Skating to Where the Puck Will Be...at Centrikid

CentriKid is an overnight camp for completed 3rd-6th graders to experience the time of their lives and learn about the message of Jesus from July 10-14.

I'll be the first to admit I don't know too much about hockey. I was born and raised in Florida and if the obvious sun and heat didn't limit ice time, the near-religious pull of football and baseball more than made up for limiting the visions of blue line glory.

Don't get me wrong, its not that I don't appreciate watching a game on the ice or talking about the game itself. I can ask the questions we're all thinking and ponder their implications. How about these: what if the district lines were never redrawn and Adam Banks never became a Duck and remained a Hawk? What if Fulton Reed honored his football scholarship and never learned to skate? What if Greg Goldberg actually moved back to Philly and never became the greatest netminder in the Twin Cities? Luis Mendoza went blue line to blue line in 1.9 seconds. What if he never learned to stop? These are hockey questions. (The videos below ponder them well!)

All right, perhaps the majority of my hockey insight is derived from the Mighty Duck Trilogy rather than the actual game itself. But come on, who didn't stand to their feet in a fury of patriotic, frozen north glory when Gordon Bombay went heads up with Wolf "the Dentist" Stannson in D2?

A thousand parables could come from the Mighty Ducks that can instill lessons on life, consequences, salvation, redemption and so much more, however one quote from a hockey great is perhaps more appropriate for the point I am trying to get across in this post.

Walter Gretzky, the Great One's father, used to tell him to, "Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it has been." Fortune 500 companies aplenty along with not a few culturally-interpretive leaders in the Christian community have used this analogy to stress the importance of instinct, vision, and planning because to score so to speak, of course one has to be where the action is rather than sitting in stagnancy away from it.

Here is something that I believe wholeheartedly and I want you to know it: this summer the puck is going to be at Centrikid from July 10-14. And when I say the "puck", what I mean is the action...the action of what God is doing in the lives of kids.

I want to give you a peek into last year at Centrikid. I think it was the third night of camp around 9pm and we, the adult leaders, had almost gotten all of the campers in their cabins and ready for bed. Well we were missing one camper in our room. It was just 9pm, not all that late, so myself and another adult leader went out to find him and bring him back.

It didn't take long for us to find our missing camper, a 4th grader, who was sitting at a picnic table with two Centrikid staffers. (Centrikid staffers are fantastic by the way. Usually they are college or seminary students with an inordinate amount of positive energy that I am convinced can only come from a perfect fusion of Mountain Dew and the Holy Spirit which is directed at the campers.)

Long story short, they were talking to him about what it meant to be a Christian and how he could become one! The Centrikid staffers motioned for us to come over and be a part of the conversation. This kid had a lot of questions and we spent the better part of an hour talking about who Jesus is and what He did for us and how He wants to have a relationship with us. Well that 4th grader accepted Christ that night!

Here's the thing though about this 4th grader: this kid has a pretty tough home life and had to grow up faster than he should have. He is bullied at school sometimes and his dad walked out on him and his mom when he was younger. I knew that already when we were talking so here is what is going to stick with me forever...as we were walking back to the cabin with our new little brother in Christ, this 4th grader said this, "I know I don't have my dad isn't around anymore, but I'm glad my NEW DAD is with me! He has superpowers right...?"

Tissues. More tissues. Yes...yes, He absolutely has superpowers. Our Dad has superpowers and, yeah, He is faster than a speeding bullet. He is more powerful than a locomotive. He is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. He calms the raging sea and roaring waves. He gives us a home. He protects us during the night and, oh yeah, He is a Father to the Fatherless.

That is what God has done at Centrikid and that is what we believe He is going to continue to do. Our prayer is that more kids will come with us this year and experience, or maybe meet, their Heavenly Dad and we would love for your child to be a part of that!

The puck is going to be at Centrikid this Summer from July 10-14. That is where the action is going to be because that is where God has done incredible things and where God will continue to do incredible things beyond our wildest dreams. You can your child up by clicking the button below!