A Grander Vision | The Bee Friendly Boot Camp to Banish Bullying and Save Lives

Kristi Kennedy founded Bee Friendly Boot Camp, an all-digital elementary school program to help combat childhood bullying and suicide, and ultimately reduce human trafficking and domestic violence later in life. She is also author of Overcoming Obstacles: Turning Tragedy into Triumph, which talks about the journey of her son’s recovery from severe autism.

Kristi first became passionate about doing something to banish bullying after one of her five children, who had autism, was bullied severely. “About seven years ago, my five children and I were abandoned after being in an abusive situation for several years,” said Kristi. “Completely heartbroken and devastated, we set out in faith trusting God for every need. We were homeless three times and moved 17 times during our first five years, but never were without some kind of roof over our heads—even if it was our minivan! He is faithful!”

God gave Kristi the vision for the Bee Friendly Boot Camp in 2008. “I prayed about it and did some research, but felt it was impossible to accomplish,” said Kristi. At the GLS, she heard about how God gives us a vision that is often too big for us. That’s we need to lean on Him and move forward with it. Kristi began to work diligently on the program, even though she was holding down a full time job and caring for five kids.

During the R&D for the Bee Friendly Boot Camp, Kristi discovered that there is a link between bullying early in life that leads to domestic violence and even human trafficking later in life. “My husband had been bullied in school, as was I. I learned his behavior was an outcome of bully/victim experiences in his childhood,” said Kristi. She believed her God-given vision for Bee Friendly Boot Camp must be carried out to help save lives and break the cycle of bullying. But it was tough.

The transparency of one of the speakers sharing how he felt like quitting at times, and how he’s endured difficulty is one of the greatest things that impacted me at the GLS. I believe it’s one of the key things that God uses to show me I’m not alone in the way I feel about leading this organization.

“When she heard how the Willow Creek’s Care Center got started, they said, ‘What if we didn’t try? How would we feel at the end of our life? How many people would not have been helped?’ Thesewords hit me because I was a woman with five children who had no food at times. A program like Willow’s Care Center would have made a huge difference in our lives,” said Kristi. I thought about the children whose lives could be saved from suicide and from altering beliefs they carry with them into adulthood due to bullying. Even though I didn’t know how we would make the program work, I kept hearing, ‘What if I don’t try? How many lives won’t be helped? How would I feel at the end of my life if I gave up?’ And I kept pressing forward with the vision.

Funding the program is a challenge. “God has blessed us in amazing ways through in-kind contributions and the work of volunteers, which has allowed us to keep it functioning,” said Kristi. “My children and I work full time in our jobs plus on the program and our greatest challenge is being able to balance it all until we are funded enough and can focus solely on the school program.”

My prayer is to be surrendered to all God has for my family and this program and be obedient to His calling; not to give up but to trust Him and be very courageous. I pray that godly principles will be instilled back into the public schools and families would be drawn back together again and that the golden rule would reign in people’s lives. My greatest prayer is that my family and I would bring Him glory in all we do.

Kristi says the impact of the program and resources has been tremendous. “The need is far greater than I could have imagined,” she says. “Thanks to the program, parents are communicating with their children in healthy ways; children are learning to process and overcome obstacles in their lives and teachers are excited about the simplicity of its implementation.”

But it’s her son’s story that inspires her the most. “He had autism and now has a severe form of dyslexia,” said Kristi. “We were told he would never read or get a driver’s license and because he did not have a father in his life, he was considered an ‘at-risk’ child. God intervened. The principles in this program were applied to his life. My son is now 18 years old and he’s got friends, a driver’s license and he works as a video engineer in the technical arts department at Gateway Church. He designed all the special effects for the Bee Friendly Boot Camp program, plus he directed the video and also played bass for the Bee Band! He and the rest of my children, who were also ‘at risk,’ are examples of God’s faithfulness.”

Because of the GLS, this year the Bee Friendly Boot Camp program launches pilots in a few states. It’s still an upward climb, but we are committed and with God’s strength, we are fulfilling the vision of bringing godly principles back into schools, families and communities!

There are more than 100,000 public elementary schools in the U.S. and Kristi has a dream to serve every one of them and then take it international. “Kindness is an international need,” she said. “Seeing people in every nation living out the Golden Rule is a dream of mine. Seeing special needs children no longer navigating life alone would make my heart happy. It’s my dream to have churches across the nation/world engaged as well to be the hands, feet and voice of Jesus sharing His love with others. To have others know and experience the miraculous God I know and serve is my greatest dream.”

THANK YOU cannot express the gratitude of my little family’s heart for the way the GLS has impacted our lives and this mission the Lord has given us. And by the way, I volunteered at the first few GLS events I attended because financially I was unable to budget for a ticket. God allowed me to hear and receive all I needed to impact me with what He has given me to do! This year I was able to attend with my oldest two children, and we all came away impacted, inspired and equipped to continue to grow our program!

 Never Give Up! Never let any obstacle come between you and what God has told you to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTqxoUbs8mI