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FITS 2008

by Ashley on Aug.01, 2008, under Ashley Bingle

I had the priviledge of attending Fun In The Son summer camp with our youth group this year. It was my first summer camp experience, since the only other away camps I have been to were Snow Camp and the Leadership Retreat at Cedarkirk, and it was a lot different than those trips. For one thing, we only had a four hour trip to get to Jekyll Island, Georgia and we took the church bus, which can hold around forty people. There were only fifteen kids going, plus Shaun and the new Intern, Kristyn Jones as chaperones, so we had plenty of room on the bus for all of us and our stuff.

We stayed at the Oceanside Inn, where most of the kids going to the conference stayed. All of the sports and most of the meals were also at that hotel. The way the rooms worked out I ended up in a room with two freshmen and two double beds, so I got an entire bed to myself. That room connected to the room that had the Intern, the two other freshmen, and another girl. The third girl’s room was quite a bit down the hall, but they had a graduated senior in their room so they were alright. The boys were on the floor below and they also had connecting rooms, with three people in each room, but they only had one queen bed per room.

Because the church bus had to go back to church we were stuck at the hotel a mile away from the convention center, so we had to go beg a ride. We ended up finding one with a group from Faith Presbyterian in Seminole, FL that had a twelve passenger van but only three people, counting the chaperone. They let us ride with them all week until the last program because they had to head back so that they could make it to Great Escape the next day. We ended up including them in a lot of our games when we played things that were not in the regular scheduled tournaments and saved spots in meal lines for them.

None of our teams ended up winning any of the tournaments, although one guy from our group won the 5k, and we did win several games. We had girls’, guys’, and co-ed volleyball teams, co-ed soccer and ultimate frisbee teams, and girls’ and guys’ basket ball teams. The volleyball teams did alright, although I don’t know if the girls actually won any games. The frisbee team lost the first game and got knocked out, so we only had to play that one. I don’t know how the guys’ basketball team did, but my girls played very well. I say my girls because, really, no one else wanted to play girls’ basketball but me. Four girls signed up, but two of them backed out at the last minute, so we had to find someone else to be our third person. It ended up that Molly and Monica were willing to play so that I could. I thanked them both a bazillion times for helping me have fun, but I don’t know how much they enjoyed it. We lost 10-1. I did make our only basket, though I might have made more if it wasn’t “make it-take it” on a half court in the parking lot.

The soccer team did very well, winning their first two games out of three. I was only signed up to play basketball and ultimate, but some of the girls decided they didn’t want to play again, so I got to go in for one of them. That we had at least two girls on the team so we could play in the co-ed tournament. Unfortunately, during the first game my knee was injured when the bottom half of my leg was wrenched sideways. I also got quite a bash to my nose just prior to that. I was in such pain that I had to call a time out to go limp over to the chairs where everybody else was sitting and I was unable to play any more games after that, including the one frisbee game. I was pretty disappointed about this, but I had a really fun time anyway. I am pleased to say that my nose did not sustain any permanent damage, althought it felt like it hurt worse at different points in time and my knee is continuing to improve through exercise. I have played soccer since and, although I am still hesitant to kick with that leg I have regained complete normal use of it.

The theme that our lessons focused on was “Collide”, or how Jesus came to earth and the effect was something that changed the world. The slogan was something about when the ordinary and extraordinary collided. I find this almost ironic, because when my knee got hurt, that is why: someone collided with me hard enough to change the outcome of my week.

Already church is beginning to plan for next year’s summer camp. I do not know yet if I am going to attend, because I am hoping to go to Bingle Camp for the first time in the upcoming year. If I had the chance, though, I would definitely go back. The proximity of the ocean and the fun atmosphere made Fun In The Son 2008 plenty of fun!


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