DAY 7- Thursday!

Wasup, bro! Its Noah comin from the campus of Lipscomb University in Nashville,Tennessee.

IMPACT is amazing!!!!! the worship is insanely awesome, the amount of people here is huge. the pump music is awesome and me and Derek have been jamin to it as a team. my first ever self-led devo happened last night in our little devo room. i played a little Nine-square and some basketball and some frisbee. Havig met a few people, I've made some friends. I've also been kickin it with Tyler, Audery and Hanna. We're bestie's. as i write this, cole and miles and mckenna are messing a round next to me and Katie and Ethan are hangin out. the food is great, but the lines are endless. everybody is hangin out some a dat IMPACT lovin' and everything is just amazing. i feel truly blessed by the Father to be here.
the mini rve sessions to get us uber-pumped before we begin evening impact are so much fun!!!! i have to say that i may be a little tire but it is amazing and awesome to be here. see y'all later!! Shout out to my Not-so Big sister Leyna. i miss you so much but i want you to know im having lots of fun and am thinking of you. love you,SIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah i almost forgot, MIAMI HEAT FTW YEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BOOOOOOOIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   BTW, my prayers and thoughts go out to the Satterlee family wuth the loss of their son, Bradley. God BLESS.

Day 6 - Wednesday!

Hey everybody! It's Audball here...

   Yesterday really rocked my world. It's hard to describe but bare with me as I try to put this all into words. The theme this year is about honoring God all the time, whether good or bad. It's about bringing glory to Him whatever the situation may be.

   My dad has always advised me to never become an "event Christian", and that phrase is constantly in the back of my head whenever I'm attending camps like this one. He emphasizes over and over again the importance of always having a spiritual focus, like the one you would have at camp, all the time and everyday. And though I hear it over and over, it's been one of my biggest struggles. I go home after camps like this in the summer and I'm home for a couple days then I leave again on some trip and I forget or don't put into practice the things I learned. The fire soon dies and I am back to my old routines. How is that bringing any glory or honor to God? Well frankly, it's not at all. How do we take the zeal and energy that we gain spiritually from a camp like this and use it in our 'real' lives? Where is the pursuit of Christ outside of camp? What an incredible theme! It's so tangible and easy to relate to, at least for me and I pray that it is also for everyone else involved.

   Last night we had the pleasure of listening to Dave Clayton give a sermon on Daniel 6. He spoke about how Daniel, no matter what it would cost him, decided to honor God. Daniel made a decision before the hardships came to honor God in whatever situation. Dave then went on to tell us how his dad once told him, "If you do not decide who you will be before you leave, someone else will decide in the midst of the chaos". What incredibly wise words! When we don't make a distinct decision of who we're going to be the devil steps in and it's like we just give him an easy open door to lead us down a destructive path. BUT! When we make a serious decision to honor God...
When we set up guardrails or lines we won't cross...
When we refuse to compromise, no matter what the circumstance...
When we understand the power of the pre-decision to follow Christ...

We will stand firm in the chaos that comes between the big events, the camps, the IMPACT events! 

Day 5 - Tuesday!

The first full day of IMPACT!

It's still amazing how intense (physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually) IMPACT is.  The messages are amazing, the worship glorifying, the classes are challenging, the heat is crushing and the fun is non-stop.  To watch the live feed yourself (every evening at 7:30pm MST) go to www.lipscomb.edu/live

Along with the usual craziness of IMPACT, we were encouraged to take "forced perspective" pictures and tweet them to the IMPACT Director as part of a contest.  Here are the two pics we sent:

COFFEE NINJAS

SPACE UNICORN FLYS TO URANUS
(Ethan came up with that name)

More to come!!

Day 4- Monday

Hey, this is Ethan! Yes Mom, it is actually me. So this post comes from a bit of a different perspective on the trip. This was actually day 10 for me. I can't even begin to describe how exciting it is to be with these guys again. It feels kind of weird, almost wrong, to be in Nashville without a horrifying van ride first. Haha, it almost seems like I missed the initiation.

I spent the previous week (the 8th through the 17th) in Atlanta, Georgia. Well, actually it was Marietta, but close enough. That was an awesome experience, and I had an amazing time. However, that has nothing to do with the IMPACT trip so I'm not going to dwell on it. On Monday I got a different perspective on the trip to Tennessee by traveling up rather than down. Also, it felt a bit sacrilege to travel in an actual bus rather than a sketchy overcrowded van.

I went over to meet JD's old youth group and travel with the Burnt Hickory Youth Ministry. I can't tell you how many times I was told this... "Oh, hi! You must be JonDavid's kid! I was wondering how one of them just happened to be in Georgia!" Don't get me wrong, it didn't bug me at all. I thought it was great! The people from BHYM were awesome to me and made me feel right at home. I slept most of the way, but they were great to me. We got a late start because the bus was late back to Georgia from Jr Impact. We finally rolled into the Lipscomb campus around 4:30. The Missoula group went to the zoo in my absence and I'll let someone else tell you all about that.

They got to the campus around the same time as me and we met up there. It was so great to meet up with them again. It was a little weird though to have a grown man jump out of a large van with a pink, furry steering wheel to give me a hug. But to each his (JD) own I suppose. I already said it multiple times, but I'll say it again. It is great to be back with some Montanans. I don't know what to expect for the rest of the week, or what to expect for the trip home but I can't wait.

JD:
It really was a strange and exciting moment to roll into the Lipscomb campus and reunite with Katie, then Ethan, then Tyler.  It felt like some kind of reunion, though we live in the same town.  Earlier that day, as Ethan said, we went to the zoo.  The pics speak for themselves....

