We will leave a light on

I don’t know what you think about Halloween, and to be honest I’m not really that bothered.  For the last couple of years we’ve made the most of the opportunity and hosted a Light Party for families in the community.

Last night was no exception.  We keep it fairly simple, there’s a big game all together at the start for 10-15 minutes or so as people arrive.  Then it’s a carousel of smaller games (Jar-pong, apple bobbing, crafts, beat the blindfolded keeper, splat the rat, tower of light, and so on), with sweets for each win.  Then we provide hot-dogs and drinks, before a Bible talk on the theme of light, and then a final game, last nights was fishing for donuts.

It’s a fun hour and half.  Last night we had over 50 guests.  There were loads of families from our toddler group come along, and it was great to get to know them a bit better.  Lots of children from the school came and dragged their parents along.  There were old friends, and new contacts.  We pray and hope it will be a bridge for some from the community to other church events, and we pray the simple message we shared of Jesus, the light in our darkness, is a seed sown that eventually bears fruit.

We’d love you to be praying for those that were there.  Last night made us aware again of how stretched we are, almost beyond our capacity to do the event well.  Without a couple of our teens who spent hours setting up, and running games, and others who gave so much of their time we couldn’t run such an event.  But out biggest struggle last night was that we only had 7 adults from church there, each was running at least one game and/or craft, in some cases 2, or cooking.  And that meant we were stretched in terms of time to chat to parents and build relationships beyond a few snatched minutes.

We’ve learned from experience that the calvary isn’t coming.  So please pray that some of those who were there as guests last night would come to follow Jesus and that next year they’d be there running games and serving and chatting for the glory of God, holding out the light they have found to an area in darkness.