Halloween

The Coffee Shop set up for the Halloween outreach

On Halloween night, we had a pretty cool outreach. We invited people to come to their own funeral. We began handing out flyers and invitations a few weeks before the big event, and then on Halloween night we "ran the devils" - you might wonder (as I did) what this means!!

Bailey, Sierra, Destiny and Alicia dressed up and ready to "run the devils"

Well, Sierra and the other kids dressed up as devils and demons and went out around the community to invite people to their own funeral. Sierra did so great - she pranced and jumped and snuck up on people, putting the invitation into their hands with a snear. Many people screamed and several ran away! One girl burst out crying at Bailey dressed as a demon.

Sierra handing out invitations to people

Bailey handing out invites

The idea behind the funeral was that people would hear the gospel message and die to their sin and be born again into new life.

At the coffee shop we had a fog machine making everything thick and smoky, with creepy music playing. All the lights were off and there were just a few candles sitting around. At the front we had an open coffin and candelabras on each side. If people looked into the coffin, they would look into a mirror and see themselves. Once the devils came back from handing out invites, we locked them into a cage, where they grabbed at people - symbolic of the enemy wanting to pull us down with him.

The devils in their cage

We started off by me giving my testimony. I spoke about how I had struggled with fear for so many years and how God rescued me from that. After, Mark shared with the people there about being dead in our sins, but the opportunity for new life. He did such a great job! He really comes alive when he shares God's truth.

Me sharing my testimony

We had about 30 people show up, and of those 14 people raised their hand at the end to receive salvation. It was awesome!! After, we prayed with people and got them information on how to connect into a church and then we had worship for the rest of the night.

It was definitely a different way to do things! However, the glory goes to God because people were drawn in to hear about Him and as a result, people were saved. The kids had fun, but more importantly they understood the gravity of what they were doing, and did it for God's glory and not their own excitement. Overall, I'd say it was pretty successful!

Worship