a few months ago I heard in prayer it will be a good day. Now the definition of good from my perspective might be a little different than heavens. Last year we pulled off The Easter Egg Drive Through which was a good day...only one car wreck and traffic backed up for a few blocks...only problem wind and ice = pain. Nevertheless hundreds of people showed up for the eggs. And we had a good time! So good is relative.
We have our usual gang of 100+ people signed up ready to cook hot dogs, serve drinks, paint faces, help kids make a craft, 15,000 eggs with prizes thrown in, and a couple of bouncy castles.
So it will be a fun day. Each year we think will anyone from the community show up?...and to our surprise hundreds of kids mom's and dad's do...It is a great way to show God's love to our community in a practical way.
Here's last years recap... The Great Easter Egg Drive Through
wow what a day...our special set up team arrived on time at 9am...we set up the Egg Stations, signs, unpacked the egg bags, ate some great Krispy Kreeme donuts, downed some coffee and waited for the next team...
Interestingly we advertised the hunt to begin at 11am yet people began to line up their cars at 10am...
A sense of 'o boy what's going to happen' began to drift into my head.
The Egg Drive Thru teams arrived we went over instructions...ever tried to explain instructions or a concept...for something you've never done before? What we were doing was fluid, innovative, moving, morphing, learning as you go type of idea.
Who would guess that thousands of people decided to come out to an Egg Hunt in wind blowing ice crystals cold...better than last year where the temp was a -17 bone chilling, teeth grinding gale. This year the temp was a balmy 32.
We began moving the cars into the drive thru at 10:30 am...the cars began to line up in a bumper to bumper fashion backing up past the entrance of the park down the street past the entrance left and right in both directions for two blocks...That's a lot of cars and a lot of people in those cars.
We finally found a rhythm in about 30 minutes... Cars pull in... Egg givers walk to cars...ask how many kids...give number of pre-bagged eggs into car with a smile and have a great Easter along with an invite to our Easter Services and a flyer explaining why we were serving.
The vibe, atmosphere was filled with excitement...Dora the Explorer, Sponge Bob, Winnie the Poo, a 6 foot giant Easter Bunny, Zowie the clown and Ronald McDonald all waved and welcomed the kids.
The Drive Thru lasted for 2 hrs of constant keep em moving banter...This was the trick...how to keep cars moving...keep people safe...without sounding like a drill sargent. I admit I was a bit bossy in an upbeat type of way.
Our small army of main traffic keep em moving guys, did a great non-stop job. In the midst of all this movement...there was a sense of peace, fun, and encouragement. Our community loved the idea, kids hanging out the windows, pictures being taken with Dora, the giant Easter bunny and grateful parents relieved that they didn't have to stand out in the cold...Many smiles, thank yous, you guys are nuts, way to gos, smiles and waves as people drove away.
Our teams out did themselves in their positive serving and flexibility willing to attempt something new and out of the box. I like great ideas, teamwork, innovation, fun, full of energy, genuine serving, and caring for our community in ways that really make a difference.
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