Loser: A Lesson in Selflessness

"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Matthew 16:25

Earlier this summer we prayed and agonized over the decision of sending our big girls to a Christian summer camp. We sought counsel from other families in similar situations and researched Bible camps throughout the greater Minnesota area. By the time it came around to making a decision, most of the summer was over and we just didn't have a great sense of peace about which camp to choose. I know that many people love the camp they have grown up attending. The problem I kept coming back to when doing my research was that the costs were generally between $250-$350 per week per child and the camp websites focused so much on what they had to offer the child: horse riding, rock climbing walls, tubing, boating, water skiing. The list of attractions was endless. But attractions were absolutely not the reason we were seeking to send our girls to camp - in fact, our family desires to avoid attractions of most kinds because, by their very nature, attractions are designed to distract from the truly meaningful and purposeful things in life. Not that horse riding or rock climbing can't be great hobbies, but that wasn't the purpose we were seeking in sending our girls to a Bible camp. Towards the end of July we decided to do more research over the fall/winter and make a better plan for next summer, trusting that the girls would also be at a better place in their attachment to attend a camp away from us.

On Sunday evenings our family attends a small Spanish service at the 16/33 Center in South Minneapolis that is offered as an outreach ministry of Bethlehem Baptist Church. Pastor Luis and his wife have been an incredible encouragement to us in our parenting journey, cheering us on each week in our faith with Biblical teaching. Our children get to see Latino role models leading worship, preaching, and ministering to one another, as well as seeing us as their parents involved in the Latino community in ways beyond just their adoption. Our kids enjoy it so much that they even pretend to be Jonathan and Sarah leading worship when we're at home. We are blessed and encouraged through this ministry and the relationships we can build there.

Just when we tabled the decision regarding Bible camp, God provided an opportunity for our family to attend family camp at Riverside Bible Camp in Amherst, Wisconsin, with the congregation from the 16/33 Center as well as a small group from Bethlehem that we had never met. We were a little unsure of what to expect from the weekend - okay, a lot unsure of what to expect from the weekend because planning ahead and organization is not really one of the lists of strengths in our small Spanish-speaking congregation - but we had a fabulous time! There was great structure and everything was well planned, including teams for preparing meals, playing games, presenting skits, and cleaning up. Those aren't the important details, though...

The theme for the weekend was The Biggest Loser. We were a bit concerned because our kids don't watch any TV and we wondered if they would be a bit lost not knowing that this was a theme of sorts. It turned out that it didn't matter. The theme actually centered around living a selfless life, a dying to self in order to gain an eternal life that matters. It was a precious theme for our family and each of us learned from the family devotion that was carefully prepared, the sermons that were delivered in Spanish and English, the games where the losers were actually the winners, the skits that revolved around learning to lose ourselves and our things for Christ, and working together as a family.

The camp was a beautiful place totally void of all the glamorous things that most of the camps I had researched earlier this summer had boasted about. It was nice and simple with a focus on the Bible and an obvious lack of attractions. The primary goal of the camp is to provide Bible teaching at an affordable cost, so our entire family attended the camp for two nights which included meals and matching t-shirts for the same as it would have cost me just to buy 6 t-shirts at most summer camps. The kids loved the experience of being together with our family and with our 16/33 church family. No special attractions were necessary. Best of all, they loved that we took them there to learn about how to live selfless lives to honor God. I look forward to continuing the practice of being losers...