ELEVATION
Elevation could easily be described as THE best thing ever. And that would be a huge understatement. So due to the fact that I got back 10 minutes ago and I miss Dalohnega (hehe), and all of your wonderful smiling faces already, I am going to give you all a full fledged description and summary of EVERYTHING on Elevation. It helps me cope with my Elevation Withdrawl.
So going into it, I was more pumped for this past week than I probably had ever been for anything in my life. We had some pretty sweet family members, and I was really looking forward to al of the events and names and skits and songs that everyone had worked SO hard to prepare. There were new leaders new students, and just amazing people to get to know and expand companionships with, which made me really excited. Some AWESOME new people I become good friends with included; Alli Bertke, Mark Bezney, JOHN BEZNEY, Jonah Douglas, NICOLE MACKEY, JON WHITE, and Noah Dzeidzic. I'm so unbelievably happy I got to know all of you guys and I really hope you all stop by at Vertical Impact on Wednesday nights. I am especially proud of my main man John Bezney for winning the Up and Comer Award, basically pronouncing him as the coolest new VI-er. The busride there certainly was long, and I got just about a wink of sleep.
DAY ONE- OPENING CEREMONIES
This day was basically a mass chill day, we really didn't do much apart from meeting and hanging with our fellow worshipers. We has our big photo and our funny headshots, followed by even more free time, which for me was an opportunity to practice our family skit. We had that weird spoon national follie, followed by the first Elevation worship, which was amazing to say the least. Aimee also gave a fantastic lesson.
DAY TWO- AQUATIC EVENTS
For this fun filled day, I was on "The Boat of Champions" which infact, consisted of 8 champions. Meredtih and Caroline Jackson, Me, Dan, Paley, Elliot, Spencer, and Dave. We had great big balls of Dahlonega fun. We had a shopping cart race at lunch, which was fun, dangerous, and painful. After lunch, Dan and I switched boats to Zach and Vicki's, who has Bryan Gorgeous, Jon Doran, and Mark Bezney. I tried water skiing, and got up first try, and has a blast doing that. Worship, again, was amazing, and Sara's lesson was truly empowering.
DAY THREE- SHARING THE SPIRIT OF THE GAMES
So day three was all about giving back, and each of the seven families had a service project. Ours personally was to go to a nursing home and help out, but others included renovating houses, building fences, and clean up condemned houses! Every single VI-er had to experience some kind of joy/happiness in working on these amazing projects, and all of us at he end of the day felt proud of a day of hard work. That night we had worship in the Gazebo, which was something I had looked forward to all week. We all took the 5 minute "hike" out to the Gazebo, and essentially had an acoustic worship up there. This night also was the first Elevation night where Stephanie and I sung without Dustin, which was nerveracking but fun. Kyle gave a lesson that night, and the amazing invitationals surely brought everyone to tears.
DAY FOUR- LET THE GAMES BEGIN
Ok, so today was the big basketball and cornhole day, which I was SUPER pumped about. To begin the day, were started out with about an hour of quiet time, which normally is enjoyable. I went on a walk with my "parents", Elliot and Paley, which was one of the things I really looked forward to going into Elevation. Last year I did it as well, and things like those just make me realize howmany people I have met in VI and how unbelievably important it is in my life. I love those 2 people. You can ask anyone in my family, I was PUMPED for basketball. I carbed up massivly at breakfast. Going into the day I had felt so positive about our future success in the basketball tournament, but those dreams were crushed in the first 2 rounds. 2 big losses. But, nevertheless, to the 1st and 2nd place teams...So was got 6th place in basketball, and 4th place in cornhole. Not too impressive. However our strife was soon cured with the hilarious skits that were taking place during worship that night.
1. AGO- David passing out for drinking too much red bull and Jon's nieghing when David was riding him was priceless.
2. ByGod'istan- Clearly the best skit, we had baby Jesus, Borat, AND Tiny Tim...c'mon please.
3. G-Unit- I very well conveyed play off of the last supper with Stefan as Jesus won over the people's hearts.
4. HOE- A very funny skit; included people like; Cletus and Vonda Lynn, The Whites, Doc and Jamaal, and Bubbles and Glittah. Hilarious
5. Kenya Dig Him- My personal favorite skit, Elliot truly surprised all people with his superb acting ability. This skit never ceased to make me laugh and was well written
6. (The) Master(s) Nation- The funny spin off of The Office, with perfectly matched characters- Chris as Dwight, Angie as Angela, Grant as Stanley, and Dan as Jim. Very funny.
