Family Fun Festival

Saturday was our third annual family fun day - because we had it in the fall we called it a festival - but whatever you call it - it was a success.

What is really cool about this for our church is the way that God is working through us. This all started as I had the elders read a book about three years ago - "I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church" by Paul Nizon.

One of the biggest points of this book was that we have to "BE BOLD!" and try new things. A few months later, two members - Kim and Gerrie - went to a fundraising conference and presented an idea that we would do a fair/ festival for the community.
Over the course of planning that, however, our focus changed and instead of charging people and making money - we instead designed a day of free events for the community.
And so this year we had
- free inflatables for the kids to play on
- free games to play in the front yard to win tickets
- free bingo inside
- free crafts
- free prizes with the tickets
- free school supplies
- free coats.

The only money that we made was through our silent auction and our lunch - which was cheap - hot dogs, pop and chips for $2.

This year the YMCA beside us had an event at the same time which led people from one place to another. We were busy and not too busy to have interaction with people. I was so happy that so many people in our church participated that day- we had 42 people on site during the course of the day.

So.....this is what a church is supposed to be all about. A place where families can come and be together. A place where we can reach out and get to know our neighbors. Our hope, of course, is that some who don't have a church (we're not sheep stealers!) will think of us when they decide to worship. We will see.

It was a great day. And the spirit of the Lord was there.

(PS - the weather was iffy- and people were anxious ahead of time - but the rain did not start until 4 PM when we were all packed up!)