Impact 1994 Give It Away
1994: Give It Away-Of all the years I have been to Impact this was the least memorable, I was interning in Pensacola for Matt Elliot long time Impact song leader. We had somewhere around 800 campers that year. We were on the doorstep of this thing really taking off. My most vivid memory was watching a teen in our group (Mark Thoman) baptizing the same girl 3 times in the baseball sauna (her name was Leah Lassiter, who FYI saw this blog and contacted me, she's now on the friends page). This was because the lines to the baptism pool (an actual swimming pool on campus now long gone) were so long. There were over 80 baptisms one night! More than 10% of the campers there were baptized. That pool is sorely missed. I remember for the first few years of Impact maybe till 1996 youth groups would gather around that pool. It was something special. Funny thing about this year is that I always look back on it a think this was the worst year ever, yet I do not know why? I think maybe because it was one of the worst T-shirts ever.
"Bowling Green" and I were just about to break up. Things had become weird. This was another one of those "Wonder Years” moments. Although this has little to do with Impact it was one of those life altering events. As the fat kid growing up I had never had a girlfriend, in fact even when I slimmed down I rarely dated a girl more than 2 or 3 times. If I liked them they seemed to loose interest in me. If they liked me, I lost interest in them. I probably dated well lets just say a lot of girls while in college. "Bowling Green" was different, I really liked her and we dated for just over a year. When we broke up I was crushed. Now this had many life altering repercussions. The main one was that “Bowling Green” was a great Christian girl and whether she knew it or not she kept me out of loads of trouble.
Lets get back to the main topic, Impact. Bowling Green and I were crashing, I met up with a girl again, this time from Jonesboro, AK but nothing more ever came of "Jonesboro" and I. You may be thinking "why is he talking about girls so much?' (well if your thinking that your probably a girl because the guys know why.) for those that need an explanation... because that was what I was all about at that time in my life, believe me things were about to change...The Jonesboro girls deserve mention here because they were a major fixture at Impact. It is funny how everyone knew these 6 girls. They were known as the "Jonesboro 6." They were everywhere, onstage as volunteers, roller skating around the square, I really mean they were everywhere. Incidentally one of them, Stacey returned to Impact as a chaperone in 2007 bringing a group from Huntsville. Here's something that stands out. Every year the Impact board has guys called "runners." These are the guys who go and grab stuff from the stores around Nashville and do a little of everything else. The odd jobs no one else has time for. I think it was this year that a brash young Jon Micah Richardson was our runner. We did not know him but the girls certainly liked him, especially the "Jonesboro 6" which in turn left most of us single guys to not like him. Of course now Jon Micah is one of my closest friends whose life has mirrored mine in many ways. This was also the last year Impact was just another church camp that just happened to be on a college campus. I cannot emphasize this enough in the transformation of Impact. I mean there was really little difference between your regular camp and Impact, things were also about to change for Impact. You know the theme that year was probably the weakest, as it was just kind of a "tag" put on the event, the classes were still left up to the teacher/ youth minister who did not know the theme going in. In fact I taught a class, it was awful, I wanted to do a good job but had the hardest time coming up with something to teach. The speakers came in with already prepared talks that if they even hit the theme it seemed it was by accident. This is the way we used to do camps, and sadly many camps still do not utilize their theme. The theme seemed like it was never really a theme for the actual events at the camp, but just something to put on a t-shirt. The speakers may mention the theme but it was an after thought. Some of my most vivid memories are from the endless free time, which seemed to last forever. Before the days of Morning Impact we just went from our first encounter class to a brief concert, and impromptu Mark Hayes interviews in the crowd. Then we would go to the next class, then to lunch. Free Time went from lunch till dinner.
"Bowling Green" and I were just about to break up. Things had become weird. This was another one of those "Wonder Years” moments. Although this has little to do with Impact it was one of those life altering events. As the fat kid growing up I had never had a girlfriend, in fact even when I slimmed down I rarely dated a girl more than 2 or 3 times. If I liked them they seemed to loose interest in me. If they liked me, I lost interest in them. I probably dated well lets just say a lot of girls while in college. "Bowling Green" was different, I really liked her and we dated for just over a year. When we broke up I was crushed. Now this had many life altering repercussions. The main one was that “Bowling Green” was a great Christian girl and whether she knew it or not she kept me out of loads of trouble.
Lets get back to the main topic, Impact. Bowling Green and I were crashing, I met up with a girl again, this time from Jonesboro, AK but nothing more ever came of "Jonesboro" and I. You may be thinking "why is he talking about girls so much?' (well if your thinking that your probably a girl because the guys know why.) for those that need an explanation... because that was what I was all about at that time in my life, believe me things were about to change...The Jonesboro girls deserve mention here because they were a major fixture at Impact. It is funny how everyone knew these 6 girls. They were known as the "Jonesboro 6." They were everywhere, onstage as volunteers, roller skating around the square, I really mean they were everywhere. Incidentally one of them, Stacey returned to Impact as a chaperone in 2007 bringing a group from Huntsville. Here's something that stands out. Every year the Impact board has guys called "runners." These are the guys who go and grab stuff from the stores around Nashville and do a little of everything else. The odd jobs no one else has time for. I think it was this year that a brash young Jon Micah Richardson was our runner. We did not know him but the girls certainly liked him, especially the "Jonesboro 6" which in turn left most of us single guys to not like him. Of course now Jon Micah is one of my closest friends whose life has mirrored mine in many ways. This was also the last year Impact was just another church camp that just happened to be on a college campus. I cannot emphasize this enough in the transformation of Impact. I mean there was really little difference between your regular camp and Impact, things were also about to change for Impact. You know the theme that year was probably the weakest, as it was just kind of a "tag" put on the event, the classes were still left up to the teacher/ youth minister who did not know the theme going in. In fact I taught a class, it was awful, I wanted to do a good job but had the hardest time coming up with something to teach. The speakers came in with already prepared talks that if they even hit the theme it seemed it was by accident. This is the way we used to do camps, and sadly many camps still do not utilize their theme. The theme seemed like it was never really a theme for the actual events at the camp, but just something to put on a t-shirt. The speakers may mention the theme but it was an after thought. Some of my most vivid memories are from the endless free time, which seemed to last forever. Before the days of Morning Impact we just went from our first encounter class to a brief concert, and impromptu Mark Hayes interviews in the crowd. Then we would go to the next class, then to lunch. Free Time went from lunch till dinner.
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