Family Fun Day

Saturday was our 4th annual family fun day - and it was the best one yet - a great success and I just want to write about what all happens at a time like this.

We dreamed up this idea a couple of years ago as a way for our church to BE BOLD in reaching out to the community. (After reading the book - "I refuse to lead a dying church"!) Actually, our first thought was that it would be a fund raiser for the church.

As we planned over the course of 6 months, we came to the conclusion that it needed to be a gift to the community and so we solicited funds to do the day and we were successful. Every year, we have some things the same:
- 3 large inflatables in the front yard
- six carnival type games where kids can earn prizes
-- an inexpensive lunch in the kitchen
- free school supplies
- free prizes
- items for raffle
We have also added over the years: crafts, free coats, and bingo. The entire building is used for this event and it has become bigger every year.

My favorite thing to do is to watch what is happening. This is what I saw on Saturday:
1. The church working together - we had over 50 people work on Saturday and countless more donating school supplies, coats, prizes, etc
2. Watching children - of the church, the community and my own grandchildren having so much fun! They love the games, they love the prizes and they really seem to enjoy the freedom to "shop" with the tickets they earned.
3. The interaction of our church members with people in the community. It is fun for me to see how friendly and caring we are to others.
4. The way people have really stepped up and invested in this day - we have a great committee and they were there all day - from beginning to end and seemed to have (like me) a great sense of satisfaction about it
5. Watching the intergenerational interaction of people - not just working together, but playing together. It really was fun.

I have to say that I was pretty exhausted at the end of the day. But, Sunday morning rolled around, I got some sleep, and I felt inspired and ready to go.

so, we will have a meeting sometime in the next few weeks to review and to look for ways to improve - but I have to say, that I feel blessed that it just gets better every year.