My journey to Impact...

Five years or so ago, I decided to stick around Fort Smith and attend the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.  Partly for the campus ministry that I knew would grow, but also because it was free.  That spring our new campus minister Shane Hughes took us to a campus ministry conference at Oklahoma State University.  There I met my future boss and youth director Dennis, who told me all about interning at Impact during the summer.  My first summer in college I was forced to stay and take summer classes, which was dismal and boring.

Another year passed, and I knew I needed to something related to ministry just because I'd always considered doing some sort of ministry.  Spring Break that year, we went to Abilene on a Spring Break Campaign to work with the New Life Church in Abilene.  New Life is a church that is similar to Impact, and working with them only increased my excitement for the summer. I couldn't wait to get the summer started after that trip.

My first summer at Impact I worked with middle school, which made me hesitant at first knowing that middle schoolers were impossible.  We got to take the kids to New Mexico to work with a church, and to one of my favorite places, Camp of the Hills.  In the weeks we were in town, we spent time doing small groups, service projects, attending area wide youth events, and other fun things around town.  It was a rewarding and challenging summer, I had moments of joy when a kid would just be like Jesus standing in front of me.  Other times, I would have to break up a fight, or discover one of my kids was pregnant.

The past two summers, I have worked with our high school group at Impact.  Which is the group I will primarily working with full-time in the future.  In the summers, we take our kids to camps like Camp of the Hills, Wilderness Trek in Colorado, and to work with another inner city church in Tulsa.  We do many service projects and small groups throughout the weeks that we are in Houston.  Our high school is such a fun group to be with, and a group that serves and loves each other deeply, and I am blessed to be a part of it.

I am excited to continue working with my kids at Impact, and showing them more and more about Jesus and what it means to be a Christian in the world they live in.  In doing this I know that I will be the one who discovers Jesus probably more than they will.  I have seen and will continue to see Jesus in their eyes and in the hearts.

Grace and Peace,

John