A Summer for the Whole Family

It has been another Incredible summer at Kanakuk Family Kamp K-Kauai! "Protect this Hut" is a theme that will remain in the back of the minds of many families as they go about their lives back home. An incredible speaker lineup, a fantastic staff and a phenomenal collection of families are all the ingredients that went into a fantastic summer at Kauai!





We are looking forward to next summer which is already nearly full! As of today we have three spots open for next summer and we know those will go very quickly. Registration will open for summer 2013 on June 1, 2012 so stay tuned. Thank you so much for such a great summer. Looking forward to seeing you next year!

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Serving with a Smile

Giving up a week of your summer to go serve in a kitchen seems like a very unlikely request. Especially if you are asking a group of 9 highschool boys. But when the opportunity to come serve at Kanakuk's Family Kamp, K-Kauai, for a week came up for these boys they jumped at the chance!



These 9 boys traveled with their K-Life staff from Conway, Arkansas to Branson so they could volunteer. They have spent the past 4 days serving behind the scenes so the families at K-Kauai can enjoy their vacation. They serve food during the meals, they mop the dinning hall, they wash the dishes and they do the dirty work in the kitchen. On top of that, they do all of this with smiles on their faces because they know they are doing it to ultimately serve God.

For the rest of the summer each week there will be a different group of high school students who come in to serve and if they are anything like this group, I know the guest at K-Kauai are going to receive service with a smile!

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Service with a Smile

Giving up a week of your summer to go serve in a kitchen seems like a very unlikely request. Especially if you are asking a group of 9 highschool boys. But when the opportunity to come serve at Kanakuk's Family Kamp, K-Kauai, for a week came up for these boys they jumped at the chance!



These 9 boys traveled with their K-Life staff from Conway, Arkansas to Branson so they could volunteer. They have spent the past 4 days serving behind the scenes so the families at K-Kauai can enjoy their vacation. They serve food during the meals, they mop the dinning hall, they wash the dishes and they do the dirty work in the kitchen. On top of that, they do all of this with smiles on their faces because they know they are doing it to ultimately serve God.

For the rest of the summer each week there will be a different group of high school students who come in to serve and if they are anything like this group, I know the guest at K-Kauai are going to receive service with a smile!

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

Service with a Smile

Giving up a week of your summer to go serve in a kitchen seems like a very unlikely request. Especially if you are asking a group of 9 highschool boys. But when the opportunity to come serve at Kanakuk's Family Kamp, K-Kauai, for a week came up for these boys they jumped at the chance!



These 9 boys from Conway, Arkansas have spent the past 4 days serving behind the scenes so the families at K-Kauai can enjoy their vacation

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

Service with a Smile!

Giving up a week of your summer to go serve in a kitchen seems like a very unlikely request. Especially if you are asking a group of 9 highschool boys. But when the opportunity to come serve at Kanakuk's Family Kamp, K-Kauai, these boys they jumped at the chance!

These 9 boys traveled from Conway, Arkansas with their K-Life staff to Branson to serve. They have spent the past 4 days serving behind the scenes so the families at K-Kauai can enjoy their vacation. They serve tables during the meals, wash dishes, mop the dinning hall, and do the dirty work. But they do it all with a smile on their faces!

Next week another group of high school kids will be here to serve and the next week and the next. Throughout the whole summer there will be kids here serving and giving up a week of their summer so that they can help add to the kingdom one heart at a time.


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Humility through Serving

When it comes to summer break, most high school students think about sleeping in late, laying by the pool and just being lazy. This summer is different for many small groups of students who are coming to volunteer a week of their vacation to serve others.

Kanakuk’s family Kamp K-Kauai, offers a program where students who are juniors or seniors in high school can come and see what Kamp is like.

First term this summer, a group of 11 high schoolers from Highland Park, Texas accepted the challenge of serving others for their summer break and came to K-Kauai. They were assigned to the kitchen where they set up for meals, served families and cleaned. Spending 2-3 hours each meal in the kitchen everyday these kids were given an amazing opportunity to learn humility through serving.

