August 2012

 

Perfect Ending:

Our Summer season ended really well. Our staff pushed through to the end and we even have a handful that decided to stay with us through the fall. Interestingly enough the two girls I was discipling this summer are staying for the fall and so I get to continue to disciple them through the fall season.

One of the JAW's that I had the opportunity to disciple several years ago, came to drop off her foster siblings for camp. She has been trying to figure out before they came a place to stay in town so she could be around to help out if needed. Nothing had worked out and initially I know it was very frustrating. After registering her siblings, her and her mom were getting ready to head out, but she didn't want to go, she really wanted to stay and was wondering if she could just jump in for a week of JAW. Everything ended up working out and she got to stay at Camp and be a JAW for a week. It is exactly what God wanted in the first place. Her parents had just recently adopted two foster kids, who had been in over 20 different homes. They are older and this JAW girl had been struggling to know how to love them. That week of camp the speaker had been scheduled to speak the previous week but they had gotten the dates wrong. That speaker and his wife had been foster parents and adopted many kids over the years, some of them older and coming with their own set of issues. One night in the middle of his teaching time he talked about how hard it was when God started bring these troubled kids into his life and home. He also talked about how it affected his biological kids as well. This message ended up speaking directly to this girl. It is so incredible how God works things out. This girl wasn't suppose to be here that week and that speaker wasn't suppose to speak that week either! Our plans are not God's plans.

 

Bears and Ministry to the Community

They are everywhere! The bears that is . . . and the ministry opportunities to the community too, but I am referring to the bears. Jordan, along with all the deputies, have had their hands full trying to keep everyone safe while the bears are roaming about trying to get fat before they hibernate. It has been challenging and Jordan and I were even visited by momma bear and her cub one morning at 4am. She was attempting to get onto our porch and managed to rip some boards off but then was easily scared away when we turned the porch light on and made some commotion of our own.

Jordan, continues to have the opportunity to minister within the community as a Sherrif's deputy. There are several instances where Jordan has been able to minister to people in his custody and is looking into how much he can share with you all in the next newsletter. Until then, please keep praying for him as he has to be diplomatic in what he says and how he says it.

 

It is hard to get pictures of Jordan working.

So, this is the best I have so far. :-)

 

 

 

For our anniversary Jordan took me to my first ever professional Baseball game. It was a close game and the Rockies won! Baseball is still not one of my passions, but I enjoyed getting to spend time with my husband of 2 years and watch something that he absolutely loves and enjoyed playing when he was in school.

Cora, giving her

best Cupie pose.
If you don't know
what Cupie Dolls
are, Google search
them.

 

 

 

 

 

Any day now!

Fun shot at 35 weeks

Keeping praying that all

goes well, God has blessed

us again with another

healthy Pregnancy. Who

knows by the time you get

this letter she maybe born!

 

In Christ's Love,

Jordan, Becca and Cora Kaminski

 

 

 



July 2012

 Rain, Rain, Rain:

Because of the lack of rain we were not able to have any fireworks for the 4^th of July, but I did ride with Jordan in his patrol vehicle and threw candy to the expectant kiddo's. Cora slept through most of the parade.

Just a few weeks ago though God sent us rain!!!!! It has helped put out the fires, water our pastures and cool down our summer. I know for some of you it is definitely hotter where you are at but, our staff, horses and campers do better with the added relief of our afternoon thunderstorms.

What is happening?

“The only reason why I came to camp is for the horses. I am not into speaker time or doing devotions in the morning.” This is something that we do hear from our campers quite a bit. Just a few weeks ago we had a teenage camper who said something very similar to this. She kind of had a bad attitude at the beginning of the week and didn't respond great to her counselor. Just the week before we had a Jr. Assistant Wrangler (JAW) who has been coming for years as a camper, finally accept Christ. This same JAW God used to speak into that campers life and she ended up accepting Christ as well! It has been incredible to see God work through a new believer to bring another believer to himself.

We also, had an English camper who's horse kept refusing a jump on the cross country course and when the horse finally went over she lost her balance and fell off after the horse landed the jump. We made sure she was ok and then got her back on. She immediately jumped that same jump again and then told me later she felt more confident now that she had fallen off. Interesting how that boosted her confidence. She was afraid to fall off before because she didn't know what to expect from it, which is why she was not pushing her horse to go over the jump. Once she realized that it wasn't as scary as she thought it gave her more confidence. The same can be true in our walk with Christ. Sometimes we are scared of the unknown and so we do not give it our all. We have to step forward with 100% obedience no matter what the outcome might be. We have to “jump” forward into obedience, trusting God with the outcome and not trying to control it for our selves.

