 Impact 2000
Reflections by Coreen - aged 15 1/14/01 |
| Impact 2000 was good because it brought thousands
of people who love the Lord, who wanted to get to know Him or needed to grow spiritually,
together. It was amazing to see young people and young adults praise the Lord and
see so many people accept Christ through their witness. At first, I was upset.
I knew about Impact, my aunt, parents and godmother had been raving about it for
quite awhile and I assumed that this year they would be going along with my sister, and I
would stay with my grandparents or something for the week. However, when my parents
told me that I had to go too, I was not excited at all. We would be leaving the day
after Christmas, by plane and we would be gone for all of my school vacation. I
really didn't want to go at all. However, I ended up going. When we got there
I decided to just make the best of the situation and try to get something out of it since
I was there. |
| I prayed and asked God to speak to
me that week, especially since recently I had reached a spiritual dry spot
and needed help. Now, I am so glad I was there. God really spoke
to me and I got a lot out of it. The music: the worship and praise was
hot! It was like going to a concert everyday, twice a day for a week.
You could dance and scream, like any other concert but for the Lord, which
was good. The speakers were wonderful. People such as James
White, Hayman Cross, Dr. Rene Rochester and a lot more speakers gave some
powerful messages. Before I went I was also a little concerned about being one of the only high schoolers coming from Boston and expected there to be barely any other teens there, but I was wrong. There were a lot of high school students there. Even though we were singled out in bright yellow high school tags which let anyone with eyes date us, we weren't alone, so we got over it. That week we fellowshipped a lot, made some new friends and had a chance to witness. |
| On Saturday, we had an outreach ministry when everyone split into groups to go witness in different ways and different places in Atlanta. The high schoolers were sent to the projects to hand out flyers for a program we sponsored at a local church and also witnessed door to door. Others went witnessing on the street, basketball courts, wherever. Anyway, we had a program with some music, food and a message from 2 members from a Christian rap group, Cross Movement who also performed all week. At the end of the program there was an altar call and 10 people came to Christ including a woman with her numerous children and gang banger. It was very emotional, the whole week was. Many tears were shed. |
| I got very little sleep that week! Chillin', socializing, meeting people and putting on mini-concerts featuring TBC's (Twelfth Baptist Church) own Felix Mwangi until 3:00 in the morning was very tiring, but I was never too tired to praise the Lord. In short, the week was phenomenal and I'm so glad I went and can only encourage young people, let's say sophomores in high school and up to join us in 2002 in Washington, D.C. I hope to see you there! |