7. USSR- They had a funny play off of Sex in the City, and Molly did a humerous job of narrating
Dustin delivered my favorite lesson of the retreat that night, and Trey and I sung Out Loud, and Drew and I sung Halelujah for invitationals, which was a first for me. After worship, I went with a group of people; Dan, Nicole, Karyn, Sarah, and Jon Bezney out to the Gazebo, and we just kindof layed in the grass and looked at the stars. This just amazed me in 2 ways; 1, I never have time at home to just slow down, and look at the stars, which is the beauty of Elevation, it takes you away from all of that. And 2, just all of the friends I have at VI, who are so very important to me. That moment was one I will always remember and cherish.
DAY FIVE- EQUESTRIAN, ROWING, AND CYCLING EVENTS
So I went whitewater rafting, which was pretty freaking awesome, excepting that we had to wake up at 6:15 to make the 6:45 bus, which Dan Angus (my supposed rafting buddy) didn't make. SO we arrived at rafting place, and everyone was frantically trying to find 4 people to have a boat with. My boat, which just happened to be the coolest boat, was with Caroline Jackson, Zach Rochon, and Kate Donovan. I had so much fun with this group of people, we had a leader named Richard, and the 5 of us were constantly cracking jokes and we seemed to be laughing the whole time. On top of that, no one fell off of the boat either, except Caroline, one time, which consequently was the time we ran her over with the rafting boat. Annie Gaburo also fell out of her raft one time and has to go down the rapids, without a boat. That night was my night off on Worship, so I really got to have to "worship experience" that I fell in love with in my first elevation, last year's "Hollywood". I really am glad I got this opportunity because it was amazing to feel the Elevation worship again. Lee gave an enthusiastic lesson that night, and everyone started realizing there was only one day left.
DAY SIX- THE GAMES
This was the last "real" day of Elevation, so everyone was bracing themselves to have a great day, to cherish every moment, and to make the best of it. We woke up, had a carb-filled breakfast for the big day, and made our way up to quiet time. We watched a short video, and made our way to our "quiet" spots to think and talk with God. I used this time to just think about my whole VI experience as a whole, which I will explain at the end of this blog. After this, I got my gloves from my room, and went down to the basketball courts for tug o' war. Zach pep-talked us telling us to always "lean back, and look at the sky". We ended up coming in 3rd in tug o' war, and consequently lost to the first and second place teams; HOE, and G-Unit. Our follie for that day was to build a newspaper towers, which did not work out very well for ByGod'istan. After lunch, we walked through the ever famous DECATHALON, and then strategized with our teams. We started with Lee's station, a zipped through that, excepting a not so graceful fall by yours truly on the final stretch of the relay. Keller's shoes that he lent me had absolutely no traction at all. We then had to wait for (The) Master(s) Nation to finish their hour + long affair at Peggy's station until we could go. We creativly got 22 nails on the head, to take 22 minutes off of our time. Even with that huge subtraction, we only got 3rd in the obstacle course, however it was better than last by "3" last year. After everyone finished the obstacle course, we had the "One World One Dream" banquet, a nice dinner served to you by the leaders. My table consisted of, Meredith, Caroline, Dan, Elizabeth, Stephanie, Michael, and Angie; sorry if I left anyone out! And our enthusiastic waiter was Kate; always eager to get us more food. Always laughing, and taking pictures were probably the main 2 things of this dinner. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and then we headed off to the final worship for Elevation. Everyone practically was in it, except it was Drew's night off. He gave the lesson for that night, which was amazing, and great. To finish off Elevation, me, Drew, and Dustin sung Psalm 118 as an invitational, and then Sam and I played/sung Love Song for a Savior, as the very last song on Elevation. This just showed me how much I had grown since Elevation last year. Everyone was sad and gloomy because Elevation was over, but the night was still young. I practically pulled an all nighter that last night as I realized how soft Nicole's hair was (haha nicole), and just had a great time to finish off Elevation.
DAY SEVEN- CLOSING CEREMONIES
I woke up after my 2ish hours of sleep, cleaned my room/guys lounge, and headed up to the medal ceremony. Lots of medals were awarded, I won won "Family Man" and was part of the "All-Star Family". I was really proud of Jon Bezney for winning "Up and Comer" award for it was his first experience with VI, and he already is a huge asset to this amazing ministry. After closing remarks, we hopped onto the bus and made our way home. I ate steak and shake for lunch with Elliot, Paley, LFD, and Kyle, and sat on the bus with Nicole and Elizabeth. We arrived back at the church, greeted our parents, and Elevation was over.
