Although we’ve been back from FITS for a couple of days now, I realized that I forgot to give a recap of our final day of the retreat. So here goes…

I got up a bit earlier than usual in order to take in that last Jekyll Island sunrise. Unfortunately, the sun had already risen, but no problem. I had some great “quiet time” and then met with James and Katie to head down to the last counselor meeting. We went in and got a great closing devotion on suffering and how to deal with it.

Our morning program brought the final act/talk by Brock Gill, which was based on the story of the woman at the well, and ended with a climactic “never thirst again” routine. I literally had goosebumps for the final 5 minutes or so.

At the beginning of our morning program, we got to see the video of our impromptu wakeup. It was not pretty, though not quite as bad as the guys who convulsed out of their bed with the sounding of the air horn.

After lunch, we had a relaxing free afternoon, during which time I got yelled at by an elderly woman for attempting to pick up a sand dollar, which I was sure wasn’t alive. We went to dinner at Blackbeard’s Seafood Resturaunt, and celebrated Hannah’s birthday as well as my own. As a side note, someone (who shall remain nameless) thought getting trick candles would be a good idea, but we ended up with a resturaunt full of smoke. No problem, though. All in good fun.

After a g reat dinner, we went to our final small group. Our group was absolutely great. We agreed to exchange Facebook info with one another, and I think it was a great experience for everyone involved. Really challenged us to get outside of our comfort zones.

Our last big meeting was highlighted by two things: Treb’s final talk, and the presentation of our sports trophy! Treb’s final talk was absolutely brilliant and hit all of us right where we were. It’s amazing how someone who talks about something specific can hit people on a number of different levels. If you ever get a chance to hear this guy, take it. My favorite FITS speaker of all time, hands down.

Our closing dance party was next, which was a pretty cool sight to behold – 900 kids dancing outside the convention center. We then headed back, exhausted, to our hotel, semi-packed, and after a bit of free time, said goodnight for the final time.

We were gone from Jekyll by 8:00am on Friday. It was an incredible week. I wonder now how much of it will stay with all of us. It would be a truly awesome thing to take the same fire with which we were filled and spread it to everyone we encountered. That, my friends, would be truly EPIC.

Wow – Day 4. It seems like we just got here – how can I be recapping day 4 already? And as I type this, it’s our final day. Amazing.

One of the really funny things at Fun in the Son every year is the opportunity to have the staff come and wake your kids up in the morning. This is done in a variety of fashions, involving everything from air horns to halloween costumes. I should also mention that these priceless wakeups are recorded and played for everyone at the big group meeting the following day. I signed our room up for a wakeup, just for the fun of it. However, I thought that I would already be awake, as they usually happen around 7 or so.

It all happened in an instant. I went from a peaceful slumber in our colder-than-should-be-allowed hotel room, snuggled in my blankets, to scared half to death. The air horn rang out, there were people jumping on our bed, I caught a glimpse of a weirdly frightening halloween mask, and everyone was yelling at the tops of their lungs. Once their goal had been acheived, they left, and Connor turned to me and said, “Did that just really happen?”

I turned over and tried to recuperate, and noticed that it was 4:50am. No wonder I wasn’t awake. So that’s how the morning started!

After our counselor meeting, devotion, and breakfast, we went to our morning program. Brock spoke about forgiveness and what it means to truly forgive someone. This talk hit a few of our kids pretty hard, so much so that they actually went out and called people they needed to forgive. It was awesome to see God at work through them. Someone from the big meeting posed the question, “What if they don’t deserve forgiveness?” and Brock replied, “Remember – neither do you. But you got it.” I got goose bumps at this.

So once our big meeting was over and we had lunch, we went for our other sporting event – men’s doubles tennis. Connor and Williams blew through the competition, and we came out victorious 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, thereby earning FPC’s first title since 1996 (as far as I could tell)!

Last night we went to Summer Waves Water Park where we got to have some time to unwind and just have some fun, with dinner provided there. We then moved to our big group meeting. At the big meeting, Treb was up again. He talked more about forgiveness and how that relates to our own failures. He used the story of Peter denying Jesus 3 times, but still receiving forgiveness. He reminded us that even when Jesus was being nailed to the cross, he was saying – “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” It was really something a lot of us needed to hear.

Since we had a bit of a different schedule, we didn’t have small groups this day. We did, however, go to family time after big group meeting, and had a great time of prayer with our kids. And then, worn out and weary, we turned in.

Yesterday was one of the most moving days of this trip for our group as a whole. A lot of us have been dealing with issues of forgiveness, and that theme seemed to encompass all the messages that day.

Today is our last day at FITS, and I can’t wait to share the experiences of today with you! Stay tuned!

I didn’t get a chance to update the blog yesterday, as we had a lot going on. Let’s get right to it…

Yesterday’s counselor devotion, which goes along with our counselor meeting ever morning, continued our mini-series on brokenness. This is led by the CEO of Youth Conference Ministries, Dr. Chuck Neder. I’ve heard Chuck speak on a number of occasions and I’m always amazed at his ways of relating Scripture to life. After breakfast, we went, yet again, to the Convention Center for our morning programs. This meeting introduced us to a series of video clips being recorded throughout the week called “EPIC Moments,” where students talk about an epic moment in their life with God.

