For the past five years, Kairos has been hosting an online Parents Forum addressing challenges posed by the modern cultural environment we live in. This year, our topic was Raising Free Sons and Daughters. In an age of personal media devices and cultural individualism, both parents and youth struggle to live a life that is free and generous amidst our modern culture. As Christians, we know that freedom is the capacity and ability to choose for what is truly good, and true freedom is ordered toward truth, goodness, and human flourishing.

Our culture, however, often presents a thinner version of freedom – equating happiness with unlimited choice and self-expression. Passive media consumption erodes our ability to create and freely use our time. Digital AI, when overused, can diminish our capacity for critical thinking and pull us away from what is real and human. A growing trend of safety-first consciousness is removing our children’s ability to grow resilience. Jonathan Haidt (The Anxious Generation) talks about the dangers of this over-emphasis:

“Children require exposure to setbacks, failures, shocks, and stumbles in order to develop strength and self-reliance.”

Scripture reminds us that perseverance and maturity are forged through trials, not avoidance of them – “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4. Freedom and safety are not mutually exclusive, but the conditions you have to create to guarantee safety are at odds with the opportunities needed to develop freedom.

And yet, we have great hope! Enriching friend groups and family life can provide a place to counteract these challenges. Here
are some ideas you could try:

• Ask the question – ‘What are the inputs forming my child’s understanding of themselves, the world, and God?’. Find stories that point toward virtue and truth, and surround them with real-life models of mature, faithful people.

 

• Look for fun opportunities to build freedom. Aim for age-appropriate opportunities, involving some level of risk, responsibility and/or boredom. This allows youth to practice choosing the good, even when it involves struggle or failure.

 

• Find time for more relaxed, open conversation. Youth should not feel the need to guard everything they say or be defensive, they should be open handed and free in conversation.

We hope these simple yet profound steps can draw our youth closer to a life that is truly free, joyful and courageous in serving the Lord! As always, thank you for your support!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am pleased to share with you this year’s annual programs brochure. As usual, the main goal here is simply to communicate the details of our upcoming lineup of trips and retreats, but there are a few other things inside that we think you’ll enjoy.

On pages 5 and 6 you can read about what Kairos has been up to in the “non-trip” space, specifically our parent and youth worker offerings. On page 21 we share an extended testimony from a former Gapper about how her Gap year helped to bring her deeper into the “glorious freedom of the children of God.” Finally, beginning on page 23 we present a write-up on “bridging after high school,” which can be a very helpful kickstarter for that season of decisions.

On behalf of the Kairos team, thank you so much for all that you do to serve the young people of the Sword of the Spirit. Whether you are a parent, a community leader, or a youth worker, we are blessed to work alongside you. We pray every week for all of you and for the young people in your care, specifically that they would grow into radical, lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ.

God Bless You,
Stephen Giles
Director of Kairos

Our summer girl’s trips this year were filled with beauty, challenge and sisterhood!

Our ninth and tenth grade girls canoed and camped in the beautiful Boundary Waters Canoe Area at the Minnesota-Canada border. Part of the beauty of this trip is that each girl is able to see that their own strength, infused with God’s grace, is able to accomplish more than they thought they could, all while serving one another and having fun!

The seventh and eighth grade girls went glamping and hiking in Upstate New York! The campsite at Stony Brook State Park was surrounded by gorges and waterfalls, and we hiked at ‘the Grand Canyon of the East’ at Letchworth State Park.

Our boys summer trips were full of adventure and brotherhood! A key Bible passage was Luke 6:45 “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart.”

Virginia Backpacking (7th grade): We “lived in a cloud” all week, but it never rained heavily! Our group time was great, including some excellent Bible study.

Algonquin Canada Canoeing (8th grade): We have a new “lava cake” recipe (brownie mix with oil but no eggs). Weather was calm until the last day, allowing us to jump off cliffs twice.

Wyoming Backpacking (9th grade): The Wyoming trip is one-half road trip and one-half backpacking.

Kentucky Mission Trip (10th grade): The project was to re-floor an entire house in Pikeville, KY, and we enjoyed the surrounding mountains.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Thank you so much for your partnership with Kairos in our mission to bring young people into a life of deep and radical discipleship. I am pleased to present this brochure to you once again and excited for everything that we have in store.

Most of the pictures in this brochure were taken on Kairos trips from this past summer. Sorting through all the pictures filled me with gratitude as I considered all the ways God is using Kairos in the lives of our young people. We have spoken regularly about our desire to foster a love for the real through everything that we do. It was clear as I looked through the pictures from last summer that we are indeed providing simple, but powerful opportunities to love the real on all of our trips. In a world that continues to forget the real, these simple opportunities will continue to grow all the more powerful.

While our summer trips do not constitute everything that we do in Kairos, they are a major piece, and I’m pleased to say that last summer was our fullest summer yet. We are excited to share with you in the following pages all that we have planned for the coming year. It is our prayer that each of our trips and programs will continue to bear rich fruit for our young people and their families

God Bless You,
Stephen Giles
Director of Kairos

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am very excited to be able to share this brochure with you, and it is my hope that you find it to be a helpful resource. Inside, you will find information on almost everything Kairos has to offer, including parent and youth worker resources, the YES Retreat, Adventure Trips, Gap, and more.

One of our growing convictions as an organization is that we want to foster a love for the real, as opposed to the virtual and the artificial. This is one of the reasons we love our Adventure Trips and the opportunities for challenge they present. They help us love the real and embrace the challenges we face along the way.

In addition to our Adventure Trips, we’ve also begun to add some mission trips back into the mix. Our mission trips will be the 10th grade boys trip, and the 9th-10th grade girls trip (on alternating years). Mission trips are powerful opportunities that can produce real transformation and we’re excited to be offering them once again.

Our mission in Kairos is to awaken youth to a venturesome faith and to help them sell all to follow Jesus Christ. It is a joy to do this work and we are so grateful to do it alongside all of you.

God Bless You,
Stephen Giles
Director of Kairos