Here are some other photo's from the summer to show what has been going on within the Equestrian Program. By way of reminder. During our 10 weeks of summer the Equestrian Program is just a small part of everything that goes on here at Camp Redcloud. Some of the other programs that are running simultaneously are our Adventure program; Wilderness program; LEAD program, which is our high school discipleship program; and our Adult and Family Ministries. If you want to know more about any of our programs check out our website at www.campredcloud.org

Our activities crew has been working on a seating area for our end of week horse shows. It is starting to look really good!

Just a few weeks ago I was able to help shoe my own horse. That was before I was as big as I am now.

This past week we got the opportunity to take Jordan's parents up to American Basin.

Jordan hanging out with his baby girl

Only 2 more months to go!

Pops and Nana

Jordan and Rebecca Kaminski

Deputy

Horsemanship Manager

PO Box 130

Lake City, CO 81235

(970)944-2625

Christmas Card

Saving Lives

Hunting did not go as planned this season, although I think it never has for me. Jordan nor I killed an elk. On top of hunting I was also preparing for my EMT-Intermediate practical test, which I had to drive all the way to Denver to take! Oh, the things I do for my volunteer, Lake City community job.

As I have mentioned before Jordan and I volunteer with Hinsdale County EMS. Jordan occasionally drives and I am certified as a Basic. It is strictly volunteer based. We all take turns as to who will go on a call or not. Lately a lot of our Advance Life Support (ALS) people have moved away, which has left us with very few ALS volunteers. I am pushing hard to finish up my Intermediate certification and only have the national test left to take. Praise God!!!!! I could not have done all of this with out His strength. Pray that He may be glorified as we volunteer for our community in this way, saving lives physically so that they might be saved spiritually too. And, I guess we saved the lives of a couple of elk also!

Feeling down and out?

So, am I done with my EMT-I certification? After much studying and time put into being certified, I took the national test and unfortunately did not pass. It was really hard and extremely disappointing for me. Jordan had to keep reminding me that God has a purpose. I had MY heart set on being done before the new year. It has been hard trying to juggle everything and quite frankly I could not have done it with out God's strengthen and the support of my family especially Jordan. My only down fall in all of this is that I knew that I would be done before 2012 and basically told God that. As we all know that doesn't work. Yes, He could have allowed it to happened, but He didn't for some reason and now we get to practice trusting Him again. I feel like I write a lot about trust but if you are anything like Jordan and I it is part of our everyday lives. God gives us opportunities everyday to practice, the question is if we will just panic and continue to try and make things happen the way we think they should happen or go with the flow, doing what we know we can do and leaving the results to God. Right now I am trusting in Him, but will I be in 5 minutes? You can pray that I will continue to trust Him with the results and give Him the glory no matter what! So, in the mean time we are . . .

Counting our blessings and expecting more

Horses, Family and Food, what more does a person need?

Had an amazing Thanksgiving with Family and even got to go for a trail ride! Grams, Grandad, Tyler, Jules, Uncle Chris, and my Mom and Dad all came for Thanksgiving. We got to have it over at the Murphy's house as Jordan was house sitting for them. It was perfect.

We pray you enjoy your Christmas season and look forward to the New Year counting your blessings from 2011.

Prayer:

• Raising Cora and her salvation
• Opportunities to minister to Lake City residence
• Becca just has her national test to take
• Camp as we enter the winter months for everything to continue running smoothly
• Safe Holiday travels to New Mexico and Estes Park
• Academy class for Jordan starts January 3^rd.

Praise:

• Cora continues to grow and be healthy, see the pictures above
• We have all the hay we need as far as we know
• Becca passed her practical exam!
• For a great Thanksgiving with Family and for a wood burning stove that keeps our house warm (I am sitting right next to it right now, finishing up our letter)

Another one of our blessings this year has been a beautiful healthy daughter.

Out in the Open - November

Wrapping up the fall season

This time of year we do not have a lot of programming going on but the program that we do have impacts a lot of lives and specifically the lives of the people that we rub shoulders with year round. I told you all about Horse Club in the last newsletter and we have finished up our time with these kiddo's for this season.

I had an amazing time getting to teach with my husband. He was an great help, especially when it came to watching Cora, which he absolutely enjoyed as well.

