The Impact Blog

I just watched Impact 2020 wrap up. It’s officially over. I can’t say I am happy. This one was a roller coaster. I have the same feeling I have every year driving back home, because even though it was different, it was still the same. A community, a family, my best friends in the world, and although there were far less of you here, I still got a little misty eyed driving home. And so this one’s gonna be different. I’m gonna tell you what happened, the whole story. This ones gonna be long. Every year a group of us meet to discuss what the Impact theme will be. Some potential themes get brought up and subsequently passed on for years, before we finally decide it’s time to use it. For example 2016’s Hyde was almost our theme for many, many years before we finally rolled with it. Well for the last five or six years, one of the potential themes has been a local television station. But with 2019’s “Bound”, which focused on the Psalms, and expressing ourselves to God, we finally ...

2019"Bound" So to quote Dr. Calvin Firth...“I have good news and I have bad news.” You might want to sit down for the bad news....... The bad news is that Impact 2019 is over. I drove away from campus around 10:50 on Saturday and I thought “this can’t be real? It’s not over already?” It was a unique feeling. I don’t think I have ever felt this way before leaving Impact. It was the first time I have felt this emotion in 28 years.. I felt disappointment, but also accomplishment, but mainly I was just stunned. It was like a dream that went by too fast. 364 days of dreaming. The vision that was “His Majesties Society of Explorers of Adventurers” comes to an end. And so last night I started dreaming about 2020 The Good news is.....this might rank among the greatest Impact ‘s ever. This theme was born on the first day of Impact 2018. So many of you ask me,” Where do these ideas come from?” Well let me tell you. The first day of 2018 LU Impact Dudley Chancey ...

27 years of skits.....we have come a long way since those early days of total impromptu craziness. Just some notes....in 1995, 96, 97, and 98 the skits were a simple pantomime deal. I would describe a story and our actors would play it out. In 96 we videoed all the skits but finished them on stage. Jon Shoulders, Jonathan Tucker, and Mike Shepherd were main stays in those early days. These were really there just to create "family" share a fun story that would involve inside jokes for everyone at the camp. In 99 we returned to the video skits. This was also the first year Skidmore joined Jon and I in the skit, and the first year I did not serve as the narrator but a character. In 2000-2003 the skits were still silly stories of good vs evil which featured inside jokes from the week. However in 02 Rubio joined the team. Then in 04 "This Mystery"  we realized the skits could be something more. It was still silly stuff but we actually were going somewhere with th...

Impact 2018 “Olly Olly Oxen Free” TODD N. LOYD · SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 2018 We play hide and seek all our lives, the game never changes just the players. Too bad many of us don’t understand Olly Olly Oxen Free. Grace is a thing. So step out, step out wherever you are, everyone is free. Today we are facing an epidemic of fear in our culture. This year Impact chose to confront the culture of fear and stare down worry, anxiety, guilt, and shame. We challenged our campers and everyone there to step out into the light. To step out and talk to someone, to set yourself free from the dark. I loaded up my old truck and headed off campus today around 10:45. It just did not feel right to listen to some sports talk jockey, or classic rock jam. So I grabbed my phone and downloaded “Reckless Love”. I’ve never been a Contemporary Christian music guy, but that song, that one song just felt like the right thing to hear. “Perfect love casts out fear”. It was the end of my 27th I...

So I am not sure why "bloger" insists to put the date of my initial post here but rest assured I do not have time travel ability. This was updated after Impact 2023 Every year on the last day of Impact I am asked one question more often than any other. "How would you compare this year to last year?" Those of you who attend a yearly camp understand this question. People don't necessarily want to know how you would literally rank that specific year, but they are really asking "how do you think this year went?"  However, as a guy who loves Impact and loves ranking things, I inevitably respond, "I don't know, it will take a little while for it to sink in". And by that response I mean, I will wait and sit here at my computer and actually give it serious thought. As I said I love listing things, and I don't ever take my listings lightly. Before I start, I want t to make this clear, Impact means nothing if it has no impact on the teen...