So guys, this Elevation marked my one year mark at Vertical Impact, and it has been one unbelievably amazing year. At all started with last Elevation , which Dan pretty much had to pull teeth to get me to go on. I thought it would be a weird camp with a bunch of creepy Christians. It was the exact opposite. I fell in love with the Worship, I had an unbelievable time, and met some pretty freaking amazing people. I started to come to VI for the rest of the summer, and basically started to rely on it as part of my regular schedule. If there were weeks I couldn't go, I would get sad and just not feel right. It completely grew on me, and you guys became my family away from my family. Phil during this time was constantly trying to get me to sing, but I was always to nervous of judgement from you guys and never wanted to do it. Then sometime in novemberish, Sam approached me and said that he was going to play one night, and it wouldn't feel right if I wasn't up there with him. I said yes, and if it wasnt for Sam, I may not be where I am at singing for the band. Singing for the band kindof "renewed" my faith and interest in VI to the Elevation level, and I really looked forward to it week by week. It was just so awesome being part of the band and really helping the worship aspect of VI. Its kindof like the saying "you never really know something until you have to teach it". Well i never really experienced worship until I had to give it. It was amazing, and I loved it so much. Ski retreat rolled around, my second retreat with VI. I loved that, and singing in it. Almost Elevation caliber.
Then, I kindof stopped going to VI on a weekly basis. I had the school Musical from December to February, and then club soccer from February to May. I went about 8 weeks without going to VI, and even after that I just came in spurts. After having VI as a part of my life and family and then not going on a regular basis, I felt like there was a huge hole in my life. Then, I came back, went to family meetings, got pumped for Elevation, and went on Elevation! I have absolutely no idea where I would be at in my life without Vertical Impact. It has brought so much to my life, and I have really changed as a person from it. Before VI, I really had no relationship at all with God, and now I am closer to him than ever. Before VI, I just had friends from Indian Hill, now, I have tons of friends from Mariemont, Madiera, X, and even colleges all over the US; i love you guys. Again, I don't know what I would do without VI, or where I would be or how I would be right now. It has brought sooo much into my life, and I love you guys a ton. Thanks Dan for bringing this amzing ministry into my life, and thank you Sam for having me start to sing. I might even try for an SL position this year.
I love you guys, and I miss you guys.
See you hopefully every wednesday this year!
-Alex
So going into it, I was more pumped for this past week than I probably had ever been for anything in my life. We had some pretty sweet family members, and I was really looking forward to al of the events and names and skits and songs that everyone had worked SO hard to prepare. There were new leaders new students, and just amazing people to get to know and expand companionships with, which made me really excited. Some AWESOME new people I become good friends with included; Alli Bertke, Mark Bezney, JOHN BEZNEY, Jonah Douglas, NICOLE MACKEY, JON WHITE, and Noah Dzeidzic. I'm so unbelievably happy I got to know all of you guys and I really hope you all stop by at Vertical Impact on Wednesday nights. I am especially proud of my main man John Bezney for winning the Up and Comer Award, basically pronouncing him as the coolest new VI-er. The busride there certainly was long, and I got just about a wink of sleep.
DAY ONE- OPENING CEREMONIES
This day was basically a mass chill day, we really didn't do much apart from meeting and hanging with our fellow worshipers. We has our big photo and our funny headshots, followed by even more free time, which for me was an opportunity to practice our family skit. We had that weird spoon national follie, followed by the first Elevation worship, which was amazing to say the least. Aimee also gave a fantastic lesson.
DAY TWO- AQUATIC EVENTS
For this fun filled day, I was on "The Boat of Champions" which infact, consisted of 8 champions. Meredtih and Caroline Jackson, Me, Dan, Paley, Elliot, Spencer, and Dave. We had great big balls of Dahlonega fun. We had a shopping cart race at lunch, which was fun, dangerous, and painful. After lunch, Dan and I switched boats to Zach and Vicki's, who has Bryan Gorgeous, Jon Doran, and Mark Bezney. I tried water skiing, and got up first try, and has a blast doing that. Worship, again, was amazing, and Sara's lesson was truly empowering.
