Impact 2009 ramblings from the last day
For the past 18 years. I have dreaded this day. Much like a kid who has unwraped all of his Christmas presents as the morning he had looked forward to for months is now over. It is Saturday and all that is left of Impact 2009, is the long task of taking down the memories that had cemented themsleves in our minds for the past two weeks.
I woke up early to take care of some plans for the Fall. I don't think I have ever been awake before ten in the morning on the last day before. I stumbled out of the room, made my long phone call and went about the business of gathering the many items like my sunglasses, Polcemans hat, and all the costumes and props that were spread across campus. Walking across the seemingly empty campus that had seemed so alive the proceeding day, is a bit of a depressing ritual. I was watching as bus load after bus load of campers rolled away.As I entered Allen Arena I watched and provided (very little) help to the take down crew. I assembled the signs, and props I was taking back to Columbia. I said goodbye to the dozens of people who help set up Impact, the roadies, ETS crew, and staff, sometimes knowing that in spite of good intentions to keep in touch that I would not see most of them for another 51 weeks. It was the mixed emotion I am used to. Many of the roadies, our college and high school students who volunteer to work at Impact, were upset. More then a few tears were shed on their part. However, I was exhausted. Knowing that the long nights of staying up until 4 in the morning were over for now, was a relief. I am truly starting to feel my age. Our roadies were wonderful again. They have become as vital to Impact as any of our security, counselors, or board members. Congrats to you roadies, job well done! I always enjoy giving them a hard time, laughing and joking with that little tight knit crew. Darren and Amy, great job, you should be proud of your team.
I bounced back and forth from the now empty Impact Central to other spots on campus. I remembered the awful news from North Atlanta and I thought about my family. I hope everyone continues to pray for Justin and Brett as they minister to those teens.
I made my last visit to the now empty stage. A stage that had been my home away from home, once bustling with activity and vibrant with the wonderful set my friend David Skidmore had created. Memories of Morning Impact flooded the senses. I had visions of Bears on Bicycles, Joke Telling Patrick, Creature's delievering mail, the Yodeling Skunk, an NFL quaterback, a thousand teens doing the "Cupid Shuffle," hissing from the Impact crowd, beach balls bouncing across the arena, and the passion of David Rubio. These memories will fade over time but will not vanish. Another year of "Morning Impact" in the books. It provided some classic moments that will become Impact legend. I am not sure if people realize how hard it is to entertain 2700 campers. I realize there are funnier people in the crowd and that is a burden. The junior highers are so fun, but the high schoolers are so different. We just never know how they will react to our endless hours of work. It will be a challenge Skid, Rubes and I fully accept to make Morning Impact fresh and fun for even those tough high school critics in the future. Overall however all I have to say is Bear + Bicyle equals...well you know.
So the tradition of packing up to leave was in full gear. The painfully exhausting task of moving suitcase and box to truck and repeat took almost an hour. Having to pack for a family of five makes for a full vehicle. My annual visits from Paul Skidmore and David Driver happened like clockwork, as each provided me DVD's of the videos and the skits from the week. I cannot tell you how truly grateful I am to these two men who do an incredible job capturing Impact on camera. Also thanks to Micheal Reed and Joey Robertson who do a great deal of work as well. I took a large poster from the walls of Allen Arena advertising "Grimaldi's Carnival" our skit plotline for the week, and I remembered another year for the skit which becomes more involved and over the top every year. I remembered watching Robert Lindsey, Amy Estep, Haley Todd, Wes Duncan, Jon Shoulders, and others in costume sing in the dark behind the closed curtains during the worship on the last nights of Junior and Senior Impact. I thought back to the 8:30 a.m. daily meetings in the Media Room where I wearily went through the events of that days skit with the cast. I remembered with a great deal of joy the crowd screaming and cheering, gasping and empathizing as the story unfolded. At both weeks end on the last night I thought back to how intense I became before making my way to the stage to play my little part in the skit. This years cast was fabulous. I want to thank our "newbies" Amy and Robert, Jordan and Wes who did a great job and I am certain will be a part of our team in the future, Lord willing. I cannot fail to mention Walt and Madeline who provided our storytime part of the play. They were probably the best two actors we had. I also am thankful for our tech guys like Dan, "Big Nasty", Alec, and Zach. They play the behind the scenes parts of our unfolding drama and all the other stage events for the week.
