Ichthus 2010

Well, we went to Ichthus 2010 and came back in one piece :)

For those who have never heard of Ichthus, it is the oldest Christian music festival in the nation--starting in 1970. It is located in Kentucky on a 111-acre "farm" (about 4 hrs away). A typical "Ichthus day" consists of waking up around 7:30am, eating breakfast in our own tent area, group devotions in our tent area, and then going to the main stage for a festival-wide worship service followed by a guest speaker. After that, it varied each day. There were 4-5 music stages spread across the festival, each pertaining to a different Christian music genre (whether it was worship, gospel, techno, rock, etc.) and each with different music groups performing on that stage. So after the main stage worship service/guest speaker, we could go to one of these stages and listen to music, walk through merchandise booths, or go back to our tent area to play games/relax. After lunch, there was another guest speaker, followed by a couple more music groups. After dinner, was another speaker (on the last day, we had a communion service at this time) then a music group, followed by a worship service to end the evening. The youth were required to attend morning group devotion and main stage morning & evening worship services. They were also required to listen to a guest speaker in the morning, afternoon & evening..but could choose which speaker; each stage had a different speaker.

I really liked how EVERYONE was made to feel welcome at Ichthus. There were tattoed-pierced-spikey haired people walking alongside skinny pants-rocker people and everyone was okay with everyone else. One speaker that I wanted to hear but couldn't make it, was a "goth" Christian who spoke about Jesus' love for people he called "freaks" and how they should not be looked down upon based on their appearance. He spoke about how what is on the inside matters the most. How true is that and how often do you look at someone and form an opinion of them based on what you see? Just because they have a tattoo or piercing or may not conform to this "perfect person" image that we have in our heads, does not mean that they don't have feelings and want to be loved like everyone else. Their heart beats just the same as ours, blood that is pumping through our bodies is pumping through theirs. They are a dying soul that needs Jesus just as much as the next person. That's a good thing to remember.

And of course I enjoyed Ichthus because it deals with music. Music has always been a big part of my life, even before I was a Christian. My mom has home videos of me (3 yrs old)dancing to Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and singing random songs. Even now, I am constantly singing as I do housework or driving in my car etc. My dad has worked for various radio stations as broadcast engineer since I can remember, so he would sometimes take me to the station and I would sit and watch the DJ's do their thing, or I would go to a concert with him and watch him set up the sound stages. I find that music helps me through some of my toughest times. When I don't know what else to do or say, I just sing (Christian music, of course). But why is it that one of the things I am most passionate about, has become the thing I am most afraid of doing? Even at Ichthus, I couldn't bring myself to sing aloud to the songs because I worried about people around me hearing my voice..so I would mouth the words. Up until a couple of years ago, I would sing at churches and sang at a local Christian festival one summer but then stopped. The same Christian festival asked if I would sing there again this year, but I made up an excuse because I was afraid of singing in front of everyone. I was afraid of them hearing my voice and didn't want them to see me because I have issues with my appearance right now. My dad has been asking me to come sing a special at his church but I keep refusing because I don't feel that I'm good enough to be up there. But when I'm at home, I sing and sing and sing. And I often have these dreams that I am in front of a lot of people on a stage singing..I can see people's hands raised in worship of the Lord and I can hear the music..but that's as far as the dream goes. And I wake up thinking "yeah right, that can't possibly be me, up there, in front of all those people" and I forget about the dream until it happens again. I think that I also don't feel like I could make much of an impact because I don't play an instrument. I have wanted to learn guitar and piano for years now. I think singing to an accompaniment CD is good, but there is just something about being able to play the music you're singing to.

But back to Ichthus, the only real "negative" would have been the temperature. There was NO breeze at all the entire time we were there. And the 111 acres was all open, with very little trees for shade. So I found myself getting moody at times due to the heat. I get tired easily and usually take a nap at home, but it was so humid that I couldn't lay in our tent to nap. Plus, our campsite was about 1 1/2 miles from the main stage, at the top of a hill. So it was a lot of walking back & forth in the hot sun. Also, our kids came along and I didn't want them out in the sun for long periods of time, so we spent a lot of time under the church tent to keep the kids out of the sun.

