MFBC Community Easter Celebration

April 16, 2022

For the first time in a couple of years, we felt safe enough to have a large community Easter celebration in the fellowship hall of the church. The volunteers had decorated the hall, and the volunteer group arrived about 11:30 on the Saturday before Easter. By noon we had families arriving, and the children could enjoy the four games set up along the south wall of the fellowship hall.

This game was called Egg Shell Scramble. Most of the themes had to do with eggs and other Easter connections. Barbara Floyd guides this game and Melissa Little is the host for the table where these young ones were sitting.

This Egg Memory game involved tiny figurines or other recognizable objects hidden under egg shells. After shifting the shells, you had to try to remember where certain objects were hidden. Bob and Gail Wade guided this game.

The egg memory game was particularly popular with some of the younger children accompanied by their parents.

In this Jelly Bean Scoop game the participants were given two plastic spoons for a race to see who could gather the most jelly beans in their cup. Lee and Leigh Miller guided this game. In the background is the large gift table to be used in the after lunch spinner activity.

This bingo game used candy kisses as pieces and was popular for its candy prizes. Roger and Brenda Speight guided this game.

One of the joys of the occasion for us church members was the arrival of family members, some of which we hadn't seen in a long time. Betsy and Keith Weaver's daughter and granddaughter arrived. The granddaughter was a bit shy and hanging onto her mother, but the later picture at right shows that she had a good time. With face painting, a big prize, and a bag of goodies to take home, she certainly looked pleased.

A good crowd of families with children had gathered by 12:15 and Becky Ridgway gave instructions about the lunchtime. We had 13 tables and a host from our church at each table. The host was to take the preferences for pizza, drinks, and desserts and deliver them to the tables. That worked well, since it provided some service for our guests and gave us a time to get acquainted with them.

We had a busy time of providing food and allowing fellowship at the tables, and then about 1pm Becky introduced Elaine Ridgway to present the Easter story. Elaine used large boards of yellow, red, white and black to tell the story of man's sin and Jesus sacrifice on the cross for our redemption, the yellow representing heaven and the fellowship with God that Jesus had purchased with his death and resurrection. A marvelous job of presenting the gospel message and the opportunity for all to respond with their acceptance of God's message.

The large group was attentive and interested, and it provided a treasured opportunity to share the gospel with our community.

After lunch and the Easter story, all the children got the opportunity to spin the "wheel of EGG-cellence" to win larger prizes from the prize table and a number of smaller prizes in the eggs. Leigh and Lee Miller have set up this spinner system for a number of years.

The spinning of the two wheels of EGG-cellence brought the events of our community celebration to an end. We provided a bag of further prizes and invitations to church events and our upcoming Vacation Bible School. We were blessed by a good attendance in the neighborhood of a hundred persons. While many of the children attend our Awana program, we were pleased with the number of new children that we got to meet.