So I came to the final tradition of the week, the board lunch at Blue Coast Burito. I missed the turn off Thompson Lane again and did the yearly U-turn. Chaotic as usual, due to the large amount of Impact children the luch was bitter sweet. I sat down next to Skid and Wes Duncan and we went through our memories of the week and said our goodbyes. I thank God for my Impact family. These men and women are more than a board we are a family. I watched Steve Davidson, our leader/ father. I saw the bags under his eyes, and the look of satisfaction as this thing he helped start 18 years ago was once again closing. Of course he still had hours of work ahead of him. His compassion, leadership, and mentoring can never ever be measured.
And so with those goodbyes I climbed into my truck with three little boys in tow, and headed home. The year before I remember the feeling I had, the feeling of relief, but this year it was different. It is hard to explain. For the first 16 years of Impact that sad feeling of the end of Impact was almost comforting. I did not have it the year before, and I missed it. This year I was truly sad and that was a good thing. I will miss my friends. Hanging out with people like Rubio, Jon, Chris Harrell, Clayton, Skid, Patrick, our video crew and others for those 10 days is the highlight of my year. I was thankful I was sad. It was a return to the normal feeling of loss I had had so often before.
On the drive home I took the time as two worn out kids slept and one kid played his DS quietly to remember some other highlights. There was the incredible Baseball game where those inner city kids were stunned as 1500 screaming fans flooded the stadium to cheer them on. Thank you Brent High for all of your work. There was the unbelievable response of the campers to my wife Amanda's charity "Best Buddies". We raised nearly $11,000 to bring relationship to mentaly challenged kids who will now have freinds outside of their famlies. I cannot thank you guys enough. With all the awesome things at Impact 2009 it was hard to say what was the most awesome, but It had to be the the multiple baptisms our group had, including the baptism of my nephew, and his courage to come forward before anyone else standing on stage at Junior Impact before 1200 people. I pray that I can be a bigger influence in his life.So I pulled into Columbia at 1:30. I gave Battle, Brock, and Brewer some much needed attention and then at 2:30 I slept for five hours.
When I woke up I was still missing Impact so I ran 6 miles. The one part of Impact I hate is the weight I gain. So naturaly I took the kids out for ice cream, then put them to bed and started this note. I will mow the yard tommorow. I will wake up for church in the morning and still miss you all. But now the fun part starts, dreaming up next years theme. Thanks to everyone I did not mention before like Walter, Shana, Jim Cox, the other board members, speakers and Jeremy Swindle, and Lord willing I will see you at Impact 2010.
I woke up early to take care of some plans for the Fall. I don't think I have ever been awake before ten in the morning on the last day before. I stumbled out of the room, made my long phone call and went about the business of gathering the many items like my sunglasses, Polcemans hat, and all the costumes and props that were spread across campus. Walking across the seemingly empty campus that had seemed so alive the proceeding day, is a bit of a depressing ritual. I was watching as bus load after bus load of campers rolled away.As I entered Allen Arena I watched and provided (very little) help to the take down crew. I assembled the signs, and props I was taking back to Columbia. I said goodbye to the dozens of people who help set up Impact, the roadies, ETS crew, and staff, sometimes knowing that in spite of good intentions to keep in touch that I would not see most of them for another 51 weeks. It was the mixed emotion I am used to. Many of the roadies, our college and high school students who volunteer to work at Impact, were upset. More then a few tears were shed on their part. However, I was exhausted. Knowing that the long nights of staying up until 4 in the morning were over for now, was a relief. I am truly starting to feel my age. Our roadies were wonderful again. They have become as vital to Impact as any of our security, counselors, or board members. Congrats to you roadies, job well done! I always enjoy giving them a hard time, laughing and joking with that little tight knit crew. Darren and Amy, great job, you should be proud of your team.
I bounced back and forth from the now empty Impact Central to other spots on campus. I remembered the awful news from North Atlanta and I thought about my family. I hope everyone continues to pray for Justin and Brett as they minister to those teens.
I made my last visit to the now empty stage. A stage that had been my home away from home, once bustling with activity and vibrant with the wonderful set my friend David Skidmore had created. Memories of Morning Impact flooded the senses. I had visions of Bears on Bicycles, Joke Telling Patrick, Creature's delievering mail, the Yodeling Skunk, an NFL quaterback, a thousand teens doing the "Cupid Shuffle," hissing from the Impact crowd, beach balls bouncing across the arena, and the passion of David Rubio. These memories will fade over time but will not vanish. Another year of "Morning Impact" in the books. It provided some classic moments that will become Impact legend. I am not sure if people realize how hard it is to entertain 2700 campers. I realize there are funnier people in the crowd and that is a burden. The junior highers are so fun, but the high schoolers are so different. We just never know how they will react to our endless hours of work. It will be a challenge Skid, Rubes and I fully accept to make Morning Impact fresh and fun for even those tough high school critics in the future. Overall however all I have to say is Bear + Bicyle equals...well you know.
