Students & Staff Take on KAA Camp
This summer, eight Dream Center Evansville students had the opportunity to attend a week-long camp at Kids Across America (KAA), a Christian sports camp for urban youth located on Table Rock Lake near Branson, Missouri. KAA’s mission is to encourage, equip, and empower urban youth to become Christian leaders who can positively impact their communities. This mission came to life throughout an amazing week filled with many firsts for our students!
As we arrived at camp, our students were greeted in full KAA hype, where counselors cheered and high-fived them as they got off our vans. They spent the week in cabins with other students from around the country, building friendships and making memories that will last a lifetime. The week provided an opportunity to step away from technology (a whole week without cellphones!) and everyday distractions and experience joy, community, new relationships, and so many new experiences.
Our students had opportunities to challenge themselves through a variety of sports and high-adventure activities. Basketball, football, boating and tubing, dance, archery, high-ropes, a zipline, a pool with a blob, rings, and a trapeze, and many more options allowed our students to discover new interests and push beyond their comfort zones. KAA intentionally uses sports and adventure as opportunities to build relationships, develop confidence, help students overcome fear, and teach lessons that students can carry with them beyond camp.
Faith and spiritual growth are also central to the KAA experience. Students participate in Bible teaching, worship, prayer, and conversations designed to help them develop a stronger foundation in their relationship with Christ. The counselors and leadership of KAA create an environment where the cheer “Get Hype for Jesus” is both cheered and lived all day long. The fourth day of camp ends in a powerful evening devotion called Cross Talk. Through a real life skit and a depiction of Jesus’s death for us, students are presented with what His sacrifice did for us and how our lives can be changed by Him. The following morning during a church service, six Dream Center students joined many others to “ring the bell” signifying they’d committed or rededicated their lives to Christ. These experiences have deepened our students’ faith by providing an opportunity to encounter the Gospel in a new and meaningful way.
KAA was also impactful for the DCE staff who took our students to camp. Known at camp as Kaleos, staff who bring students to camp participate in daily Bible studies, seminars, urban training, fellowship, and outdoor activities designed to refresh and equip us in our work. Kaleos have the opportunity to create community among other urban youth workers as we hear about and learn from each other’s work while being encouraged and empowered to continue impacting young people for Christ.
Our week at KAA may have been filled with laughter, competition, adventure, worship, and meaningful conversations—but ultimately, it was an experience intended to help our students (and staff) see their own potential and recognize God’s love for them. Please pray for our students as they’ve returned home, begun school, and have gotten back to their normal lives, that the seeds planted in their week at camp would grow and impact their world at home.