cross event Kanakuk's very own Tim Oliphant, winner of this year's American Gladiators show took the stage with Joe White and Bishop Larry Jackson.

It happened at 9:45 on Saturday morning. Joe and Bishop Jackson got up and did a little "Who's on first" skit and then Joe talked about it taking a lot of people to make an event like this happen. Joe then invited one of the "video guys" up on stage and it was Tim. Joe and Larry started peppering him with questions. So you do video stuff? You're not a very big guy are you? Tim tells them that he's like 5'8" and 145 pounds. (can't remember the specifics there but that's close) They ask him, "You ever get in any fights?" Tim says well kind of. this goes on for a few rounds of the big guys that Tim's been in a tussle with and ends with him saying that he beat one of of them twice and that he had three of his friends with him and he beat them too. Then they started saying "Prove it." Then Tim played a video montage of scenes from the Gladiator show.

After the video, Tim shared how the American Gladiators experience has shown him how important it is to be prepared. Using the David and Goliath story from the Bible Tim shared that David had spent a life being a shepherd, relying on God and practicing his slingshot skills. Tim commented that the show was physically, emotionally exhausting and that he spent a lot of his time during the taping of the sho on his knees. Getting strength from God. He emphasized that we can't go into life's battles not prepared to battle the evil one and that the way to do that is through a relationship with Jesus Christ through reading his Word and meditation on it.

It was a great segment of the event and I was glad Tim did it. Even though he got hassled by security everytime he showed up at the event! It didn't help that my phone went dead and he couldn't call to get any help! My bad. Sorry Tim. I hope you had a great time. It was awesome.

If you were at the Houston event and have comments or questions for Tim post them here and he'll see them. Tell us what you thought of the Houston Men at the Cross event.

Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

What is your blog about?

Wordle made from www.insidekanakuk.com. Click to zoom in.

Anne Jackson posted one of these Wordles on her blog the other day and I thought it was a great way to show people what your blog is about. Wordle.com says this about the tool:

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Try a Wordle of your own today and post a comment here with a link to it. We'll all check it out.

Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

Houston Men at the Cross with Joe White

View from were I sat stage side at Men at the Cross - Houston

I got home mid afternoon today (Sunday) from an amazing weekend traveling with Joe White to the Men at the Cross event in Houston, Texas. The event was held at the Toyota Center and approximately 5000 men attended. I've spent time with my family, taken a short nap and watched some Olympics. I have pictures from back stage at the event and stories to tell from the trip. The photo above doesn't say much about the event. Call it a teaser if you will, much like this e-mail. Tomorrow I will try to post first about the things I saw God do at the event.

Other topics on the list:

American Gladiators, Tim Oliphant on stage with Joe White and Bishop Larry Jackson
Men at the Cross speakers for Houston
Meal at Irma's Southwest Grill
3 services at 2nd Baptist of Houston
Brandon Heath Concert
The Kanakuk Booth
Kampers Spotted in Houston
99 Balloons video
Coffee in a Cabinet
Views from the Omni Hotel
Notes on my trip buddy Greg O'Dell.
"Houston has the best restaurants anywhere!" - Doug Goodwin

Seriously, you have got to check in here the next few days.

I love being home with my wife and kids.

Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

I don't know why this made me laugh

I have an external drive that I use to back up my laptop and it's really best if you remove it from your desktop before you unplug it. So I minimized all my windows only to reveal the cluttered mess in the above photo. I tend to get a little messy when I get really going on a project. Well, I started moving things around, and I couldn't find that hard drive anywhere. I just started laughing and laughing. OK, it is seriously time to do some desktop cleaning. I had to open a new finder window to eject the hard drive. I guess the engineers at apple were thinking of me when they put that little eject button in there.

Can anyone else relate? I think I need a support group :-)

By the way: I'm taking a vacation day tomorrow and won't be blogging unless something comes up. Then I'm at the Men at the Cross event in Houston for the weekend. If I can get wi-fi I'll update from there.

Note to self: download map to Starbucks before leaving.

Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

New Web Address for Inside Kanakuk

If you attend the Houston Men at the Cross event on Aug. 22nd you might see one of these cards. I'm going to let people that I run into there know that my blog is here and active. I'm going to do my best to cover the event for my readers so that employees, kampers, parents, staff and the world can have a better picture of Joe White's ministry work.

You'll also notice that my blog now has it's own domain. Just put "insidekanakuk.com" or "www.insidekanakuk.com" in your browser's address bar and you'll get back here. Cooler - Easier. All the old links still work.

When the new website rolls out. You'll be able to easily find Inside Kanakuk there along with the other Kanakuk blogs.


Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

Scary Steps and Powerful Skills

Scary Sketches from Jay

Even resorted to some cut and paste on this one!

I seriously don't know why I'm doing this. Now you are going to know how terrible an artist I am! I've done a lot of graphic design in my days, made a lot of pretty logos, and all that. Yeah that's right, not a single ounce of sketching skill. I do sketches like the one above so that the graphic designers, in this case Jessica, can have a ROUGH idea of how I want a piece laid out, and what content goes on it. I occasionally throw in a little Marketing Director humor just to keep it lively. So this is the first step of a print project here at Kanakuk. That's the scary part.

Not so scary. Great job on these! Upper: Jessica. Lower: Lindsay.

The second part is when the graphic designers take the works of "art" only my mother could love and turn them into real art. Doing that is no small task. Jessica and Lindsay both have some seriously mad skills. Not only can they play Adobe InDesign and PhotoShop like a finely built violin, but they are super smart about what helps you enjoy and get a lot out of the things we send out in the mail. Not only on paper but the web too.

We met twice the end of last week to cover more of the new website and I couldn't be prouder. We may not be the smartest, most experienced web team in the world but there couldn't be a more pleasant group of people to create with. They are passionate about creating a web experience for www.kanakuk.com that will make life faster and more enjoyable for everyone.

The rollout date for the new website is currently Sept. 30th. We might go beta as early as the 15th. At the rollout it will clearly be a work in progress but I think you'll like the new foundation. I promise more screen shots before the 15th. I look forward to getting your input as we move forward.


Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

2009 Summer Camps at Kanakuk

Graphics for Display booth being used at Men at the Cross events

Next years terms are filling up faster than we thought they would. I'll post some of the stats below, but first a quick reflection on summer 2008.

It's crazy how time flies during the summer. I've been at Kanakuk Kamps for 8 years and every summer goes by faster than the last. Here in the marketing department we are in charge of making sure the photos get taken, posted to the web, and printed, video footage captured and edited, and collect new material for the upcoming year of telling the Kanakuk story.

This summer we had an intern, Adam McClure, from UGA. He was huge fun to have around and a great asset to our team. He had a hand in making sure that photos of kamper's were approved and posted to the website. He was also plugged in to the program at K-1. He stayed there and served in ways I'm sure I don't even know. Thanks Adam for hanging with us and making it a great summer.

My last Facebook message from Adam indicated that he was coming back next summer in some capacity. We love having staff back year after year. They come back, not because of the accomodations, not because of the huge paycheck :-), but because of the community of Christians that is created here. There is so much opportunity for Spiritual growth, for serving God through giving their time and hearts to the Kampers and other staff. In different ways those are some of the things that bring Kampers back too.

During the summer months, enrollment for the following summer usually hovers in the single digits and doesn't really take a big jump until people have had time to get home, get back into the school routines, and begin planning out the coming year. All of us are planning our lives in much shorter spurts and that means summer camp plans too. I know last year my wife and I waited until after Christmas to enroll our kids in Kamp and almost didn't get them in.

This year with some of the changes that Kanakuk has made the enrollment numbers are up considerably for this time of year. That means that some terms are full already. I know that heart of all our Director's yearns for the chance to see the same kids come back next summer. In many cases this is happening. Here are the numbers from today.

2008 Kampers enrolled for 2009: over all 18%, the highest Kamp is K-Kountry at 52%, then K-West at 21%, K-1 at 20%, etc.

Total enrollment is sitting at 23% of next year's available spots with more than 9 months to go!

