(uplifting music)

- No Vacation Bible School?

Pool closed?

Summer camp canceled?

Are you going crazycooped up with the kids?

Cousin Camp is coming to your rescue.

- [Narrator] Susan AlexanderYates is an author,

speaker, mother of five

and grandmother of 21.

In the current COVID-19climate when summer camps

and pools are closed,

Susan is here to help you with ideas

to keep your energetic kids entertained.

And your family funds strong.

In her downloadable booklet Camp At Home,

100 Practical Ideas For Families

and her latest book Cousin Camp,

Susan shares practical tips

and activities helping youhave a fun filled summer.

- Please welcome to the 700 Club,

the creator of Cousin Camp,Susan Alexander Yates.

Susan, wonderful to have you with us.

- Thanks.

It's a privilege to be here.

- How did you come up withthis idea for Cousin camp?

It's such a great concept.

- Well, we have five children,

they're all married,

and we have 21 grandchildren.

And because we live in different states,

one of the desires in ourfamily mission has always been,

first that our kids would love the Lord

with all their heart, mind and soul,

and then their neighbors also.

And often when we think of neighbor,

it's first of all yourspouse if you're married,

and then your kids and thenit's your extended family.

And we wanted to create avehicle in which our cousins,

our grandchildren could know each other

since they don't live in the same place.

So we began a number of years ago

to hold a camp in the summer.

It's four days and three nights,

you'd have to be four years old to come.

We didn't want to deal with toddlers

who weren't sleeping through the night,

or wetting beds or justkind of generally climbing.

So for our camp,

you had to be four to come.

And we have held thiscamp now for 11 summers,

and it's just been one

of the most extraordinaryexperiences of our lives.

One of the special things isthat parents are not allowed.

And you know,

grandparents can have agreat influence on their kids

and once you get rid of the parents,

the kids really go up you right.

- That's true, sadly.

But Cousin Camp's about much more

than keeping kids busy with activities,

which is what we usually think of campus

but how does that helpfamilies to form close bonds?

- Well, one of the thingsthat has been really popular

for us, which surprised us is,

and we did this out of desperation.

We designated a buddy system.

So every year at camp,

the little people had an older buddy.

And we did this because we needed help.

We couldn't find the lost shoes,

we couldn't fill every water bottle.

So each child had an older buddy,

who would be theirspecial friend for camp.

And it's been amazing thebonds that that has developed

between kids that didn'tknow each other very well.

About every spring, I get a call

with the question from my grandchild.

"Who's going to be my buddy this year?"

And some kids who really loved it

and it's taught the older kids

to reach out and carefor the younger kids.

- It's obvious from whatyou share in your book

that you really have beensuccessful in creating that bond

within family.

Tell us how you plan for this.

I mean,

you and your husband Johnspent some time praying

for the children, decidingwho would be buddy

to who and what you wanted

to see accomplished for each child.

I mean, it's quite an undertaking,

but I love the way that you did it.

- Yeah, we think through the needs

of every child coming to camp

and you know, every year that changes.

Because needs change and we grow.

So we do a couple of things.

One, we ask the questionthrough a filter of

how's this child doing andwhat are his needs emotionally,

physically, spiritually,mentally, and socially?

Is there one four yearold who's gonna be just

emotionally really shot

because it's their first time at camp?

And they don't evenknow all their cousins?

So we design our program based on needs.

I think often our tendency in life is

to just come up with aprogram that sounds good.

But sometimes that programdoesn't meet needs.

So for example,

with that four year old,

we make sure that he sleepsin the room with his siblings.

Because that gives them security at night

and we pack the kids in.

You know, we cover floorswith sleeping bags.

But that is a way to meet that need.

Another thing that we dois we ask the parents,

"Tell us about your children.

How do you see the giftsthat this child has?

Is this gift to help her?

Is this gift to lead her?

Does this child need to be asked

to initiate crafts?

Is he in the music or technology?"

Because we want to know our children.

And so that's another thingthat we do in preparation.

And then we think through Bible studies

and how we can have an attractive,

a fun time in the word each morning

with all these kids

in which the kids will be bored,

but they will begin to see the pattern

of how important it is

to go to the word first in the morning.

- You have seen a wonderful response

to all of this within your family.

Can you share that?

What's happened with yourkids and your grandkids?

- Yes, one of the thingsthat has surprised us,

is the value of positive peer pressure.

For example,

in our first Bible study,

the first morning of camp,

we will share testimonies

and I have in the book Cousin Camp,

I have a whole plan for how

to share the gospel isvery clearly written out

with a grandchild,

or with anybody,

it's really with anybody.

But sometimes it's easierbecause it's a matter of fact,

for grandparents to share this

and so we go through the gospel

and if a child hasn't yet received Christ,

they're given the opportunity to.

And there's no pressure,

sometimes they say they want away.

But often if they say

yes, they would like to receive Christ,

we ask them, "Who wouldyou like to pray with you?"

And immediately all theother kids in the rooms,

hands go up, "Me me its me."

So how wonderful to seepositive prayer peer pressure

of kids that are a little bit older

and they're not embarrassed.

They're not embarrassed

because we present itas a matter of factly.

- I just want to say thatCousin Camp is a great book,

but you also have Camp At Home,

100 Practical Ideas For Family.

That's for families.

That's a free download.

And to those of you who are with us today,

for more information,

just go to CBN.COM.

We'll direct you to all of that.

The book we're talking about today

is Susan's book called Cousin Camp.

And it includes literally everything

you need to know to startyour own cousin camp.

It's available where books are sold

and it's all aboutinvesting in your children

and the generations of childrenin your family to come.

Susan, thank you so much.

Great to have you with us.

- Thank you so much for having me.