Pray for these kids as they continue to impact their parents lives with what they have learned during this Horse Club season. All lot of their parents are not believers.

More Hay!!!!!!!!

You only thought we were done. Hay this year has been hard to find, even from our usual sources. So, we have branched out and I found a guy in Gunnison that had some hay for sale for a great price! We also ask people to donate, but sometimes they just can't. I recently had a guy call me back about hay and asked how much more we needed. He was going to get in touch with another guy that had hay to see if he bought more off of him if he would give us a discount. Come to find out this same guy's daughter has been to our camp before and was interested in our Jr. Assistant Wrangler Program. Not only are we potentially getting hay for our horses, but we might also have a future JAW out of the deal as well.

So, often we fret about what we don't have and what we still need and if it is going to be supplied. Look at the Israelites in Exodus. They fretted about food and water almost their entire time in the desert and every time God would supply. Why do we doubt that God wouldn't supply for us?

This applies to Jordan and me too. We sometimes start to fret and worry about how we are going to make it or get by, but every time God supplies. We have had some unexpected donations in the past several months (You know who you are and thank you!!!!) and we are so grateful to God for His care and supply for us and for speaking to His people to give to us so we can continue the ministry here.

Change for a trip?

So, for the past year or so Jordan and I have been saving up our loose change for our anniversary trip. We ended up with just enough to spend one night in Ouray, CO at a quaint little Bed and Breakfast. We visited the hot springs and soaked in the hot tub that was right outside of our room. After being busy with hay and camp the break was much needed. It revived and refreshed us. Praise God for the moments we get with our spouse. Cherish them because as the Bible says our lives are like a breath.

Oh, Cora? Becki watched her for us! Have I mentioned that we are so blessed to have the friends and family that we have?

The Tree in Cora's Room that Nana and Becca put together.

Where's Cora?

In Christ's Love,

Jordan, Becca and Cora

January and February

Tis the season for winter work projects. Before I left for New Mexico in January I was determined to get some projects done at the barn. So, we made more helmets racks and we also repaired some of our wheelbarrows. One of which has been broken for years, but know that this coming year we will need it. So, I took to fixing it and in a conversation with one our seasonal staff we decided that this wheelbarrow needed some life. If you read in Exodus you see where God made His tabernacle very colorful and elaborate. Gold, silver, bronze, purple, blue . . . It was beautiful!
So, why not make our wheelbarrows beautiful. A bit of a stretch I know, but we had a good bonding time either way.

The week after the wheelbarrow I had the privilege of watching the Casey girls while their parents were on a cruise. We had a lot of fun playing twister, sculpting and just living life together.

Then, I took off to New Mexico where I got to help with the revival meetings at my home church. What a blessing it was to teach there again. On Tuesday night we had around thirty 4 year olds through 2nd graders! It was that night as I gave the invitation and explained to the kids how Jesus died for our sins, one of the very young girls pipes up and asks, “But, why did He have to die?” It kind of caught me by surprise, as I was not sure how we would handle an invitation with this number of kids and with only two other people in the room with me. I sent up a prayer and explained to the girl why He had to die and then plead with the whole group that if they wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior
please talk to one of the leaders. The meetings were typically over around 8pm which is pretty late for some of these kids. I don't know if I will ever know if that little girl did accept Jesus or not, but I do know that a seed was planted and God will use it for His glory.

So, after the revival meeting, I headed over red mountain pass, down through Ouray and finally to Delta where I was able to spend the weekend with my man. He is busy studying and is excited to be doing what he feels God has told him to do. He has
already had many pportunities to show with his life that he is
different from the world. Pray for more opportunities for him to share with these guys. Every time he has his doubts about whether he should be there, God is continually confirming for us that this is the direction He wants Jordan to go. We are both starting to see God
pushing Jordan to be more of a witness and testimony to the locals in Lake City and God is at this point seemingly pushing him that direction. Pray that we continue to trust God, and follow His leading, even if it is in an unexpected direction. That was the month of January! Hard to
believe so much went on and now for the month of February?

Well, that involves grant writing for footing for our arena's, training horses, discipling staff, getting my newsletter written, continuing to study for the EMT-I national test, being a mom and most importantly (next to my time with God) honoring and loving my husband.

In Christ's Love,
Jordan, Rebecca and Cora Kaminski


Ranch Manager
PO Box 130
Lake City, CO 81235
(970)944-2625 ex. 247