DAY THREE- SHARING THE SPIRIT OF THE GAMES
So day three was all about giving back, and each of the seven families had a service project. Ours personally was to go to a nursing home and help out, but others included renovating houses, building fences, and clean up condemned houses! Every single VI-er had to experience some kind of joy/happiness in working on these amazing projects, and all of us at he end of the day felt proud of a day of hard work. That night we had worship in the Gazebo, which was something I had looked forward to all week. We all took the 5 minute "hike" out to the Gazebo, and essentially had an acoustic worship up there. This night also was the first Elevation night where Stephanie and I sung without Dustin, which was nerveracking but fun. Kyle gave a lesson that night, and the amazing invitationals surely brought everyone to tears.
DAY FOUR- LET THE GAMES BEGIN
Ok, so today was the big basketball and cornhole day, which I was SUPER pumped about. To begin the day, were started out with about an hour of quiet time, which normally is enjoyable. I went on a walk with my "parents", Elliot and Paley, which was one of the things I really looked forward to going into Elevation. Last year I did it as well, and things like those just make me realize howmany people I have met in VI and how unbelievably important it is in my life. I love those 2 people. You can ask anyone in my family, I was PUMPED for basketball. I carbed up massivly at breakfast. Going into the day I had felt so positive about our future success in the basketball tournament, but those dreams were crushed in the first 2 rounds. 2 big losses. But, nevertheless, to the 1st and 2nd place teams...So was got 6th place in basketball, and 4th place in cornhole. Not too impressive. However our strife was soon cured with the hilarious skits that were taking place during worship that night.
1. AGO- David passing out for drinking too much red bull and Jon's nieghing when David was riding him was priceless.
2. ByGod'istan- Clearly the best skit, we had baby Jesus, Borat, AND Tiny Tim...c'mon please.
3. G-Unit- I very well conveyed play off of the last supper with Stefan as Jesus won over the people's hearts.
4. HOE- A very funny skit; included people like; Cletus and Vonda Lynn, The Whites, Doc and Jamaal, and Bubbles and Glittah. Hilarious
5. Kenya Dig Him- My personal favorite skit, Elliot truly surprised all people with his superb acting ability. This skit never ceased to make me laugh and was well written
6. (The) Master(s) Nation- The funny spin off of The Office, with perfectly matched characters- Chris as Dwight, Angie as Angela, Grant as Stanley, and Dan as Jim. Very funny.
7. USSR- They had a funny play off of Sex in the City, and Molly did a humerous job of narrating
Dustin delivered my favorite lesson of the retreat that night, and Trey and I sung Out Loud, and Drew and I sung Halelujah for invitationals, which was a first for me. After worship, I went with a group of people; Dan, Nicole, Karyn, Sarah, and Jon Bezney out to the Gazebo, and we just kindof layed in the grass and looked at the stars. This just amazed me in 2 ways; 1, I never have time at home to just slow down, and look at the stars, which is the beauty of Elevation, it takes you away from all of that. And 2, just all of the friends I have at VI, who are so very important to me. That moment was one I will always remember and cherish.
DAY FIVE- EQUESTRIAN, ROWING, AND CYCLING EVENTS
So I went whitewater rafting, which was pretty freaking awesome, excepting that we had to wake up at 6:15 to make the 6:45 bus, which Dan Angus (my supposed rafting buddy) didn't make. SO we arrived at rafting place, and everyone was frantically trying to find 4 people to have a boat with. My boat, which just happened to be the coolest boat, was with Caroline Jackson, Zach Rochon, and Kate Donovan. I had so much fun with this group of people, we had a leader named Richard, and the 5 of us were constantly cracking jokes and we seemed to be laughing the whole time. On top of that, no one fell off of the boat either, except Caroline, one time, which consequently was the time we ran her over with the rafting boat. Annie Gaburo also fell out of her raft one time and has to go down the rapids, without a boat. That night was my night off on Worship, so I really got to have to "worship experience" that I fell in love with in my first elevation, last year's "Hollywood". I really am glad I got this opportunity because it was amazing to feel the Elevation worship again. Lee gave an enthusiastic lesson that night, and everyone started realizing there was only one day left.