Our morning speaker, Brock Gill, talked about skepticism. He told us that he had taped a program for the BBC and Discovery Channel where he was asked to test the miracles of Jesus using modern technology to see if they could be reproduced. It was amazing to hear his results…

After lunch, we headed out for our first sports tournament. It’s called “rec” here, and our first event was co-ed volleyball. After losing our first game, we won our next two, moving us into the next round. We won that game, and progressed again, where we lost. I was still very proud of the teamwork our youth showed! Once that was done (and my face was sunburned), we came back and cleaned up for dinner.

After dinner, we went to the Convention Center for our small groups. In our small group, we talked about skepticism amongst those who are closest to us, and used some text from Luke to show that doubt is ok. It’s not unnatural to doubt God. In fact, the disciples doubted. And to top it all off, Jesus Himself doubted as he was on the cross. We talked about dealing with doubt and heard some pretty powerful stories from the kids of our small group.

Our big meeting last night was labeled as “committment night.” This is something that is usually done on Thursday nights at FITS, and I’m still not quite sure why it was done last night instead. At any rate, it was indeed a powerful service. We heard a message from Treb Praytor about finally deciding to let go of your burdens and all that you’re carrying and hand them over to the One who wants to take them from you. It was a great message and our kids really got a lot out of it.

We did a bit of a small devotion during our family time, but really just wanted to hear what the kids thought of what they had just heard. The conversation was great, and it was evident that it’s not just by chance that we are here this week.

We were told that there would be “late-night worship” by the pool after our family time. Since this was optional, I encouraged our kids to go if they wanted to, and I decided to take my guitar out to a bench by myself and play a bit of music for a personal worship time. While I was playing, our girls came running up to me and told me that the musician who was supposed to lead hadn’t shown up yet, and they needed someone to come and lead ASAP. I jumped at the chance. I got to the pool and there were people gathered just waiting to hear some worship music. And at that point, I had one of my greatest experiences in my Fun in the Son history as I led worship for around 100 or so students and leaders, all of whom were singing at the top of their lungs to Christ. In fact, the Spirit was so evident that we realized during a song that I had been playing for over an hour and a half, and it was past “lights out” time. So we finished, and came back for bed.

None of us could sleep after what had just happened, so we sat up and talked for a while before finally getting some shut-eye.

So that’s it for yesterday. I wish that the simple words I type here could convey the magnitude of this trip in the lives of our kids. They are having a great time and are immersed in a one-on-one relationship with their Creator, and that is priceless.

Some incredibly fun things have happened today, but I don’t want to spoil it for you just yet. Stay tuned for today’s update!

As I type this from my hotel room, I can hear the faint, yet distinguishable sounds of a thumping subwoofer. This can only mean that the annual Fun in the Son LUAU is under way. It’s kind of an “opening party” for the kids. I use the time to unwind and, as you can tell, blog.

Today started off with a 7:30am wakeup. James, Katie and I had our morning counselor’s breakfast (or, actually, we just had coffee), and the kids decided to forgoe breakfast in lieu of sleep. Go figure.

We headed out for our morning program about 9:30am, and what a morning it was. After some warmup dance moves (yep) and brief worship time, we got introduced to Christian illusionist Brock Gill. After some pretty impressive “cards from mid-air” tricks, he then did an amazing act involving three volunteers, their chosen cards, a bow and arrow, and a blindfold. I won’t spoil it, in case you get to see it sometime.

After his illusion set, Brock spoke for a bit. His topic was sin. With a very familiar verse from Romans, we explored what it meant to really “fall short” of God’s glory, and how all our lives we’re “missing the target” (think archery here). Brock finished his talk by introducing the idea of repentance.

After the morning session, we came back for lunch, then had free time for the entire afternoon. Since none of our team’s sports were scheduled for today, we simply relaxed and enjoyed the opportunity to just be here. It was very refreshing, and I for one look forward to more of it this week.

After dinner, we moved back to the Convention Center for small groups. I was/am a leader of a group of about 22 students from as far South as Florida and as far North as Maryland. I had never met any of these kids, and vice versa. That being said, it was strangely easy to interact with them. I think it was because we were all blank slates. No one knew what baggage the others were carrying. No one knew the things others were going through. And they all realized that the chances were slim that we’d ever be together again after this week.

In our first small group, we reflected back on Brock’s talk for the morning. We talked about what it means to be crucified with Christ, and dead to sin. We looked at how imperfect the world is, and the fact that we can’t fix it by ourselves.

Once small groups were done, we headed into the auditorium for our big group meeting. Treb Praytor was back, and we got to learn the origin of his first name – it’s his dad’s name spelled backwards (Bert). Treb talked tonight about the often-preached-on story of Peter getting out of the boat, his eyes locked on Jesus. We focused not on Peter sinking, but on him actually getting out of the boat while the others sat and watched. Treb ended tonight’s talk with a challenge for all of us to realize that we are broken, that we’ve sunken, that we’ve taken our eyes off of Jesus and we need to cry out with all our might, “Rescue me!”

After that powerful talk, we went to family time, where discussion took flight! I really only did a little talking, and the youth made the conversation go. We’re starting to get a glimpse into why we’re here this week, and it’s so exciting to see what culminates on Thursday night.

So that was our day. The weather was, and still is, beautiful. There’s a cool breeze coming off the ocean, and God is working in the lives of our students.

Please continue to pray for us. We love all of you!