The theme of family camp (and even the theme of the whole year at Camp Christian) was “Selfless” in 2024.  I love the theme of “Selfless” for family camp. In fact, “Selfless” is foundational to healthy families. Those families that know how to practice a “selfless” lifestyle experience the joy of true connection and intimacy. After all, practicing a “selfless” lifestyle allows one to “not look out only for one’s own personal interests but also for the interests of others” in the family. At family camp we learned several ways in which a “selfless” attitude will enhance our families.  Hopefully, I will discuss some of those insights in future posts. But right now I wanted to tell you one of the things I like most about family camp.

We begin our sessions at family camp together by singing praise songs. If you were to look around the room while singing the praise songs at the start of a session, you would see people who love and care for one another. I know I did. I saw people and families who have gone through struggles with health, grieved over losses, endured temporary but significant conflicts in relationships, and a host of other painful experiences. These same families have experienced and celebrated great joys, amazing milestones, intergenerational intimacies, and so many other positive events. I like that, but it’s not the one thing I like most. What I like most is this: when one family goes through any of these experiences, whether joyous or sorrowful, several other families join them, comfort them, support them, celebrate with them. Every family at camp can describe times in which they had been touched by other families present at camp. Why? Because the families at camp are part of an even larger family, the family of God, that provides comfort, encouragement, and support to one another throughout the year. Even more exciting, this larger family of God is not static but dynamic. It is not closed but open. Children of families attending camp grow into adults, get married, have children, and, at whatever stage of life they find themselves, remain a part of the whole family of God at camp.  In addition, we celebrate new families every year who become an integral part of the larger family of God. It is an ever-expanding family that extends to Christian families everywhere. We learn from one another and grow with one another from childhood, to single adults, to married couple, to family, to “empty nesters,” to grandparents. All are welcome. All are valued. All are supported and all support one another.

That is perhaps the features I love most about family camp. I don’t know that I do it justice in writing about it. You need to experience it. In fact, if you’ve never experienced this yourself, I invite you to come to Family Camp next year and experience the family of God. Thank you, Jim & Terry Jones, for helping to create that environment that supports and nurtures our “branch of the family of God.” And thank you Camp Christian for hosting this weekend each year. Most of all, I thank all who attend and share your lives and the lives of your families with us.