A long time friend of mine held a Memorial Game night on June 9th 2023 with three friends she had not seen in quite a long time. Nancy Blume has never met Ethan in person; however, as fellow sisters in Christ, she has known him through prayer requests and sharing life stories over the years. I have been in bible study with Nancy multiple times in the 20+ years our family has been members of Christ Community Church. We have personally shared the ups and downs of life over these years. I love how she took to heart the idea behind the Jolt-On! Memorial Games and championed her own time.

In Nancy’s own words, here is the time she shared with us:

I have only known Ethan through your memories and stories and I am grateful every time you share Ethan with me. I shared some of these memories of Ethan with my Jolt-On Game Night friends before we jumped into games. When I decided to host Jolt-On, I reached out to a few friends who haven’t all been together for a few years and they all came. We started with Left Center Right, and I took Nicole’s suggestion about the “loot” and used Hershey kisses! Who knew chocolate would turn on the competitive spirit in our friend, Linn, who won three rounds in a row!! After that we switched to Dutch Blitz, where Carrie took the crown! Beth and I may not have championed in any of the games but we all treasured the evening of laughter, and reconnecting with friends.

Nancy also shared with me another way this time ministered to her. She stated she “re-realized” how much she LOVES playing games! She is now praying for opportunities to keep playing. This is really the spirit of Jolt-On! and the joy Ethan brought to our lives and others through games. The joy of community and time connecting together. We will be praying with you, Nancy, for the presence of game opportunities to be a consistent reality with those the Lord brings to your life.

Thank you, Sister!

365 days without Ethan. June 9th, 2023, has arrived very slowly. We marked Ethan’s first year gone and his Giant Leap into Heaven day as peacefully as possible today. No doubt due to the huge amount of prayer we have been supported with by friends and families. We have been very grateful for everyone whom joined in the Jolt-On! Memorial Game Days as well. You all gave us such strength to finish strong.

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last;
but we do it to get a crown that will last forever!

1 Corinthians 9:25

After the anticipation of being back at Purdue and Campus House this week, we returned home and spent today quietly… enjoyed an Ethan favorite activity. Lingering at Barnes and Noble is one of his all time favorite things to do. We found ourselves contemplating favorite books (Mysterious Benedict Society Riddle of Ages volume 4, Science reads on how stuff works (yes, Randall Munroe!) and materials of our world, Math reads, explored new Lego sets with dreams of what he would be doing in the Lego sustainability world today (thinking also of our next annual Christmas memorial build set… most promising is the Lego Star Wars Endor Speeder Chase Diorama), enjoyed Studio Ghibli finds and browsing the huge selection of new games. We settled on purchasing a new card game for a Memorial Game play finale this evening and to add to our collection, Happy Little Dinosaurs.

365 Days now without you… missing you every moment… missing building memories with you… your laugh in the midst of games and conversation… your warmth and your smile. There is no “moving on” even with a year of firsts behind us. I know you would want us to keep going strong, so we continue to game-on your way… we can only seek to Jolt-On!

We are so grateful for the staff and student community of Campus House at Purdue University. This is Ethan’s church. This is the community he chose to ground himself within while living at Purdue during his undergraduate years… he was deeply connected in fellowship and bible study leadership. Therefore, we invited the Campus House community and anyone else at Purdue into the Memorial Games on the evening of Wednesday, June 7th (2023). Even though it is summer semester and campus is quieter, it was a blessing to have about 25 in attendance to enjoy a wide range of games for the evening.

We pulled out all kinds of board games and card games. The staff at Campus House know the value of game time very well. During Fall and Spring semester, they champion weekly game time for any student to join in. Having access to their collection was awesome! Here is a window into the time:

Blokus
Honestly, this was the first game I pulled out of the cabinet! Ethan and I played this game A LOT as he grew. It is a great strategy game for all ages. 2 to 4 players, though. It was fun to see it in action again!

Catan
This was a new one to me and several fans of the game came to enjoy it. There is a lot to the base game alone as well as many additions to the game that make it appealing for long term play. Lots to learn!

Dutch Blitz
This one is a FAVORITE at Campus House! During Fall and Spring semester, students are invited weekly to challenge their lightening fast speed and love for this card game. In the spirit of Solitaire, Nertz or Pounce, the Dutch Blitz card game uses a uniquely designed deck of cards. Many of the students gravitated to this one specifically and it was fun to watch them go!

Euchre
Another well loved card game in the MidWest, there were a few new faces to Euchre during our time. Some veterans shared their love of the game to teach it to those whom wanted to learn. Euchre is a team play card game employing the use of the Jacks as “Bowers” to set the suit of play each game. Ethan enjoyed playing this game with our family at just about every holiday back at home!

Minecraft
Noah brought along is Nintendo Switch and set it up on the large screen for anyone wishing to engage in video gaming. Minecraft was one of the first games Ethan had shared with his brother, Noah. It was fun to see a few of the youngest participants figuring it out for the first time!