We are headed towards a return rate of greater than 63%. That's going to make the Director's happy and a lot of kids too. I'm mainly sharing this information for our returning Kamp Families so that they can work now to get enrolled so they don't end up , not getting the spot they want.

More information about the other changes Kanakuk is making will be coming soon to your mail box.


Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

2008 Summer Music at Kanakuk Kamps

Christian Rap artist Lacrae performing for K-2 Kampers

Music is such a big part of a summer at Kanakuk Kamps. From the worship music at K-Life events to the fun music at the parties those words and tunes are forever a part of Kamper's memories. Over the years our summer theme has been written and performed by some of Christian Music's greats. Michael W. Smith, along with his wife Debbie have written and performed 10+ years worth. Steven Curtis Chapman has contributed, along with Chris Davis and Billy Sprague. The last few years Christian rap artist Lacrae has put the beat in the Kanakuk summer. I'm working on getting some of those songs ready for download on the new www.kanakuk.com. The projected date for that roll-out is Sept. 30.

Some of our Kampers are talented musicians as well. K-2 Kamper, Seth David, is a rapper with some talent. He was gracious enough to lend us one of his songs (Fresh) for use in the Original Clean Team Resource Kit. You can download the mp3 of Fresh at the The Original Clean Team website by registering for the Free Resource Kit. You'll also enjoy the short documentary produced by Tim Oliphant entitled, Unlikely Messenger: The Clean Team Story. One Kanakuk Kamper's mission to escape the party scene and share Christ with those in his school. It's not what you'd expect and the website is a great resource for youth groups and Christian teens.





Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

Joe White and Kanakuk Staff

This past summer an article was published in the InSite magazine a publication of the CCCA.

Written for others in camping ministry, the article looks a little deeper into how Kanakuk handles our summer staff. The article is well written and the editors at CCCA are great to work with. Kamp Directors Joe White, Trish Helsel, Ward Wiebe and others are quoted in the article.

An online magazine published by CCCA, called Camp Sight is dedicated to providing people with a look at the value of Christian camping through articles from camping leaders and stories of impact from real campers.

Many thanks to Alison Phillips, Editor and writer Ami Neiberger-Miller for their work on it.

If you have questions or comments about the article, Joe White, or anything "Kanakuk" just comment here and we can talk about it.


Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

Jennifer Farley Sighted in the Director's Building

Jennifer Farley - Get's 'em ready to fly down the K-1 zipline.

Like the first flower of Spring, like the first frost of Winter, seeing a Kamp Director back in the main offices here at Kanakuk says, the end of summer is near. Jennifer Farley, K-1 Assistant Women's Director and her husband Lee brought a couple boxes back to her office this morning. She looked nice and rested, bright eyed and smiley. In some ways I wish that meant we'd have 2 more weeks of summer! I had my office windows open all day yesterday and I really enjoyed the sounds of ziplines, and kids laughing.

Here in the Marketing department we go from being busy to frantic in about 2 days. There is so much to do now that summer is over and Kanakuk Movie Tour begins.

I'll be traveling to Houston later this month (Aug 22) with Joe White to help with the Men at the Cross conference. I'll tell you more about that in the days to come. If you are in the Houston area and would like to get more information go to the Men at the Cross website.



Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

Tim Oliphant American Gladiators Winner Gives God the credit

After an exhausting week, Tim Oliphant is finishing his summer duties strong. Tim has a lot of video work to do to get ready for Kanakuk Kamps coming to your town later this Fall and Winter.

The media coverage of Tim has been pretty fun to watch, but it wasn't until this article in the Branson Daily News that Tim felt like "This is what it is all about, finally, a media outlet got it right!!!!"

Branson Daily News - Faith, family, friends fan the fire.


Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

Around the World

I'm on vacation today. Traveling with my son. I did think it was interesting that I have had readers from 29 Countries. Here's the list:

United States
Canada
Mexico
United Kingdom
Spain
Egypt
Bahamas
Argentina
Germany
Ukraine
Costa Rica
Rwanda
Austria
Hungary
Vietnam
Russia
Brazil
Indonesia
Chile
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Norway
Italy
Netherlands
Thailand
Belgium
France
Australia
Ireland

Thanks for checking in from all over the world!


Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

Best Friends Move Mountains

Night time activities at Kanakuk Kamps are packed with...Christmas?? [Not the friends listed below]

Friends. We have them and make them at Kanakuk. Our staff models building solid life-long friendships…real friendships, where we hold each other accountable, encourage each other, and stand next to each other during the hard times. Based on true stories, this one shows how friendships are made at Kanakuk:
-------
Like many of our Kampers, Polly and Rebecca started their friendship when they were just little ones in Barn 1. They bunked head to head and did lots of giggling the first year. Year two they conquered the zip line together, and year three they packed trunks together over the phone and shared clothes at Kamp. Each year they reconnected at Kamp and became fast e-mail and phone friends during the school year. In the 5th grade, they rang the bell together, committing to God and each other that they would seek after Him with all their hearts. As time went on, they developed different interests; Rebecca played the flute in junior high and Polly ran cross country. They had one thing in common though: together they developed a habit of having an almost daily quiet time with God’s Word.

Those daily quiet times would form a foundation that they both would rely on in the days to come. Polly began to have a pain in her back when she ran. In two weeks time, even warming up became a struggle. Tests showed a fast growing tumor on her spine. Friends and family rallied around Polly. She was strong and steady in her faith in the Lord but there were some tough times, scary times. In those times, she sought her friend Rebecca.

On the day of Polly’s surgery, Rebecca traveled to the hospital. They sang Kamp songs, shared favorite verses and prayed that God would bring her through the surgery healed and ready for a life of service to Him. What a blessing….


Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

Just That Little Bit Extra - Slolam ski camp

Slolam skiing at Kanakuk Kamps on Table Rock Lake. [Obviously not Kari]

Every child brings a special talent with him or her to Kamp. For some it’s a fantastic singing voice, for others it’s an encouraging spirit or a knack for soaking up sun! Many Kampers bring with them a desire to be great athletes. At Kanakuk, those Kampers can take their game to the next level. Kari’s story is a compilation of all their stories so you can go to the next level with them. [see further notes in previous post]

"My name is Kari. I’m sixteen-years-old and this summer at Kanakuk I took my slalom skiing to a whole new level. Before Kamp, during ski season I would get up at 5:00 almost every morning, warm-up and check my skis. I couldn’t wait to hit the smooth water at sunrise. I love competition and last year I took fourth at our State Championship, but I struggled with feeling good at the end of a run. I always felt like I had left something out there on the course. During one run in particular,


I missed a buoy and threw the rope in disgust.
I just wanted to give up. Kamp was two weeks later.
I didn’t ski for the first week I was at Kamp. It was great to have a break and I really liked my counselor, Lori. We had lots of great talks. She asked me one day if I was going to use the ski I brought. I kind of told her about what was going on and she said the same thing happened to her when she was running cross-country. The next morning during 'Backwoods' Director Ashley Robbins shared how we were each a princess of God the King and that it was our joy to serve the King and live a life pleasing to him. It really struck home with me that I wasn’t skiing for the King; I was skiing for me.

The next day my cabin went to K-Wet for two days of boating, skiing, and camping out. For the first time in weeks I wanted to ski! Lori and I got up early and hit the lake. It was beautiful-- smooth like glass. A short ride back to Paradise Cove and I was in the water. A quick nod and the boat pulled. As the driver centered the course, I prayed, 'King, this is for you.' As I lay into the first buoy I wasn’t worried about winning, how I looked, or who was watching my form. I just wanted God to know that I loved Him for loving me enough to straighten me out. Wow, it felt good! The buoys felt so close and the edge of my ski so firm in the water. Every missed buoy from here on out will be a glimpse of the King’s forgiving grace… now that’s the next level."

Personal moments with the King make the summer special for us at Kanakuk. If one Kamper takes his/her game to the next level, then all the praise goes to the Lord.

Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

The Heart of a Boy

One of the joys I have as Marketing Director at Kanakuk Kamps is the Parent and Kamper feedback that flows over my desk. When it was time to try and tell the story of Kanakuk, that part you can't explain unless you've lived through it, I turned to your letters. This story about Dakota is pulled from last year's Kanakuk Kamps brochure. I combined your stories into one cohesive story that I hope begins to do the job. The rest of this week's posts will be more of "your" stories. Many of you haven't seen these.

