Estes Echo
ESTES FAMILY CAMP
October 31-November 2 at Chickasaw’s Lake LaJoie Group Camp
Sign up at the lobby display and spend time with your Estes family!
FUN TIME DISCLAIMER. This year’s Family Camp will feature trick or treating and a Fall Festival. The kids can trick or treat from cabin to cabin and there will be fun and games in the mess hall. Costumes ARE welcome (even adults….).
One of the more traumatic experiences of my childhood was getting lost in Sears. I was five at the time and wandered an aisle away from where I was supposed to be. Even though it has been xxx decades since the event, I can still recall the sense of dread when I realized that I was alone. I remember the panic, the tears, and most of all the relief when my parents found me.
Have you ever felt alone? Do you have anyone that you can call a friend? Do you have someone you can trust to be there for you? Do you feel alone, even when you are in church? Even members of God’s family occasionally stuggle with feeling that they really are part of the family.
Family Camp is one of the ways the Estes Church of Christ tries to make sure everyone feels like they are part of the family at Estes. There is nothing that brings people together like putting them in cabins with no heat or air conditioning, making them use community bathhouses, and participating in crazy events. And bugs; don’t forget about the bugs. Really. We come together as a family through shared experience and time with one another. We live in a hectic world where we are always going here and there. When we stop for a few days and spend time with your spiritual family, it helps us connect with one another.
Family camp helped my family feel less alone when we first came to Estes. I remember when one member took an interest in my middle son Ben and watched him in the mess hall for few hours on a rainy Saturday. I remember playing games with people that I don’t get a chance to talk to on a regular basis. Family Camp helped us feel like we belonged.
Physical loneliness isn’t the only problem we face as people. We can also be spiritually lonely. We can be isolated, seperated from God and the gifts that he provides. This year’s Family Camp theme reflects the idea that, spiritually, God has helped us when we were alone. God recognized that without him, we were destined for an eternity without God. From the begining of Genesis, the Bible reflects the idea of inheritance and adoption. God promised Abraham and his descendants a spiritual inheritance. This was reaffirmed to David and reflected in the prophets. In the New Testament, we learn that God gave us Jesus, and through Jesus we can be adopted by God and recieve the same spiritual inheritance promised Abraham. ( Hebrews 1:1-2, Titus 3:7, Col. 1:12, Eph 1:11, Gal. 3:26-29, Romans 8: 16-17 to name a few verses).
At Family Camp, our speakers on Saturday will be Ryan and Abby Hysmith. They will reflect on the experience of physical adoption, spiritual adoption, and what this means for those of use adpoted by God into his family.
The cost for family camp is $10 per adult and $5 per child. This helps defray the cost of renting the campgrounds (even if you don’t spend the night). There are sign up sheets in the lobby for cabin space and for food.
Family Camp is a great place to get to know people and have some fun. More importantly, Family Camp is a great place to become more spiritually connected to your spiritual family and spiritual Father. This year, Family Camp will also be a great place to get your kids some halloween candy.
–Brent Rudder
