Fall Festival

A few months back, God laid a dream on my heart to start a Fall Festival at our church. I began to pray about the situation but was a little nervous that the idea might get shot down. I continued to pray about it and felt God leading me in this direction but was still hesitant to talk to my Pastor about  the idea.  I mentioned it to one of my friends. She shared that God had also been speaking to her about it and had been praying about it. We were shocked and excited all in the same moment. We knew God was definitely in the idea and knew it was time to take the next step and talk to our Pastor.
When we shared our vision with him,  he was thrilled and told us to organize it and meet back up with him.
My friend and I had both grown up in churches that had annual Fall Festivals, so  we had a pretty good idea of the direction we wanted to go. The plans began to fall into place. We met back with our Pastor  and soon presented the idea to our church. Our church family was eager to get on board with all the activities
We had a men's chili contest,  ladies cake decorating contest. There were booths,  games, a cake walk, hayride, bon-fire, a jail with a sheriff, face-painting, a photo booth and an amazing trunk or treat.
We knew we wanted to reach out to the community, so we started praying that  we would reach one new family through this ministry. We used several methods of advertiseing but we found that the best method was FB. The night of  the Fall Festival we were blown away by the goodness of God. We had so many visitors from the community show up. There were many families that came out yo support us snd several new families that did not have a church home. Everyone was amazed by the first class hospitality of our Country Church. It turned out  amazing and looking back  I am so thankful that I  followed God in obedience.
A little recap of the night:

 A little photo booth fun! This is a great tool to connect with visiting families! You can make small  talk, take their familie's picture and tag them on FB later.

 Arlee loved the booths and winning candy.  I love this picture of his sweet gighles!!

It was cute how fast he caught  on to getting candy! 

The trunk or treat was amazing. ..some of our church members put some of us to SHAME!

 Yep, this guy right here! He was the highlight of the night. ..this is just one trunk!!!

 And how cool is this one!  Love our Pastor and his wife!

This is not even a third of all the kids lined up for truck or treat!

Hayride time. This just has a way of bringing the kids out in all of us. ..

There were several hayrides to accommodate all the kiddos (and the grown kids)

What a great night full of memories. It was a wonderful opportunity to reach out to our community and to invest  in the lives of our own children. It's amazing what God will do with a small dream if we choose not to live our lives in fear but in obedience. I'm so grateful for a Pastor who  has taught me that! I'm also blessed with an amazing  church who  jumped on board with a small vision and made it into a huge reality!