Impact World Tour comes to Jamestown, VC

• Island Breeze

(Submitted photo) A member of the Island Breeze group performs with fire. The group is among three that will perform in Jamestown and Valley City next week.

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Breakdancers, skateboarders, strong men, rappers, athletes and Polynesian dancers will strut their stuff in a series of shows in Jamestown and Valley City next week, as part of the Impact World Tour.

The events will include character-based school assemblies as well as evening shows for the community.

“It’s for anybody, a community-wide event that’s open for anybody. We don’t want it to be labeled a church event,” said Matt Woods, a city coordinator for Impact World Tour.

IWT is an international initiative that partners with local churches to give positive messages to youth, Woods said, though he cautioned that people shouldn’t write the tour off as a “church” event.

In fact, it’s especially for people who find church confusing or off-putting, said Randy Jaspers, senior pastor at Temple Baptist Church in Jamestown, one of the churches partnering to bring IWT to the area.

IWT was previously in Jamestown in 1996, said Troy Gunderson, executive director of Youth for Christ.

“The students that I began working with (in 1997) were heavily impacted by that event in ’96, and were excited about what transpired,” Gunderson said.

Eleven churches in Jamestown and six in Valley City have worked to bring the IWT to the area for the events, which are free of charge.

Together, they have raised the $61,000 it took — the costs of producing tickets, paying for equipment and travel costs. The 60-plus performers will be staying in homes in the community while they are in Jamestown and Valley City, and team members are asked to volunteer their time, keeping expenses to a minimum.

Three groups from the Impact World Tour will perform in the area.

Island Breeze, a group of performers from the Polynesian islands, will dance Hawaii’s hula, a Maori haka and a Samoan fire knife dance.

Island Breeze performs at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Jamestown Civic Center.

GX International unites bikers, rollerbladers, hip-hop and breakdancers and skateboarders in a single performance. The community can watch them at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Jamestown Civic Center and at 7 p.m. Sept. 21 at the North Dakota Winter Show Building in Valley City.

“It’s MTV meets the X Games, redeemed,” Jaspers said, regarding the GX International group. “They’re going to really reach out to the kids.”

Team Xtreme International is a group of athletes performing feats of strength, such as bending metal bars and breaking bricks. Team Xtreme will be at the North Dakota Winter Show Building in Valley City Thursday.

“It provides us an opportunity for us together, as a community, to present the gospel … in a way that is not the traditional way of presenting it, so that people who would not normally go or be linked with a church could hear the good news about Jesus,” Jaspers said.

The teams begin arriving in the community today, and a commissioning prayer service will be at 7 p.m. Saturday at First Assembly of God.

The Impact World Tour doesn’t end after the events are over. Because its goal is long-term transformation, there will also be a six-week mentorship program meant to help people follow up on what they learned and learn more. That begins on Sept. 23.

“The style of the kids today lends itself to trying something different,” Gunderson said. “… it fits our ministry, to try to present the Gospel in as many different ways as we can. The same old way doesn’t work anymore. We have to change with the times without changing the message.”

For more information, visit impactworldtour.com.

Sun reporter Kari Lucin can be reached at 701-952-8453

or by email at klucin@jamestownsun.com

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