DAY SIX- THE GAMES
This was the last "real" day of Elevation, so everyone was bracing themselves to have a great day, to cherish every moment, and to make the best of it. We woke up, had a carb-filled breakfast for the big day, and made our way up to quiet time. We watched a short video, and made our way to our "quiet" spots to think and talk with God. I used this time to just think about my whole VI experience as a whole, which I will explain at the end of this blog. After this, I got my gloves from my room, and went down to the basketball courts for tug o' war. Zach pep-talked us telling us to always "lean back, and look at the sky". We ended up coming in 3rd in tug o' war, and consequently lost to the first and second place teams; HOE, and G-Unit. Our follie for that day was to build a newspaper towers, which did not work out very well for ByGod'istan. After lunch, we walked through the ever famous DECATHALON, and then strategized with our teams. We started with Lee's station, a zipped through that, excepting a not so graceful fall by yours truly on the final stretch of the relay. Keller's shoes that he lent me had absolutely no traction at all. We then had to wait for (The) Master(s) Nation to finish their hour + long affair at Peggy's station until we could go. We creativly got 22 nails on the head, to take 22 minutes off of our time. Even with that huge subtraction, we only got 3rd in the obstacle course, however it was better than last by "3" last year. After everyone finished the obstacle course, we had the "One World One Dream" banquet, a nice dinner served to you by the leaders. My table consisted of, Meredith, Caroline, Dan, Elizabeth, Stephanie, Michael, and Angie; sorry if I left anyone out! And our enthusiastic waiter was Kate; always eager to get us more food. Always laughing, and taking pictures were probably the main 2 things of this dinner. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and then we headed off to the final worship for Elevation. Everyone practically was in it, except it was Drew's night off. He gave the lesson for that night, which was amazing, and great. To finish off Elevation, me, Drew, and Dustin sung Psalm 118 as an invitational, and then Sam and I played/sung Love Song for a Savior, as the very last song on Elevation. This just showed me how much I had grown since Elevation last year. Everyone was sad and gloomy because Elevation was over, but the night was still young. I practically pulled an all nighter that last night as I realized how soft Nicole's hair was (haha nicole), and just had a great time to finish off Elevation.
DAY SEVEN- CLOSING CEREMONIES
I woke up after my 2ish hours of sleep, cleaned my room/guys lounge, and headed up to the medal ceremony. Lots of medals were awarded, I won won "Family Man" and was part of the "All-Star Family". I was really proud of Jon Bezney for winning "Up and Comer" award for it was his first experience with VI, and he already is a huge asset to this amazing ministry. After closing remarks, we hopped onto the bus and made our way home. I ate steak and shake for lunch with Elliot, Paley, LFD, and Kyle, and sat on the bus with Nicole and Elizabeth. We arrived back at the church, greeted our parents, and Elevation was over.
So guys, this Elevation marked my one year mark at Vertical Impact, and it has been one unbelievably amazing year. At all started with last Elevation , which Dan pretty much had to pull teeth to get me to go on. I thought it would be a weird camp with a bunch of creepy Christians. It was the exact opposite. I fell in love with the Worship, I had an unbelievable time, and met some pretty freaking amazing people. I started to come to VI for the rest of the summer, and basically started to rely on it as part of my regular schedule. If there were weeks I couldn't go, I would get sad and just not feel right. It completely grew on me, and you guys became my family away from my family. Phil during this time was constantly trying to get me to sing, but I was always to nervous of judgement from you guys and never wanted to do it. Then sometime in novemberish, Sam approached me and said that he was going to play one night, and it wouldn't feel right if I wasn't up there with him. I said yes, and if it wasnt for Sam, I may not be where I am at singing for the band. Singing for the band kindof "renewed" my faith and interest in VI to the Elevation level, and I really looked forward to it week by week. It was just so awesome being part of the band and really helping the worship aspect of VI. Its kindof like the saying "you never really know something until you have to teach it". Well i never really experienced worship until I had to give it. It was amazing, and I loved it so much. Ski retreat rolled around, my second retreat with VI. I loved that, and singing in it. Almost Elevation caliber.
Then, I kindof stopped going to VI on a weekly basis. I had the school Musical from December to February, and then club soccer from February to May. I went about 8 weeks without going to VI, and even after that I just came in spurts. After having VI as a part of my life and family and then not going on a regular basis, I felt like there was a huge hole in my life. Then, I came back, went to family meetings, got pumped for Elevation, and went on Elevation! I have absolutely no idea where I would be at in my life without Vertical Impact. It has brought so much to my life, and I have really changed as a person from it. Before VI, I really had no relationship at all with God, and now I am closer to him than ever. Before VI, I just had friends from Indian Hill, now, I have tons of friends from Mariemont, Madiera, X, and even colleges all over the US; i love you guys. Again, I don't know what I would do without VI, or where I would be or how I would be right now. It has brought sooo much into my life, and I love you guys a ton. Thanks Dan for bringing this amzing ministry into my life, and thank you Sam for having me start to sing. I might even try for an SL position this year.
I love you guys, and I miss you guys.
See you hopefully every wednesday this year!
-Alex
posted by Alex Sneider at
5:32 PM
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