So the tradition of packing up to leave was in full gear. The painfully exhausting task of moving suitcase and box to truck and repeat took almost an hour. Having to pack for a family of five makes for a full vehicle. My annual visits from Paul Skidmore and David Driver happened like clockwork, as each provided me DVD's of the videos and the skits from the week. I cannot tell you how truly grateful I am to these two men who do an incredible job capturing Impact on camera. Also thanks to Micheal Reed and Joey Robertson who do a great deal of work as well. I took a large poster from the walls of Allen Arena advertising "Grimaldi's Carnival" our skit plotline for the week, and I remembered another year for the skit which becomes more involved and over the top every year. I remembered watching Robert Lindsey, Amy Estep, Haley Todd, Wes Duncan, Jon Shoulders, and others in costume sing in the dark behind the closed curtains during the worship on the last nights of Junior and Senior Impact. I thought back to the 8:30 a.m. daily meetings in the Media Room where I wearily went through the events of that days skit with the cast. I remembered with a great deal of joy the crowd screaming and cheering, gasping and empathizing as the story unfolded. At both weeks end on the last night I thought back to how intense I became before making my way to the stage to play my little part in the skit. This years cast was fabulous. I want to thank our "newbies" Amy and Robert, Jordan and Wes who did a great job and I am certain will be a part of our team in the future, Lord willing. I cannot fail to mention Walt and Madeline who provided our storytime part of the play. They were probably the best two actors we had. I also am thankful for our tech guys like Dan, "Big Nasty", Alec, and Zach. They play the behind the scenes parts of our unfolding drama and all the other stage events for the week.
So I came to the final tradition of the week, the board lunch at Blue Coast Burito. I missed the turn off Thompson Lane again and did the yearly U-turn. Chaotic as usual, due to the large amount of Impact children the luch was bitter sweet. I sat down next to Skid and Wes Duncan and we went through our memories of the week and said our goodbyes. I thank God for my Impact family. These men and women are more than a board we are a family. I watched Steve Davidson, our leader/ father. I saw the bags under his eyes, and the look of satisfaction as this thing he helped start 18 years ago was once again closing. Of course he still had hours of work ahead of him. His compassion, leadership, and mentoring can never ever be measured.
And so with those goodbyes I climbed into my truck with three little boys in tow, and headed home. The year before I remember the feeling I had, the feeling of relief, but this year it was different. It is hard to explain. For the first 16 years of Impact that sad feeling of the end of Impact was almost comforting. I did not have it the year before, and I missed it. This year I was truly sad and that was a good thing. I will miss my friends. Hanging out with people like Rubio, Jon, Chris Harrell, Clayton, Skid, Patrick, our video crew and others for those 10 days is the highlight of my year. I was thankful I was sad. It was a return to the normal feeling of loss I had had so often before.
On the drive home I took the time as two worn out kids slept and one kid played his DS quietly to remember some other highlights. There was the incredible Baseball game where those inner city kids were stunned as 1500 screaming fans flooded the stadium to cheer them on. Thank you Brent High for all of your work. There was the unbelievable response of the campers to my wife Amanda's charity "Best Buddies". We raised nearly $11,000 to bring relationship to mentaly challenged kids who will now have freinds outside of their famlies. I cannot thank you guys enough. With all the awesome things at Impact 2009 it was hard to say what was the most awesome, but It had to be the the multiple baptisms our group had, including the baptism of my nephew, and his courage to come forward before anyone else standing on stage at Junior Impact before 1200 people. I pray that I can be a bigger influence in his life.So I pulled into Columbia at 1:30. I gave Battle, Brock, and Brewer some much needed attention and then at 2:30 I slept for five hours.
When I woke up I was still missing Impact so I ran 6 miles. The one part of Impact I hate is the weight I gain. So naturaly I took the kids out for ice cream, then put them to bed and started this note. I will mow the yard tommorow. I will wake up for church in the morning and still miss you all. But now the fun part starts, dreaming up next years theme. Thanks to everyone I did not mention before like Walter, Shana, Jim Cox, the other board members, speakers and Jeremy Swindle, and Lord willing I will see you at Impact 2010.
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