Well, Holy Halloween went great. I would be remiss to not thank those directly involved. It was an amazing experience. We planned to cook and hand out 100 hot dogs. After 290 hot dogs, 4 extra trips to the grocery store, running out of 5 gallons of punch (not nearly enough) and five gallons of chili (almost just right), we were ready to tear the tent down.
The only sad thing is that I feel the glory was brought to us rather than to God. If a church name was attached to the project, that wouldn't have been the case. But it wasn't, so we were left to make due with the situation we were in. We still felt called to love the community whether a church was involved or not. Hopefully next year a church that will not be the case. I do think the community felt loved. I just wish they would've have been loved by people and a church.
I wouldn't suggest copying the program for your community. What made me think of doing this and what made it work so well is that trick-or-treating is almost the only time the streets of Antwerp are filled with people. It seems to me that Jesus should have a presence wherever he can, and this was our way of bringing Jesus into the trick-or-treating that Antwerp goes crazy over. Find what your community goes crazy over and pray about finding a way to bring Jesus into that event.
You might even believe that Halloween (moreso than Easter or Christmas) is a pagan holiday that should be shunned by Christians, but I challenge you to consider how such a holiday can be redeemed rather than shunned. We follow a God who doesn't shun those who are fallen. He even went so far as to send His Son to live among the fallen in order to redeem them. He wasn't afraid of getting his hands dirty in order to redeem the loved. We are called to do the same.
Watch out for the potholes.
