The Power of Impact

I saw history last weekend. It was a rare moment of insight which comes, at least for me, only when it is completely unexpected.  Standing in a room of about 100 middle school kids and adults it hit me in a flash.  They had all come to an event I have helped lead for the past 18 years. I saw what kind of difference can be made over a long obedience in a simple event designed to help 6th - 8th graders think about God. 

As I kicked off the Impact Retreat, I looked around to see Cassie, a former youth group member - one of those kids I love like a daughter.  She came to Impact as a camper and then as a high school leader.  Now she is back as a member of Won By One from Pepperdine.  She is  as a rock star in the eyes of these kids and helped lead them into worship. 

I saw Jordan who came to Impact as a 6th grader.  Years later he was my youth intern.  Now he is a peer in ministry and close friend.  He has been a powerful positive influence on my youth group as well as his.  This past summer he became a mentor to my own son, as he became Jordan's intern. 

I then looked down to see the sweet faces of new sixth graders whom I had never met before mixed in with those of  my own group who I barely knew two years ago.  These kids just make me smile whenever I see them.  They are a joy and drive me to stay in ministry  for the sake of their friendship and spiritual potential. 

I could see in a flash how quickly the years of Impact have passed.  It is a story which flashes by in my mind in an instant.  Yet, in it's telling it seems that countless lives are touched and shaped by the pweor of faith and the spirit of God.  I got the clear sense that I could never give my life to a better effort than this.

It snowed at Impact this year.  It really snowed!  That is something which never happened before, save a minor skiff about eight years ago, but this was different.  This was real snow that stuck and made everything white.  The kids laughed and threw snowballs and made a snowman and ate snow until it made some of them sick.  It was a palliate on which God painted many lasting memories, in ways He had never done before.  At the same time, it was just another small chapter in the Impact story He has been writing for the past eighteen years.

As I said, I saw history last weekend...and it was good.