Day 3 - Dad Fest!
On Sunday, after packing up our tents, scarfing down apple strudels, cinnamon rolls and yogurt, boarded the van and went to church!

Our plan was to attend Willow Creek Church, in Chicago, IL.  None of us knew what to expect in terms of size - I had simply stated that we were attending a mega-church.  Pulling into the parking lot was akin to going to the fair!

You can visit their website here:  http://www.willowcreek.org

There were thousands of people outside the complex, enjoying festivities for their Father's Day event, called "Dad Fest":  bungee-trampoline-jumping, fun-slides, dodgeball, golf driving-range, car show, motorcycle show, and every other Dad-ish thing you could hope for!  We had to park in a grassy median due to the lack of available parking, and the walk from our van to the building took over 15 minutes!

Once inside, we found our seats and the worship began.  As a tribute to Father's Day, the church had 50 dad's playing acoustic guitar on the stage.  Afterwards, Bill Hybels gave a fantastic lesson on the need for strong, manly, courageous fathers!  The entire service took over 2 hours.

After checking out some of the festivities, we boarded the van and took off for Chicago!

If you've never been to downtown Chicago, you must put it on your Bucket List!  Amazing architecture, large pieces of art, high-energy festivities, street-entertainment, corner preachers... an experience unlike any other!  We visited a small section of Millennium Park where we saw "the bean" (officially called Cloud Gate), a live symphony, and other artistic pieces.

The biggest drawback was the traffic, which (combined with the long church service) put us about two hours behind schedule.  We luckily had clear traffic all the way down to Kentucky where our host families waited for us.  We arrived at 10:30pm, safe, tired-but-excited, ready for a good night's sleep!

Day 2 - Saturday, June 15

WOW! These days have been crazy-busy!
Since we are so behind in our blogging, I figured I would catch up on the past few days with a general synopsis of each day...


DAY 2 - Saturday, June 15

At the Dybdal Farm, we went to sleep last night surrounded by strange skies and tornado warnings.  We wondered what the day ahead would be like, knowing we were traveling further into the predicted storm front.  I was personally worried that our day would not turn out as planned:  a hot-air balloon festival in Galena, Illinois.

On the way, we made a brief pit-stop at the Lansing Farm in Eastern Iowa, the film site for "Field of Dreams".  Their story is great, and you can check it out here:  http://www.fodmoviesite.com

Upon arriving in Galena, we immediately secured our tent-site and constructed our tents.  Sluggish at first, our weary travelers eventually shook off their lethargy and figured out the matrix of poles, flaps and zippers, and erected two impressive tents.

I then disconnected the trailer, loaded everyone up and transported them to the "The Event".  I was quite happy that while there seemed to be many people heading in the same direction, to the same event, we did not see any signage or postings that would spoil the surprise.  We eventually came to a field, labelled with a sign that simply stated "Event Parking", which prompted our people to ask, "What event?"

"You'll see." was all I gave them.  We boarded a bus and were transported to the launch site.  As soon as they saw the field, the crowd, the signs.... they freaked! "WHAT?  Are we riding a... a... balloon?!"

It would have been a perfect day - except for the weather.  Which, if you happen to be a balloon-pilot, is an important detail.

After several attempts to inflate and fly their balloons, we eventually came to the realization that the weather just would not cooperate.  Disappointed, we returned to our tents and retired for the night.

DAY 1 - Catherine Witt was pleasantly surprised today!

From the start, J.D. warned us the first day of the IMPACT drive would be one of the worst. If that is the case, I am so excited for this trip! We started off Thursday night, cramming into the van to avoid the rain and cold wind. Sleeping people tend to take up more space in the van when they sprawl out, and at the first stop, most of us limped around on bum legs. I cleverly avoided this issue by curling up in the fetal position in the aisle.



After everyone figured out sleeping in a van, we woke up at five in the morning to one of the prettiest sunrises ever. The trip just kept getting better. We were originally going to hike up to Mount Rushmore but the cost to park the van was really high, so we readied our cameras and took pictures as we drove through the parking lot.

Later, Noah, J.D., and I posed next to a giant statue of a prairie dog! I don't know why any place would celebrate prairie dogs, but we did our best impressions for the camera.

Last, we arrived at the Dybdal's ranch and were treated to a very delicious dinner. We settled in and saw an amazing sunset coupled with some sweet lightning.

All in all, it was a really good day. There was no bickering, everyone managed to get some sleep, and we are all excited for the rest of the trip!

IMPACT 2013 HAS BEGUN!

IMPACT...

That crazy little event held at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee.
The place where thousands of teenagers descend to worship, to learn, to play, to meet new people.
The one time of the year when Nashville decides to bring it's hottest weather.
The location for Power Force One, a bear on a bicycle, space unicorns, and Loki to all converge at once.
A place of transformation, of renewal, of deep conversation and new spiritual depths.

Once again the UpperRoom, the youth ministry of MVC, travels to Nashville to partake, to sing, to enjoy, to explore... this thing called IMPACT!

Please pray for us as we journey across the U.S., taking in the sights, the strangeness, the beauty of God's Creation, the uniqueness of His Kingdom.  We will visit churches, homes, national monuments, big city tributes, state parks, and even the surreal world of... well... you'll see.  Pray for our safety, our wisdom, our courage.  Pray that we shine the light of Christ, or that our young people re-examine their light-shine and make courageous decisions to perhaps shine brighter.

We will, once again, update our blog.
Students will write.
Pictures will be posted.

Thank you (especially you parents) for this opportunity!
God bless all of you in Missoula...
Grace & Peace...

J.D. Partain