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!