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!