Contextual Expression Mark

New punctuation for the English language.

It’s more classy than an emoticon and sexier than an apostrophe, it’s the...

“contextual expression” mark.

It bridges the gap between a period and and exclamation mark. And, who doesn’t need that? Look at it's perfect form as it bends to the pressure of being not quite ready to be completely excited. How often have you written that line in an email or text message that just does not deserve a period, but can't muster up the sheer joy of an "exclamation mark"? This has been too long in coming. This new mark would not have been had Craig from Matchstic not voiced the yearning we all have had.

This "contextual expression" demands that the reader take the preceding statement in context of the entire message, your personality, current economic conditions, and general disposition of all previous communications. Then, and only afterward, apply the appropriate amount of "woohoo" to it.

Kanakuk Kamps will not have a use for this new mark and is considering banning the period and replacing it with "!". The excitement of summer camp deserves it.

The Contextual Expression mark, coming on all new keyboards beginning April 1st, 2009.

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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.


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A chance encounter?

I wanted to post briefly this morning to let you know that a post about the Chapel dedication at K-Kauai is coming later today so check back.

I will tell you that on my way back to the office from the dedication that I ran into a car load of Kamp friends surveying the washed out bridge. They were from Texas and had arrived in Branson a day early in preparation for picking up their kids from Kamp. We got to talking and realized that one of the moms had been reading my blog. Shame on me for not remembering your names, I'm not so good at that :-) It was good to meet you and thanks for reading my blog. If there is ever anything that I can write about, Inside Kanakuk type stuff, please let me know and I'll do my best.

More coming today, including pictures of the new chapel building and comments from Joe White...

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They Drink Coffee

Right at the moment there are 16 full and part-time Kanakuk Kamps employees that I call my Teammates! In no particular order there's; Judy, Jeff, Shane, Max, Tim, Jessica, Jeremy, Mollye, Lindsay, Adam, Michael, Tena, Hortencia, Kimie, Jo, and Tracey. They are registrars, videographers, graphic designers, web programmers, managers, print buyers, and more and more. Each of them has a unique set of strengths that they excel in. They work quietly in the background of this ministry, their hearts set on serving our Kamp families and the other employees at Kanakuk. There's not an ego in the bunch.

There's not room for ego when you are hilariously funny, quick witted, super creative, willing to serve others, happy to be alive, married up, have mad listening skills, seasoned professionalism, company manners, and most of all understand the mission of Kanakuk.

"Our mission is to evangelize and equip the next generation to reach the world for Christ."

Our part of that mission as the "Marketing" department is to serve those employees who are on the front lines of ministering, discipling, mentoring and comforting those who are served by any of the many ministries in the Kanakuk family.

We all love it that way, that kind of service opportunity is what gets us going in the morning (That and a good cup of coffee about 8:30! - more on that later or check out Lindsay's blog)

Do you have a special service moment that you can share?