TeenPact University: The Epilogue

Hey Cyberspace, I'm finally back and functioning from TeenPact University! TPU was incredible. Mr. Chris Sherrod, Master Apologist, taught the class. The focus of the week was apologetics: defending our faith. Today, I am more convinced than ever that Christianity is true and that to believe in Jesus is to concur with reason and science. I don't have time to go into all the details of the camp, but I'll probably bring some of the class content up in future posts. This was the basic layout of the week, with occasional highlights: Monday: I flew from Cincinnatti to Detroit and back down to Atlanta. Due to the effects of Hurricane Dennis, my flight from Detroit to Atlanta was delayed nearly 2 hours. Add to this the 1.5 hour layover that was planned, and you get 3 hours of non-stop CNN. Talk about depressing! Tuesday: Settling into camp routine. The food is great, but it isn't much fun when lights out sounds at 11 PM and you have to be up by 7. Especially in the summertime. We tried to play Ultimate Frisbee, but it is hard when the temperature is 95 degrees and 100% humidity with no breeze . . . in the shade. At lunch, I made a small scene by pretending to fall off of a chair but doing it too well and landing hard on my back. Ouch! Wednesday: Routine day. We learned a whole lot of stuff, and I prepared for the Ivy League Track that would take place the next day. That night, the entire camp participated in a massive game of capture-the-flag. The rules were a little different; each player wore a piece of tape around their arm. If this tape was ripped off anywhere on the field, they would be "dead" and would have to return to the center of the playing field for another tape. Their "death" was recorded as a 10-point bonus for the other team, and they returned to the game. Guys were not allowed to take girls' tapes off, but girls could "kill" the guys. This made the girls powerful, almost invincible players. It was during this game that Joe Echols, Mr. Echols' son, came over a rise and slammed into Anna Boyles, knocking her to the ground. Her head struck the grass violently, giving her a medium-to-severe concussion. She drifted in and out of consciousness all night. Anna never lost her sense of humor, though; when asked what she ran into, she shouted "The ground!" Anna left for the ER along with several of the staff members. Play resumed, our spirits slightly dampened by the events of the night. Our team beat the other team by a narrow margin after Bobi, Rebecca, Sarah, and I raided the enemy camp and captured their flag. Thursday: UGA Survey and Ivy League Track day! The group split up; half went with Mr. Sherrod to do worldview surveys/debating with random students on the University of Georgia campus. The other half, including myself and Anna (whose neck was now in a brace), went with Tim Echols and Representative Tom Riner to a conference room at UGA for the Ivy League track. It went well, especially considering that it was the first time this had been done and that the Riner family's plane was delayed and there had been no time to set everything up beforehand. Friday: Routine is relaxed on the last day. Mr. Sherrod ended the week with a session on cults. I'll probably make a post in the future on the great information covered by this part of TPU. Several pranks were played on the last night (nothing serious, and no permanent damage was sustained to anyone or any surroundings). I won't comment on who did it or what happened. ;-). Saturday: Most people were up by 6 AM. Sadly, everyone made their farewells and climbed into a bus to head for the airport. We reached the airport at about 10 AM. I was flying with Andre Fredette to Detroit, where we would split up. Our flight didn't leave until 6:11 PM, so we escorted all the girls to their gates one by one (airports can be dangerous places, you know). I tried to get an earlier flight, but Northwest couldn't guarantee that there would be an earlier flight out of Detroit to Cincinnati to match it, so I opted to take the 6:11 flight. When 5:30 rolled around and Andre and I were waiting to board, they announced that the flight had been delayed 1 hour. This meant that both of us would miss our connection in Detroit. We waited in line at the gate for almost 2 hours. By the time the airline worker got to us, the flight had already left. Northwest grudgingly gave us a voucher for a hotel room and dinner at a Holiday Inn in inter-city Atlanta. The food was expensive, but Andre and I managed to fill ourselves up and get a good night's sleep. Our flight left on time from Atlanta with no further delays on Sunday. When I got home at 4 PM, I hit the pillow in my bedroom and slept 'till 6. The Moral of this Story: Don't fly Northwest and don't stay at the Holiday Inn in Atlanta. The airline has stopped giving complimentary pretzels (they just serve you a cup of soda) and the hotel has stopped complimentary breakfast. Also, be prepared for anything, since anything can happen. I'd post pictures from the camp but I'm not sure the campers want their faces all over the internet. I also have a few articles I wrote while at camp that I will post as soon as they are emailed to me. In Him, David S. MacMillan III