I'm going to be extremely busy this week and will be on a road trip with my oldest son part of the time. I'll be back to connect with you the following week. If something important comes up I'll be sure to keep you posted. Thanks for reading and sharing.

Summer fun at Kanakuk! [Not Dakota]

This story about Dakota represents every child at Kanakuk, even our own, who needs a loving role model:
-------
“I’m writing to thank you for doing it again! Last year my ten-year-old daughter had a life-changing summer at Kanakuk. I couldn’t wait for my seven-year-old son Dakota to go. The youngest in a house with two women, he really needed some guy time. I wasn’t sure he’d want to go, so we sat down together one evening and went through the “A Day at Kamp” virtual tour on the website. He thought the food looked good and asked if he could sleep on the top bunk. I was able to show him that Kanakuk has football, basketball, baseball, tennis, archery, wrestling, rollerblading…Dakota stopped me, “Mom, do they have soccer? I think I want to play soccer when I go.” I sighed with relief and tucked a memory away of a little boy on my lap.

A couple of months later, sleeping bag in tow, Dakota became the biggest fan of Kanakuk. His counselors, Bo and Jeff, made Dakota feel like the only boy in all of Kanakuk! They carried him and his trunk to Cabin 1. Bo helped Dakota unpack, pick a top bunk and meet some of the other boys. Bo patiently listened as I covered the first seven years of Dakota’s life in two minutes! The whole time, Dakota stood next to Bo, hat now turned around so they would match. Bo was the Soccer Specialty guy and it was obvious that he and Dakota would be fast friends. I left with a lump in my throat and warmth in my heart. I looked every day for photos of Dakota and saw some of him on the soccer field, with Bo, with his cabin mates, and at the pool. At the end of the term, I picked up a boy whose cup was overflowing. On the way home I asked him if he had a best friend at Kamp. Without looking up from his cheeseburger he said, 'Jesus.' I had to pull over! He whispered in my ear, 'Mom, why are you crying?' I said, 'Jesus is my best friend, too.'"
--------
The fun at Kanakuk is off the charts and we think we have the most fun summer staff in the world, but hiring a mentor for your child is serious business! For your sons and daughters we hire the strongest men and women who have hearts striving after Christ. For more about our staff hiring process please give us a call.

Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

Tim Oliphant Wins the American Gladiators Competition!

I just got home from being at the American Gladiators watch party at the IMAX. Tim was a great host and an extremely gracious winner. He did awesome and took home the big prize. You could tell that he has just loved every minute of this thing. It seemed like a great big burden lifted when he won and was finally able talk about everything. How you saw Tim behave on TV, even a little of the over the top comments, is really Tim. He's a fun guy, and so positive about every area of his life. I'm so glad he got to do this.

I did blog from the party but am just now getting to post. See below. In the craziness of the after show festivities I forgot to get a picture of the inTimidator post win. Maybe something in the morning after his interviews??

Tim opened the Watch Party with a hilarious Conan O’Brian style “Welcome to the IMAX!” video that he created. I don’t know if it will ever go public.

The Theater was almost full as the 3rd semi-finals portion of the show started.

KY3 TV News out of Springfield, Missouri is here shooting some footage. It’s not 7:30 yet and just about every seat is full.

During one of the commercials Tim tested the I’m Third commercial on the audience and there was big applause at the end.

As the finals begin, there is only seating space available on the stairs. The theater is full.
As final contender introductions are made Tim encourages the crowd to cheer for female contender Ally. He later told us that she goes to Watermark Church in Dallas.

Tim took on the contenders in the Gauntlet. he dominated the Gladiators breaking through the wall in just over 20 seconds. At the end, Tim, out of breath and peeling off his protective neck brace he announced, “It’s like a car wreck everytime”

He announced at the next commercial break that when he took on Beast in the Gauntlet that when he was shoved against the wall he cut the palm of his hand open and ended up getting 5 stitches. First injury report of the night.