The showers at Ichthus were a challenge, for sure. They had two huge brick building, each split in half with women's showers on one side & men's on the other. Wouldn't you know that the men's showers NEVER had a waiting line. Why is that? But each time I took a shower in the women's showers, I had to wait at least 1 1/2 to 2 HOURS in line. And that was a challenge for me. I do not have the patience to stand in line for 2 hours to take a cold shower. I am a "it needs done-let's get it done now" type of person. (yes, I'm still working on the whole being flexible thing) And it was so humid that by the time I finished my shower and dressed, I was sweaty and needed another shower. And I wasn't the only moody person..we were all struggling in that area.

So I had a little "person issue" while at Ichthus but I feel that I handled it well. There were three different Methodist churches that came together as a large group. One group was a mom, her daughter, and her two nieces. The daughter went to school with my daughter but I had never met the mom. The mom was a very outspoken, loud type of person. While making a meal, I was telling the mom how we are taking our daughter out of her school next year and putting her in an online public school, due to bullying and other issues. The mom says "Did you talk to the teacher?" (yes) "Did you talk to the principal? (yes, and my daughter even went to the principal and took the student doing the bullying with her, to no effect) Then the mom says "Well, I like to have a hand in MY kids' education and I can bet THAT wouldn't happen to me". And I just look at her. I wanted to say "SO WHAT YOU'RE SAYING IS THAT I DON'T CARE ABOUT MY DAUGHTER'S EDUCATION AND DON'T WANT TO HAVE A HAND IN IT?...I was furious but I bit my tongue and just kept cooking the food. And the rest of the time, I was polite with her but didn't go out of my way to talk to her anymore. When she got ready to leave, she said bye to everyone else and walked right by me. And I have no clue what I did to make her upset with me. But I know that she bothered one of the Pastors that was there, because he commented that he would be fine with her not coming next year (I never told him about the conversation I had with her).

I just really wish that people would think before they say hurtful or rude things to other people...and before they make assumptions about a person or a situation without knowing all of the details first. She doesn't know how my daughter would come home from school crying or upset because someone made fun of her speech (she is in speech therapy due to pronunciation problems) or her clothes or something like that. She doesn't know how my daughter's spelling grade dropped to a C this year because due to her speech problem, she is spelling words how she is hearing herself say them. She doesn't know how my daughter has missed 15+ days of school last year due to health problems, causing her to be behind on schoolwork which has affected her grades. She doesn't know how we have BATTLED financially this year and have not been able to buy my daughter the clothes/shoes that she needs to not get made fun of at school (and trust me, in 3rd grade what you wear and brand names ARE a huge issue at my daughter's school). She doesn't know how I would wake in the middle of the night crying because I knew my daughter didn't want to go to school and praying that she would have a good day and not get made fun of. This woman didn't even know...yet she assumed.

But I can say that since my daughter has went through bullying, I now know that it's not a joking matter. At all. It's a serious thing that, unfortunately, is not being taken serious at my daughter's school. My husband took my daughter on a field trip a couple months ago and overheard a couple of the mother's talking. One mother was saying that her older daughter has been dealing with bullying in the same school and that she is sending her daughter to another school next year. Yet the school claims to have a "zero tolerance" policy. And I'm not the type to go to the principal and rip him up & down about this bullying. But that doesn't mean that I don't care about my daughter or her education AT ALL. I'm choosing to remove her from the problem, into an environment that she will feel comfortable in and will help her better learn and grow. Plus, I like the fact that I can incorporate Biblical teaching into her online schooling, whereas the school she is in now would be against that.

So, I said all this to say: "Would I go to Ichthus again next year?" Yes!! (but I don't think I would take my kids along). I want to be able to sit through the speakers and music groups. I am also a front row person for concerts and wasn't able to do that this year. Also, I feel that something different needs to be done regarding the meals. The pastor's wife has been coming to Ichthus for the past 4-5 years, making all of the meals, cleaning up etc. She misses just about everything going on since she is under our tent the whole time and I found myself staying there to help her and missing everything also. I suggested coming up with teams for meals and rotating the schedule so two or three people are not doing everything. Also, the youth are old enough to help out with some of the meal preparation. So hopefully they will consider doing that for next year.

The next few posts that I make on here will be YouTube videos of artists from Ichthus..enjoy!