Led by their K-Life directors from Highland Park, Ryan Nixon and McKenzie Griffin, these kids learned some big lessons while they were here. “For me, the best part was learning to humble myself while serving others,” Hailey Moore age 16 explained to me. “We need Christ to be able to serve and love others well, and learning that was great.”

This was the third summer Jackson Morgan age 17 spent serving at K-Kauai. “I keep coming back because I really enjoy getting to serve,” he said about his many years as a volunteer.

It’s not just hard work. When the kids do get time off in the afternoons they are able to spend time at the pool or in Bible study with their leaders. “My favorite part of the week was getting up early and spending time with the Lord daily,” Taylor Adams age 16 said.

All of the kids appeared to have a good time and as I talked to them on their last day it seemed unanimous that if they were given the opportunity, they would be back again next year.

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Kanakuk Staff Gives Back

Walking into the K-Kauai dinning hall one day during workweek you notice there is something different. A massive transformation has taken place for the day and a clinic for a Kamp-wide blood drive has been set-up.

In the midst of hot days and late nights, the staff at Kanakuk is able to find time to give above and beyond what they are asked.

This will be the third year for Kamp to host a blood drive at K-Kauai during workweek. After taking a year off from the drive last year, Kamp is back at it and hoping to help give back to the community of Branson by donating blood.

The previous two blood drives have seen significant increase each year in participants. During the first year’s blood drive there were 51 participants and two summers ago there were 118. This year, the director of the blood drive said his goal would be 65 participants and he didn’t see any problem being able to fulfill it.

When talking to the director he had nothing but great things to say about the college-aged staff he sees throughout the day during this blood drive. Of the many blood drives they operate throughout the area, he said working with our Kamp staff is very enjoyable because of how kind and encouraging they are to all of the workers.

What an awesome testament to Kamp and all they are doing to give back during workweek!

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Another Kanakuk Director on National TV!

The New K-Kauai Kanakuk Family Kamp Assistant Director recently took a pass from an NFL quarterback on National TV. Check it out.

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Kanakuk Kamps Employee Benefit #136

After being without power at my house for over 24 hours, with 7th grade discipleship group, school and work all scheduled for early Monday morning my boys and I got up in the dark and made our way to the K-Kauai Staff building for some light and a warm shower!

Most importantly the long day without power taught our family a small amount of empathy for those in Texas, Louisiana, and the rest of the Gulf residents ravaged by Hurricane Ike and his friends. We live with so much in America and yet have so little margin in our lives. We did fine without power and water for a day. We have Wal-Mart, good friends, and a solid roof over our heads. But, what if we had been without for days, weeks, or even months?

As my wife and I lay in bed last night, listening to a neighbor's generator run, she commented about how people used to live like this all the time, many within the last 100 years. It was one of those reality check moments when priorities get jostled into a deeper, more meaningful order.

My new found empathies go out to all those effected by the storms in the Gulf and the World. To all those sleeping under the stars tonight, wondering where clean water will come from tomorrow, I hope you find shelter and hope. God has a plan, even for clean water.

As I drove to the first stop of the day my wife called and said the power had just been restored. While I'm glad I won't have to get ready for work at Kanakuk Family Kamp tomorrow, it was a nice employee perk (#136) this morning.

Have you been affected by the storms? Share your stories here so we can be praying for you.

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

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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?


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K-Kauai Kanakuk Family Kamp Chapel Dedication

The outside of the newly dedicated Hale Makua (House of God) Chapel at K-Kauai - Kanakuk Family Kamp.

Yesterday morning the new chapel building named the Hale Makua (House of God) was dedicated at K-Kauai - Kanakuk Family Kamp in Branson, MO.

