Can't wait!

Tomorrow is the FNF, and I am psyched. To the left is a picture of one of the sets--the empty tomb. Of course, tomorrow it will be dark and the tomb itself will be backlit, making the "rocks" appear more realistic.

I'm actually quite calm now, which is good. We've planned all we can, and I'm now at the excited phase. Can't wait to see what God has in store.

Yesterday, the KidsInCers trick or treated for canned goods for a local food pantry. We gathered 3 wagons full of food, but the most amazing part was how the kids were able to minister to a couple of the local residents. One woman began crying, telling us about how she had just lost her husband. One of the kids, a usually rambunctious 4th grader, asked if we could pray for her, and the kids gathered round and prayed with the woman. It was amazing to see how these kids were touched by meeting and by praying with this woman, and I was just stunned, and still am, to see God work in their lives. It just reiterates what a fantastic ministry we have, and how much these preteens have grown in only a short while. Wow! I'm still speechless, as you can probably tell by the fact that I can't write well today.

I'm glad God knows what's going on!

So the Fear Not Festival was originally supposed to be an inhouse/invite your neighbors sort of thing. We planned for about 300. Everything was smooth. Everything was fine until...

word got out to the papers. The local churches (including the megachurch down the street) have quit doing festivals because they grow out of control. One medium sized church down the street had 1000 people. Now, I'm a bit worried.

I'm an organized person and a doer. If I see that something is not going well, I'll just jump in and do it. I have a vision, and I make it happen, whether I have hands to help or not. God's really been working on this with me and prompting me to delegate more, to equip his people to use their talents in service--to present the plan and stand back a little bit. I tried this and was pleased with the results. My team had great ideas. They were working together, making subteams and equipping other volunteers. Everything was perfect until...

word got out to the papers. Now that inner control freak in me is going a bit crazy. God keeps whispering, "Trust." And I'm trying, but how do I know if it will be 300 or 1000. What do I plan for?

Trust. Such a simple word and such a hard concept.

Like a tumblin' tumbleweed

I'm reminded of an image from the beginning of The Big Lebowski as a tumbleweed rolls through LA picking up debris. That's what I've been like for the past few weeks. Just when I think I'll have time for blogging, a gust of wind comes by and I move on to something else, picking another item up on my to do list.

Whew! Life is coming together on the Fear Not Festival. Halloween is such an icky time. Kidology.org just sent out a newsletter talking about finding common ground within the two viewpoints. My view is that Evil has had enough fun with this holiday and it's time to take it back. If we, as Christians, avoided everything that has been twisted into evil, we'd all sit in a padded room singing Kum Ba Yah.

I am certainly not the majority on this issue. In a meeting yesterday, I even had a member of the team tell me, almost in tears, that she is only helping me on this festival because she loves and supports me, but she feels it is "all wrong." This pains me because the last thing I want to do is to go against someone's convictions.

But what is so wrong? If anything, these kids (not just ours but the community's kids) are getting to step into an interactive story--interactive BIBLE stories. They will sit in the belly of a whale with Jonah (complete with open cans of tuna for smell effect!), in the lion's den with Daniel, in the palace with Esther, and learn that people, no HEROES in the Bible were scared, too, and God helped them through it! Little ones will watch Where's God When I'm S-Scared?, and what better lesson is that? Kids will sling "stones" at Goliath (bean bag toss) and the best part--kids will enter a cemetery, witness a stone rolling away, and an Angel telling the women not to be afraid because Jesus Christ has risen! And the best part is that they will experience it, not just hear about it.

What is so wrong? Yes, it was a pagan holiday, but so was every holiday originally. We Christians just took the pagan time periods and attributed them to our purposes. Isn't the important thing that we are reaching out to these kids with the message of how awesome God is?