Tybee Island Adventures

The week after the wedding, and just before our anniversary trip, Sonja and I and some other faithful GBC chaperones took a group of 32 high school students on a week-long summer retreat. Instead of going with the standard great but expensive RYM trip which our youth group has done in the past, I decided to try to plan my own retreat, with the goal of making it cheaper and more intimate than retreats we've done in the past.

So, after a brief fact-finding mission last spring, we decided to rent a couple houses down in Tybee Island, GA, a small vacation community just outside of Savannah. Dr. Kenneth Turner, a past intern at GBC from my HS days who is currently a OT professor at Bryan College, was invited as our guest speaker for the week, and he delivered 6 messages to our teens on leadership from the Old Testament which included everything from preaching on prophet, priest, king, wiseman, Moses, Ruth, and everything in between (including some interesting and "controversial" :) comments on Goliath, his true height, and whether he took the stone to the forehead or to the kneecap).

Anyway, Kenneth brought his better half, his wonderful wife Raegan, as well as his 3 daughters along, and Sonja and I and the youth group thoroughly enjoyed getting to know their family as well as learn a few tricks to parenting young kids. Raegan is a genius with a camera as well as being a great mom, a good sport, and a perfect match for Kenneth.

Though persistent rain kept us off the beach and out of Savannah for the first couple days of the beach retreat, the group had a great time trying out some crazy games (3 examples- 1) the aptly named "best friend" game -getting to know each other really well through awkward moments, 2) "the greatest game ever"- launching cheeseballs into the air with plastic spoons to be caught in the mouth, and 3) the old favorite "toilet paper bride" - no explanation needed.). These games, plus guitar hero, wii bowling, mexican train dominos, and of course, Settlers of Catan, provided fun for all while we waited out the rain. Our patience was finally rewarded as the chaperones decided to make a break for Savannah on Wednesday, and the group had a great time wandering around a beautiful city, ernestly seeking to complete the scavenger hunt list I compiled for the retreat.

The rest of the week was filled with more fun games (like the "handless, lifesaver-toothpick pass") which resulted in some quite candid images which will serve as ammo for blackmailing youth groupers in their distant but probably embarressing future. Kenneth's messages hit home with our youth group, especially with those who are heading off to college or who are taking up leadership positions as upper-classmen. We also had a fantastic film & theology night discussion surrounding M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village", discussing its timely critique of legalistic fear-based Christianity, and how true believers in Jesus receive that critique and respond with humility and good news.



After a crazy extended drive home, in which my 15 passenger van felt like its back wheels were coming off, Sonja and I finally returned to our house and our dog exhausted but feeling strongly that the retreat was a complete success.