In the Chapel, after the morning session with speaker, Greg Smalley, parents stayed to share in the dedication ceremony. Doug Goodwin, the Executive Director of K-Kauai, shared briefly with the parents about the opening day of K-Kauai in 2007. Months of hard work had culminated in a flurry of last minutes problems , but things were being taken care of and finally the grounds were all ready for the first families to arrive. Then the rain came. Several inches of rain in 45 minutes just minutes before the gates were to open. I remember that rain because my wife and I had dropped two of our kids off at K-Kountry just 15 minutes earlier. The torrent of rain came and and washed away much of the landscaping that had just been completed that morning, water flooded many of the newly finished cabanas, just that afternoon carefully cleaned and ready for families to move in. Doug described sitting, in the rain, near one of the pump stations with tears in his eyes, he realized that it wasn't going to be his strength that fixed this mess. At that moment he gave the opening day, the disaster recovery, the months of hard work to the Lord. God brought all the right people to aid in the recovery, provided just the right resources, and that first week of Kamp was amazing.

Doug described that the Chapel would be used during the winter months as the classroom for the Kanakuk Institute students. Half of the theater seating will be replaced with tables during that time.

Worship in the Hale Makua

Doug told everyone that dedicating new buildings is a tradition at Kanakuk and that he was thankful those attending Kamp that week could take part in this. He prayed and then there was a time of worship, and singing led by some of the K-Kauai summer staff.

Joe White

Joe White, President of Kanakuk Kamps, then got up and spoke. He talked about K-Kauai being a "Kingdom dream" a place that was often requested by families over the years. Doug Goodwin, he said, had a vision for the family Kamp and Joe said Doug should be the one to build it. Joe said that a family trip to Hawaii was the inspiration for the island theme.
Joe had arrived during the worship time and he related to the gathering how it might seem like a small thing but that it was really special to see all the couples holding hands or with arms around each other. It might be a small thing but a part of the dream for K-Kauai.

Joe gave some history on the spiritual foundation of America, the removal of the 10 commandments, and the downward spiral that has occured the farther we get from that Godly foundation. He said that President Reagan referred to families as the "bricks and morter of America." The dream is being fulfilled that Kanakuk Family Kamp would build up and support the bricks and morter of this country.

Joe addressed the timing of the chapel being built by saying that as construction plans were made funds ran low and it was God's timing and the realization that this place needed a special indoor chapel that brought us to this point.

Joe thanked everyone for participating in the dedication and turned the ceremony back over to Doug.

Doug shared stories of people impacted at Kanakuk Family Kamp over that last 3 summers. Even this summer already many kids have placed there faith in Jesus Christ. When they do, they ring the bell in the middle of Kamp as a public proclemation of their decision. The bell has been rung so much this summer that it's broken and being replaced with a better, stronger bell.

Doug shared that Family Kamp has introduced many families to Kanakuk and now their children have experienced the depth and impact of one of our Kamps for kids. Doug asked for people to join them in prayer that the mission and impact of the Kamp might continue.

The Dedication Prayer

Everyone in attendance got up and surrounded the sanctuary seating, holding hands, there was just enough to reach around. Will Cunningham, Co-Director of K-Kauai Kanakuk Family Kamp, open the circle in prayer. Doug then prayed a prayer of dedication and thanks to God, expressing a desire for more impact and God's blessing on the Kamp, the Chapel and all the families that come there.

The Dedication was then closed and many of the families stayed around laughing and talking for several minutes.

Joe and Doug stayed to talk to a few families as others cleared out to head to lunch and reconnecting with their kids.

The Chapel Foyer

The Hale Makua Chapel is themed like the rest of the camp with bamboo trim and weaved bamboo ceiling panels. A tall rectangular window at the front is surrounded by beautiful stone work. A custom stained glass window is planned with the cross and tennis shoes logo. A small stage at the front shares the same stone work. The building is equipped with a professional sound system, video projection, and stage lighting, and men's and women's bathroom facilities.

In my 8 years with Kanakuk I have experienced many dedications of facilities, programs and people. I appreciate seeing God get the glory for the things that happen at this place. It's clear that God uses Kanakuk to show His love. I'm glad that I can be a part of it even in a very small behind the scenes way. It's also fun to share these things with you because I know, you too, see God at work here and enjoy rejoicing with us.

Do you have a Kanakuk Family Kamp experience you can share with others? Leave a comment below.

Pictures by Lindsay.

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