Secret Hitler
Another new one for me, but not for the Campus House and Joshua House attendees! I found out many of them personally own the game and we could see the game circle grow quickly as it was brought out. There were well over 8 players seated around the game boards vying for one of three roles: Liberal, Fascist or Hitler! Set in pre-WWII Germany, players are German politicians attempting to hold a fragile government together. It took a few turns and a really good game mentor (thank you Four!) for me to get the flow of the game, but I eventually joined in. To play is to either bluff or investigate your way through. I loved seeing the multiple acting personalities come through in this exciting game!

Warhammer 40K
Noah challenged family friend, Jacob Chappell, to a W40K skirmish. It is no secret that our family loves the legend, lore and artistry of the model miniature game, Warhammer 40K. Ethan had actually introduced his friend Jacob to the game back in the days of high school when we lived in the Dallas TX area. It was fun for attendees to see the team models in action and learn more about the depth of the game.

During the event, we served cake and had the blessing of sharing fellowship time with many of Ethan’s friends that we have stayed in contact with during this long year. It was great to meet new faces around the game tables as well! Campus House is a community of believers whom seek to welcome all into the family of Christ. We certainly feel like a huge part of this family! It is very encouraging to us to see how the staff remember Ethan as they continue to welcome students at Purdue in the semesters to come. If you are a Boilermaker or are interested in the work and ministry of Campus House. Check out their website for more information!

The Memorial game ideas keep rolling in. Our long time family friends, Milt and Sharon Feryance, did not let distance come between them and gaming with friends this last Wednesday, June 7th. We love how they took to heart being Game Champions and used an online venue to share connection time!

We just finished playing games for the Jolt-On Memorial Games Week. It was the Riveras in Iowa, Rich Phillips & Maureen Hughes-Phillips and Milt and I. We had a lot of good laughs playing Trivial Pursuit, Two Truths and A Lie and answering questions from our leader 1000 questions book! Thanks for helping us bond more and using this opportunity to remember Ethan and the ways he brought others together through games. May God comfort you, Joel and Noah, and may he continue to give you the strength to persevere as you continue to bear this heavy burden of grief.
Love, Sharon & Milt

Thank you for encouraging us and providing another awesome idea to enjoy games when separated across the miles. All of you are a blessing for joining us and we hope you find opportunities to keep playing!

The Atkinson family joined the Jolt-On! Memorial Game Days on Ethan’s birthday to champion game time at their home. I sure wish I could have joined them in person as their chosen game was SuperFight! This is a personal favorite of Ethan’s… especially during Middle and High School years. There is something awesome about assuming a character and crazy attributes in pursuit of the best battle story. He loved the super powers and corresponding super problems that were presented and then the ridiculous story argument that followed. We always enjoyed great laughs every time the cards came out.

I am told the characters in this particular SuperFight were:

• Conan
  • Attributes: 6 inches tall and floating down on a parachute
• Abraham Lincoln
  • Attributes: with X-Ray vision and could become whatever is touched
• T-Rex
  • Attributes: Matches the size of opponents and throws 200 mph fastballs

Now that is quite the SuperFight! I have a hunch Abraham Lincoln was quite the formidable opponent… but then I can also see Conan and T-Rex using their new attributes to make an explosive challenge. That would be hard to judge if you ask me! Thank you Atkinson family for sharing the fun of your game night with us!

I just got back from my women’s bible study friends Game Nite. We met tonight, Friday, June 2nd (2023), for an evening of fellowship and competition (I truly did not know how competitive some of my friends really are!). Our leader, Sharon, provided the location and we all brought games to consider. In addition, we shared snacks and desserts and fun conversation.

Our game lineup started with a long round of the game Left-Center-Right. This is usually a fast paced dice game where players exit and enter the game at random based on the throw of up to three dice. The winner takes home the “loot” pile as the last person with any tokens. We made it a bit long by choosing to give everyone 25 pennies as their passing tokens… it gave us a lot of time to share and talk during the game play. Maureen was the ultimate winner (all of $2.00 worth!) and we crowned her the Game Queen!

There were so many games to consider this evening. We ended the night with the hilarious game of Say Anything! As we took turns, parts of this game got me thinking of what Ethan would say. The major part of the game is to pose a question to your opponents. Saying the phrase “In my opinion” before every question helps to remind everyone to think of the speaking player when providing an answer. So, when I heard the question, “In my opinion, what is the best lego model?” I could not resist thinking of an answer that Ethan would have said!

It was a fun night with everyone sharing stories and laughter. I have not had the ability to laugh like that for a long time now. Oh the healing power of games! It is not surprising to me that I also felt less stressed coming home tonight. I know this is a major reason Ethan engaged others in game play so often… after all, life can be stressful. Several women in our group commented that they had not laughed out loud in a very long time. I hope we can find more time for stress relieving fellowship and maybe play Pit next round, Ladies!