This past
Sunday, the church I attend (Mayfair Church of Christ) had a service
day. Various groups throughout our congregation picked out service
projects to work on and after worship that morning we left to go work on
those projects.The class Jackie and I attend as well as the children's
ministry staff decided on a project in the New Hope community. We helped
New Hope Church of Christ with a Family Fun Fest and it was such a fun
and successful day!
The
church at New Hope is very small (around 30 members) and most of the
folks there are older and therefore it is more difficult for them to put
together something like a fun fest. At the same time, they are looking
for ways to help and reach out to the community so this was a perfect
way for us to allow them to reach out to the community without it being
too much work or overbearing for them.
I
picked Jackie up and we headed out to New Hope and got there right
about noon and helped get things set up. Jackie and I had signed up to
work the popcorn stand so soon after we started getting things set up,
we started popping popcorn. I must have eaten 10 pounds of it throughout
the day. In addition to the popcorn, there were various carnival games
and inflatables and face painting.
About
175-200 people from the community came out at some point during the two
hours of the fun fest and we stayed busy all day long. I don't know how
many bags of popcorn we handed out, but we probably popped 12 rounds or
so of popcorn. Each station stayed busy but it was a steady busy and
none of us were swarmed with kids.
After the festivities ended at 4:00 p.m.,
there was a devotional for those who stayed led by our associate
minister. Some of us were able to start breaking down things and get
started cleaning up during that time. Then, at 4:30 p.m., we served
dinner to those who stayed. We had hot dogs, chips, and a dessert. I
have no idea how many hot dogs were prepared, but I'm sure they were all
eaten. One little boy went though the line at least five times. You
could tell that a lot of the people were probably hungry and not
accustomed to getting three meals a day. When you are around this type
of environment, it will really make you appreciate all the amenities and
luxuries we are afforded in our daily lives.
It
was a really great day and we were so thankful the weather was nice and
that we had a great turnout. It warmed our hearts to be able to serve
this community. God is good, y'all!
Face Painting!
Inflatables!
Ring Toss!
Serving Bags of Popcorn!
A lot of people stayed for the devotional, which was great!
Serving dinner
2 comments:
That was such an awesome idea, and apparently, very well executed! I'm so glad they had such a good turn-out.
Very nice of Mayfair to help out - It's always nice to see congregations working together.
Had a blast and can't wait to do it again next year!! You pop it they will come!
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