No Tricks...Just Treats

On Tuesday evening, October 31, a horse, a prince and princess, Tinkerbell, a bear, Superman, Spiderman, a cow, a dog, a pirate and many other interesting characters invaded the Youth Complex.

They were part of a special Halloween party where there were no tricks, just treats!  LBC families and the Lincoln community were invited to this evening of hot dogs, a jumping tent, bean bag toss, X-Box activities, hoola hoop race, plinko, face painting, bowling, balloon pop, fishing, horseshoe golf, a maize and other games.  It was a safe and loving environment that provided two hours of fun and candy for children—and adults.

Wrapped in with a cookie that each child received was the verse from I Sam. 16:7, “…God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”   As we watched the 429 children and adults come into the complex, we saw them as grandparents, parents, children and fun characters, but God saw their hearts—each individual heart.  It was our prayer that God would use this event to move in the big and little hearts that attended this event—and He did! 

One Hispanic couple visited with our ministry staff about our church.  They had never been to our church before, but now they were interested.  They wanted to know service times so they could attend.

An LBC attendee told us that one of his neighbors, who had been antagonistic toward church, brought his family to the event.  His prayer is that this will open the door for them to extend an invitation to come to church.  We praise God for comments like these because the purpose and goal of this event was to connect with unchurched people, to meet them where they are and to develop relationships as we love their children.

Much organization, preparation and work went into this event.  On behalf of everyone who attended, we want to thank each one who had a part in making this event possible.  (It was our observation that the people helping had more fun than the children!)  Thank you to each one who donated candy and pop—because of your generosity, we had more than enough. A note of gratitude and appreciation to Super Saver, Hy-Vee, Sun Mart and daVinci’s for their generous donation of cookies and to Planet Earth for their donation of water bottles.   

Pray with us that the seeds that were sown will give a harvest for eternity.