Impact 2007 The Mighty

2007: The Mighty- . This year will forever be known as the year we moved to the "big house" Allen Arena. I have to admit I was not in favor of this, as I am usually against change, my heritage showing its ugly face, but Johnny Markham and Jon Shoulders showed us this was the best road to take. The alternative was loosing 200 campers, as Alumni Auditorium our home for 14 years was being renovated. We meet with President Lowry and Walt Lever about this at a special meeting. We were all set to stand our ground and request that the changes to Alumni be put off a year or scrapped all together. When they reported that this would be almost impossible, we considered several options none seriously though, like moving off site or to the High School Gym for a year then shrinking Impact by the 200 campers mentioned earlier, or even moving to the tiny Acuff Chapel at Lipscomb’s High School campus, the idea of additional weeks reared its head in the talks as it has on many occasions. But Jon and Johnny spoke up about their idea to move to Allen Arena. The rest is Impact history. Another idea that was tested at that meeting was the possibility of moving Impact to July in order to accommodate the other camps at Lipscomb, after months of thinking we would be moving to July in 2008 this was scrapped. There was much trepidation that accompanied this move, but as soon as you saw it, all was put to ease. I mean as soon as you turned that corner to see the stage wow, even without Skids great sets it looked like Impact had just taken a step in the right direction. Jon and Johnny's vision of Impact in Allen was right on! As far as the personal stuff goes, it was the year that almost wasn’t for me as a nasty leg infection acquired during a near drowning experience in the Ocoee River, (seriously) almost hospitalized me. Luckily by the grace of God I healed enough that my doc (special thanks to Martin) gave me the okay. At Impact this was my first year with a new youth group Maury Hills in Columbia, TN. My family had only been there two weeks when Impact came around so I was kind of unorganized. Half my stuff was still in Russellville. I was really struggling with being ready. I was very scared this Morning Impact would be a bust. As far as Morning Impact goes I felt that with the move to Allen and my move back to Tennessee it would be best if we kept at least one thing the same, we used the tried and true favorites a decision that pulled together Morning Impact this year. Our tried and true favorites are the ball races (which Rubio won), the Puppet, The Impact O Matic (which I think has run its course), The random wheel, The Chewbacca videos, Flannel Board theatre, Dr. Kobra, Patrick Chapel/ Mr. T etc.... Next year I think we will try some new stuff. As far as the move goes to Allen arena, of course there where some initial growing pains. This was the first year we were working with an entirely new ETS production crew, the light, sound, and stage guys. We had a rough start as they were getting used to us and we were getting used to them. For years we had the same crew who was used to our unscripted style. After a few days we were on the same page and things came together. Special shout out to Jamie Shanklin, star of the "Chewbacca trilogy" and ETS they helped us a whole lot. As I reflect on what was last week I think about how the skit really nailed the theme the last night. All week the skit was really just about moving the story to the last night to the Pharaoh’s tomb as Dave Clayton carried a torch in from the back (that was a great moment as the curtain revealed the new set). By design there really was not much to the skit leading up to that point. I really felt like the skits were not connecting till the last night when it all came together. It was really tough to have to explain to the campers that we had a plan for the skit. Of course some of the campers never noticed the skits were lagging but I did. I admit I did not really care for my character "The Shadow" as I have always played the weird character, like the Wolf or Old man, Col. Mustard etc... not the "straight laced guy", but I eventually grew to like the role . The absolute best thing about this week was just hanging out with Skid, Rubes, Jon and now Dave Clayton. Dave Clayton is new to the board and is campus minister at Lipscomb, he has a strong connection with the students and I can see why, he is great. We had a blast behind the scenes all week. Those guys may just be my favorite (non family category) people on earth. I cannot tell you how empty the night after Impact is. I sent Rubes and Skid a text simply wishing we were still there. I really miss hanging with those guys, just as I am sure you miss the friends you met. So here it was Impact 2007, Skid getting hit in the face time after time with the beach balls, Zack the abolitionists, the guys collecting money for the unfortunate girl, Walling and Don at their absolute best, Mitch, and Wiley (who gave us his entire week at senior although he did not speak) speaking at Junior Impact and hitting home runs, great worship with Jon Owen, no concerts to skip out on at night, Henry Cho and his comedy/ scathing of a heckler, a guy named Dallas, the Nobility, Family Force Five, Lost and Found, and Through the Glass rocking Impact, and last but not least president Lowry bending over backwards to make 07 a banner year. I am not sure how the Mighty ranks, that usually takes more reflection than 10 hours, but I can say it was a great year. In fact as I update this days later I already think "man The Mighty may have been one of the best". As far as 2008 who knows? I am already looking forward to many nights and days of preparation, as our meetings are half the fun.
p.s. after seeing the petition signed by 216 people Power Force One may just have to return.