Shouts of encouragement ring out as Tim is announced for Side Swipe. Tim is out of control!! He gains a 7 point lead after Side Swipe and gets a large laceration on his left forearm. Injury report #2!

Between show segments, commercials for the Beijing Olympics are running. I look forward to watching the games, but it won’t be the same fun as being here for the inTimidator’s competition.

Tim took on Titan for the third time on the Pyramid. 3 attempts, 3 victories!! I overhead Tim talking behind me and he said he changed his strategy this time.

When Tim scrambled towards the button at the top the crowd just went absolutely nuts, jumping up and down, screaming, and pumping their fists. Tim announces there was no injury on that last event, but…

Tim takes the Wall, his eye still bloody from a previous events damage (Injury #3). The crowd is going crazy as the Tim 36, Mike 11 scores are displayed.

Tim announced that the cut on his eye took 6 stitches to close and that a plastic surgeon from Beverly Hills did the work. The Doctor had been on the show “Extreme Makeover”.

Before the Eliminator the best quote from Tim was: “I just can’t wait to get out there and pound that course!”

After the show was over Tim walked to the front of the theater, everyone cheering. Shared some things about the show and took questions.

Tim talked about the filming of the events and how compressed they were.

May 6th was the day that he actually won.

Tim will be on the Ozarks Today show in the morning. If you want to e-mail Tim Oliphant you can leave a comment and I will make sure he gets the message. He reads this blog too.

I'm hoping to sit down with Tim Oliphant now that this is all over and get his reaction to winning and find out what he plans to do with the money. What's left of it after the taxes. Like it's any of my business! If he wants to share you'll read it here. Tim we'll see you at coffee! Unless LA calls!


Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

Tim Oliphant American Gladiators Finals Watch Party is minutes away

Thank you IMAX theater! We are having a big watch party with Tim Oliphant from American Gladiators to finally find out if he won. It all starts at 7:00 on NBC. Tim has been in interviews pretty much all day and I know he's got at least one "win or lose" interview in the morning. I'll update everyone here at Inside Kanakuk after the show.

Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

Tim Oliphant American Gladiators Finals Watch Party Planned

Tonight is the big night! We find out if Kanakuk's very own Tim Oliphant will be the American Gladiators champion. A watch party is planned at the IMAX theater tonight starting at 6:30pm in one of the elite cinema theaters. If you would like to attend get a hold of Tim. Seating is very limited.

I still have no idea if he is going to win or not. He's done such a good job of keeping the outcomes on the DL. Either way it will be fun to be there when Tim is finally able to talk about the whole experience and to see him be excited to win or excited for the other guy's victory. Tim more than anything seems to have enjoyed the process, the people and the experience. He says that he continues to keep in contact with the other contenders.

So don't forget to set your DVR or watch it live 7:00pm - 9:00pm on NBC. Tim will be in the second hour of the program. I'll be at the watch party!


Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.

K-Kauai - Kanakuk Family Kamp is better than Disney World?

[Picture removed]

I recently had a conversation with Doug Goodwin the Co-Director of K-Kauai - Kanakuk Family Kamp and he said that he has people tell him that their kids prefer Family Kamp over Disney World. OK, I can buy that because I've seen it and heard the stories. Today I ran across this post by MattMurph that confirmed just what Doug was saying.

Here's a short excerpt from that post:

The week is over, and one item of interest keeps standing out. Most of the 40 families there while we were had all been to Disney World before. And time and time again, I heard the same story from families who asked their kids earlier in the year if they would rather go to Disney World or Kanakuk? Each time the kids would give the parents the unanimous decision for Kanakuk.

I have to stop right there, because that seriously blows my mind. But on the drive home, it clicked:

Kids would rather have authentic, inspiring, and challenging activity based interaction with their family, well trained Kanakuk staff, and counselors, then have entertainment to the multi-million dollar N'th degree from Disney. Put simply, it's authentic interaction vs. world class entertainment.

All reflections aside, we had an awesome and unforgettable time and can't wait to go back.

The Kamp is just 3 years old and the word is still getting out about this little gem of a family experience. Have you been to K-Kauai? What was your experience and how would your kids answer the question: Disney World or Kanakuk?


Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.