Ichthus!!!

Oh my goodness! I can’t even begin to describe what an incredible time I had at Ichthus! It was sooooo amazing!!!

When I think of Ichthus, I think of—music, bands, heat, rain, Chick-fil-a, porta potties…

Well, I guess I’ll begin with Wed. night when we went and saw our first concerts of the week. We went to get our wristbands, then went to see some bands. We were sooooo excited! This is Gabriel, Jacqui, and me in the truck on the way down—we could hardly contain ourselves!!!


The first full concert we saw was Ocean is Theory. They were so good, and we got a $3 CD (woo hoo!). This is a picture of Jacqui and me with them.


Next was Mile 7. It was so funny because during their concert, two guys from the band Our Hero’s End stood beside us and danced the whole time. They were hilarious and I laughed very much.

So Thursday morning was the big day—the first official day of Ichthus. My dad dropped Jacqui and me off and we were just going to see what was going on and meet up with my cousin Chelsey. But the first people we saw were some of our friends from the band Nineball! We went over and talked for a second and found out when they were playing, then as we walked on we ran into Chelsey. We went and talked to her, then the other two members of Nineball came over and hugged us and said hi, and we were just so excited to see everyone!
We saw so many bands that I can’t even remember all of them. And of course, we didn’t always stay through the whole concert, just parts of many. Some of those we saw Thursday morning were Finding Favor, Good Morning Gladys, Sons of Thunder, Abandon, and Our Hero’s End. Then (of course) it began to rain. It had been drizzling for a while, but concerts were being delayed. We were cool with that, because we would still get to see all the bands we wanted, they would just be a little behind schedule. So although it was raining, we were waiting at one of the stages to see the band Philmont. The only problem was, they wouldn’t be ale to play later because they had a concert in the Netherlands that same day. So Philmont came out to all of us standing there in the rain and said to follow them to their campsite, and they would do an acoustic version for us. So we followed them to their site, they set up a little tent which they stood under so their instruments wouldn’t get wet, and they played for us. No drums, no amps, no mics, nothing. Just the two guitars and the singer. But it was amazing. It was so personal because they had all the time they wanted since they weren't on a time limit on a stage or anything. So in between songs the lead singer would talk and explain them. It was so cool. Here is a short video of the end of one of the songs they were doing.

But in the middle of their “concert” (thankfully they had done some songs), a worker came up and told us that a storm was coming so everyone had to get to their cars or campsites. So we headed to one of our friends’ family’s RV and about eleven of us crammed in. It was a very tight squeeze. It was really nice of them to let us four (Chelsey, her friend Kelli, Jacqui, and me) to join the seven of them already in there. But it worked. A couple of their friends from the band Farebridge were there, and we talked to them, then when the storm stopped, we borrowed their umbrella as they got ready for their upcoming show. Jacqui and I went to see one song by Manic Drive, then Nine Lashes, then headed back to the Edge stage where Farebridge was going to play, and we stood in the very front! (hooray!) Directly after them was a band called the Psalters. There were like ten of them and they had painted faces and played all percussion things like bongos and stuff, and they sang in a different language. It was like some tribal thing. But instead of standing on stage, they stood in the middle, and everyone formed a huge circle around them. It was really cool. We only stayed for one song, though, because we went with our cousins Chelsey and her friend Kelli, and Randee my cousin and Mark her fiancé (who are also my youth leaders), to the place they were staying, and Mark cooked a great dinner. When they brought us back, we saw some of Decyfer Down, then saw House of Heroes, then Family Force 5. It was an incredibly fun day! And that was just Thursday!!!

Friday we went and saw the end of Days Divide, because the day before they had asked us to come. Then we saw some of Stars Go Dim, Two Cent Offering, GRITS, and Divine Day. Then we saw Esterlyn, Everyday Sunday, part of Fireflight, Remedy Drive, and Stellar Kart. Then we saw Eleventy Seven, the very end of Rookie, then went back to the Riverhouse (the place where Mark, Randee, Chelsey, Kelli, Aunt Chris, and her friend were all staying) and took a quick break before the rest of our big evening. Then we went back and saw Kutless and Disciple. After Kutless Jacqui and I were watching a show (I don’t even remember what band it was) at the Edge stage while waiting for Disciple to start, and while we were there, we saw two members from Family Force 5—Nadaddy and Chap Stique! At their show the night before, they said they’d be hanging out on Friday. So after the concert was over, Jacqui went up to them and they said hey and gave us high fives. It was pretty exciting! Then at the Deep End stage before Disciple began, there was a man named Eric Timm who did a live art performance. There was music playing, and in- no kidding- about five minutes, he had painted this picture.
It is of a little African girl he had seen when he went to Uganda. He was a really good speaker.

Then it was Disciple. I think they were my favorite concert this week. Of course, I enjoyed so so so so so many, and a lot came very close, but if I had to choose a favorite concert, it would be Disciple. Afterward (and it was like 12:30 AM by this time), we got to meet the band. The cool thing was, back in April when my class went to the Dove Awards in Nashville, we had met the lead singer, so I talked to him, and he remembered us, and then Jacqui and I got a picture with them. It was another great day.

Saturday we saw part of Sanctus Real, The Afters, Nineball, and the end of Flatfoot 56. Then we met up with our cousins and we hung out with the lead singer from Days Divide and sat behind his band’s table in the merch tent, and sang and played guitar. It was really cool.

So all week Ichthus had everyone recycling, and there was a humongous bin in which everyone could throw their plastic bottles in. You were to write your name on your bottle before you threw it in, because at the end of Ichthus, someone was going to dive into all the plastic bottles and randomly pick one. Whoever’s name was in the bottle won something. It was a good idea. So Saturday evening, the guy who was supposed to dive in painted himself green, put on a cape, and had everyone count down before he dived. Take a look =]

Then that evening we went and heard the speaker Pete Hise and had Communion as one huge body of believers. There were thousands of us gathered in our lawn chairs on the hillside, and it reminded me of Jesus feeding the thousands. It was too cool. Pastor Pete was a really good speaker, and when he gave what I guess would be like an alter call in church, except we were on a hill and there were no alters, and he asked those who wanted to receive Jesus to stand up, hundreds—maybe thousands—of people stood to their feet. Pastor Pete led them in a prayer, then had them all go to the prayer tent. It was too incredible. As I was sitting in my borrowed lawn chair, hundreds of people of all ages streamed before me in a line to the prayer tent. I just sat there and cried. I saw white- haired people to adults to tons of teenagers to little children walking before me toward the tent. And I just cried some more. God was doing an amazing thing, and I was witnessing it right before my very eyes. I was overwhelmed. Completely.
After that amazing time was over and people were dispersing to go to their tents or the different stages, or wherever they wanted to go, main stange played the cha cha slide, and tons of us still there danced. Everyone was rejoicing. Then we met up with my mom and dad and got ready to see the last concerts of the week. So as they sat down, Jacqui and I wanted to go find Nineball and tell them bye because we didn’t know when we’d see them again. So thankfully they were in their merch tent, and they came over to see us, and they gave us hugs and we got to tell them bye, because since they’re a band, we might not see them again for a while, or at least until they do another concert around here or something. (That was a very long sentence.) So with that accomplished, we went and saw Israel and New Breed, then Delirious?, the very last main stage concert of Ichthus 2009. It was kind of sad. It is sad that it’s over because we had so very very very much fun. But it was a really great experience. We got to hang out with friends, see bands—new ones and ones we’d seen before—hear great speakers, and have a wonderful experience with God and thousands of other Christians. Ichthus is an awesome thing, and I’m so glad I got to experience it again.