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Out West Events 2026 | Rodeo Bible camp: Cowboy camp with a purpose 

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Ruth Nicolaus
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Finley Mundorf carrying the flag.
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A special summer camp takes place in Mullen, Nebraska each year. 

The Sandhills Junior Rodeo Bible Camp is centered around rodeo, Scripture learning, and a whole lot of fun. 

Organized by Deb Cox and her mom, Darlene Hall, from fifty to sixty kids attend the camp, held at the Hooker County Fairgrounds in Mullen in June (June 16-18, 2026.) 

Kids ages eight to sixteen come to the fairgrounds, to learn from clinicians, hear pastors and Bible leaders talk about the Lord, learn Bible verses and have fun.  

It’s the brainchild and labor of love of Cox and Hall. During Covid, while Cox was bored at home, playing solitaire on the computer, she asked the Lord, “Surely, Lord, you have something better for me to do than this.” She made a post on social media, asking if there was any interest in a rodeo Bible camp, and the answer was yes. 

Twenty-five kids attended that first camp in 2020. Since then, it’s grown to 60 kids from all over: Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, even as far away as Texas and Oregon.  

No fee is charged for camp. The only thing required of each camper is a pail of cookies.  

During the day, campers might learn from barrel racing or chute dogging clinicians or might listen as a pastor teaches about Jesus. The arena at the fairgrounds is divided into two or three areas, with campers rotating from station to station. Meals are prepared by Les and Shareen Canfield, who make use of donations of hamburger and other goodies.  

At night, campers sleep on the floor in the Sandhills Community Bible Church, the girls in the basement and the boys on the main floor. Adult chaperones are on hand overnight with the kids.  

There’s fun, too. An afternoon of swimming at the public pool in Mullen is planned, along with two rodeos, where campers can exhibit their skills and win prizes.  

Memorizing Bible verses is a big part of Rodeo Bible Camp, and Cox made sure of it. As a youngster growing up, she learned a lot of Bible verses and campers are asked to do the same. They are given 25 verses; each camper must look the verses up in the Bible and memorize them. They recite the verses to volunteer listeners and are given points for the verses they can recite by memory. Prizes are given to point winners.  

They memorize their verses in different ways, during different times of the day. Cox recalls hearing a camper memorize a verse out loud in the bathroom.  

“It gets loud and noisy, and they’re all in line to recite, and it’s chaotic,” she said. One of the campers this year has already written her verses in a notebook. 

Bible verses are important for the campers to memorize, she believes.  

“The Word of God is huge. It stays with you. I might tell you something, and it might go in one ear and out the other, but the Word of God is powerful, it’s living.”  

There is no scheduled time to memorize, but there is free time, Cox said. There are campers who don’t memorize, “and we don’t pressure them. I have been tempted (to remind students to memorize), but I haven’t done it. The Lord works in these kids. It’s better to let the Holy Spirit work in them than me. I’m not the Holy Spirit.”  

Campers bring their own horses; no horses are provided, Cox said. They bring their own feed and do chores morning and night.  

Darlene, Deb’s 94-year-old mother, is a big part of the camp. She’s the one at the computer, compiling entries, making lists in triplicate for the rodeo announcer and the volunteers, making a list of the Bible verses, creating the posterboards for recitation points, and more.  

“It’s what keeps me going,” she said. “The Lord’s blessed me with all these years, and I don’t want to roll over and say, ‘I can’t do that.’ That’s why God has left me here, to do this, and I so enjoy doing it.”  

Countless volunteers help with camp. They provide prizes, help with clinics, listen to Bible recitations, and more.  

Cox can’t list them all, for fear of missing someone. But several stand out.  

Pastor Seth Howard of the Sandhills Community Bible Church, and Pastor Ben Hart, of the Assembly of God Church, both speak with the kids and spend a lot of time at the camp. Karen and Taylor Peterson from Bayard help with a lot of things as well.  

Grant Wahlgren, a former camp attendee-turned volunteer, is another helper. The 17-year-old from Gothenburg, Nebraska, listens to the campers’ recitations and loves that the camp includes the Word of God. 

The camp “involves rodeo, but in the grand scheme of life, that doesn’t matter. The most important thing is our relationship with God and building that relationship.” He used to ride but doesn’t very much anymore. “When life throws things at me, I know when I turn to the cross and the Lord, everything will be OK.”  

And the camp wouldn’t happen without Cox’s son-in-law Brady Hebbert, and Brett Phipps. “If it wasn’t for those two, we probably wouldn’t be able to have camp,” she said. They do all of the work outside, setting up panels and stalls, providing calves and goats, running tractors, and more. Brady stays with the boys overnight and listens to scripture memory verses. 

“They are the backbone of the outdoor work,” Cox said. “Whatever goes on in the arena, they head that up. They work really hard.”  

The three days of camp fly by for the kids, and for Cox, too.  

For her, it’s a chance to spread the light of Jesus without leaving the county.  

“I’m thankful the Lord let me be part of it. When I was little, I thought, I want to be a missionary. For the most part, people are missionaries at home.” 

Registration is open for this year’s Bible camp. The registration form and contact info can be found on Facebook by searching for Sandhills Jr. Rodeo Bible Camp.  

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Deb Cox | Courtesy photos  

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