IMPACT & ME

Each year, we take our IMPACT team through a 2 day debriefing process at the end of the IMPACT Trip. The purpose of this time is to help students (and us as leaders) to be able to process through all that we have heard, seen and learned during what normally is a very intense and exhausting experience before returning home.

During this debriefing time, we take time to review our entire IMPACT experience and think through the things that jumped out to us most from the trip. These "snapshots" can be people that we met, experiences that we had or themes that developed in our hearts. Then the goal is to use these snapshots to help each student be able to sum up their entire experience in one, clear, concise sentence. Although an IMPACT experience can never be done justice by sharing just one sentence, it's very valuable for students to try and put into words their experience even if/when words don't seem to do the experience justice.

Here were my Top 3 SNAPSHOTS from this year's IMPACT Trip ...

(1) Estella (the 14 year-old demon possessed girl who gave her life to Christ the final night we were in Mexico). Through her I saw first hand a miracle and was reminded that nothing is impossible with God. Faith is the ingredient that makes what seems impossible, possible. Matthew 17:20 - “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."

(2) We are in a spiritual war that needs spiritual warriors that are properly armed for the battle we face. I learned the value and necessity of preparation. I believe that we saw spiritual victory because we had spent tons of time before the trip arming ourselves for battle. See Ephesians 6:10-18. I also learned ...

• the importance of and power in daily covering ourselves with the blood of Christ. Revelation 12:11

• that some spiritual victories only come by prayer and fasting. Mark 9:28-29

(3) The Greatest thing I can give as a spiritual leader is my own intimacy with Christ. Dwight Robertson, president of KBM, once said "the greatest gift you can give to the world is your intimacy with Christ." Throughout the 6 months of leading this team, this may be the greatest thing that I learned. I don't need to try and be someone I'm not. In fact, to try to be someone other than who God has made me to be would be an insult to God himself who created and wired me to lead uniquely in the way that he has designed me. A revelation I had on the trip was that throughout the preparation process and the trip itself, the things that most stuck with students that I had shared with the team were those things that had been birthed out of my own times of getting away and getting alone with God.

My one sentence to sum up my entire IMPACT experience: When we are properly armed for battle in the war that is being waged all around us, the impossible becomes possible with God. "No human wisdom or understanding or plan can stand against the Lord. The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord" (Proverbs 21:30-31). "Jesus looked at them intently and said, 'Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God" (Mark 10:27).