This year seemed to be noted for a number of physical attacks. I primarily know Alistair Huong from his work on the OHC yearbook and the GYC website. The news that he had been paralyzed at the outset of GYC due to an unknown cause, came as a shock. Fortunately he has made some improvement, and regained control of breathing and other movements. This is an answer to prayer for many people. I met Luke Privett this past Thanksgiving at my brother’s home on the campus of OHC. This Monday, December 24, my brother shared the sad news he had just received, that Luke had been killed in a car accident during the winter storm that presumably caught many drivers leaving GYC. There is a good blog about Alistair and Luke on Chester Clark’s website. My brother’s wife Heidi  was taken to the emergency room during GYC, but we were relieved to learn that it was apparently a minor matter that she quickly recovered from. Many people were praying about that, as well.

In my opinion the spiritual highlight of this year’s GYC was David Shin’s third talk, “The Tipping Point of Revival.” It really challenged me to deepen my prayer life and give more attention to personal devotions. If you missed it, try to find a copy of the video. It will eventually re-air on 3ABN. And I believe it will also eventually be released on the GYC website. The testimony by Steve Kasperbaurer was also excellent. By pure chance, I later ended up sitting in the same row as Steve, and consequently at the close of that service we ended up praying together. I was impressed by the depth and sincerity and directness of his prayer. I believe he is a true man of God.

Props to my friends, Alan and Nicole Parker, who by various accounts had a sell-out seminar at GYC on dating, sex, and marriage. (Of course, they had an unfair advantage. Advertising a seminar on sex and marriage at a youth convention is like pouring chum into a shark tank.) I didn’t go, partly because there were some other seminars I really wanted to attend, and partly because I had this nagging fear that if I stepped through the door, Nicole would be tempted to use me as an illustration.

My brother Eugene Prewitt led a GYC seminar on the 1888 General Conference convention in Minneapolis. This was a subject that interested me in my early years of exploring the Adventist message. In high school I bought the book 1888 Re-Examined, by Robert Weiland and Donald Short (kind of a hefty study for a little high school kid), although I later came to disagree with the authors’ theological conclusions. I also read various books and articles by E. J. Waggoner and Alonzo T. Jones, including The Glad Tidings and Christ Our Righteousness. Ellen White had much to say about the 1888 conference as well. It was certainly a pivotal point in Adventist history, right up there with the apostasies of J. H. Kellogg and Desmond Ford, and the first publishing of the book Questions on Doctrine, in the scope of its affect on the Adventist church (and its gradual theological fragmentation). Sadly, many Adventists do not seem to be at a point where such history can be appreciated by them, largely because theology itself has taken a back seat to subjective experience and just-be-good-ism.

I had a fun time getting back from GYC. I had purchased a round-trip pass on the Super Shuttle between the hotel and the airport. But when I called the night before, they said they didn’t have me in their system. Moreover, they didn’t have any available seats at any time the morning of my flight. The best they could offer was a refund. Next, I called and reserved a taxi to pick me up at 4:45 a.m. The next morning at 5:00 a.m., after waiting ever so patiently, I called again, and was told that all the taxis were busy, and I’d have to find myself another ride. I finally caught a random passing taxi at the front of the hotel, and made it to the airport. At the airport I went through a long line to use the self-service check-in system. But the computer said they didn’t have my ticket in the system. So then I had to wait through another line, and everyone in that line had a passport for international travel. It look a long time for just those 4 or 5 people to finish their business. Then I had to hurry to get to my gate. Fortunately my flight had been delayed, so I had a few minutes to rest. At the gate for my connecting flight in St. Louis, I learned the incoming plane had been delayed due to winter weather, and would be probably an hour late. This was at around 9:30 a.m., and my flight was scheduled for departure at 12:55 p.m. At around 2:30 p.m., we were informed the plane would be delayed several more hours, and leave at around 6:00. At around 3:30, we were told the flight had been canceled altogether. Fortunately I was able to find a van shuttle to take me home. The challenge was finding someone who could get my checked-through luggage to the baggage claim, so that I could take it home with me. But eventually that was done, and everything went smoothly from there.

GYC was great, but it was so good to be home.