hallelujah night

About seven seconds after we had it all in place--balloons tacked on the dart board; Goliath at the ready, defiant in the face of all those bean bags; bowl after bowl of piled-high candy; donuts hanging from strings; the hay wagon parked at the back gate; candy bags and markers ready for little hands--the first of our guests arrived: Spiderman (the first of a good half-dozen), Cinderella (the first of several bedazzling beauties), and a tiny, whiskered Kitten. After that trio came a deluge, and the building came alive with the sounds of their united delight.

The adults entered into the fun as well. Suzzanne came as a raccoon. Cora came as Suzzanne. Jennifer was adorable as a Cow Girl. Scotty came as Snoopy's Flying Ace friend, and Joe was a convincing old man. Speaking of men, Dave, Chris, John, Rob, Bobby and about twenty others took turns eyeing and picking up the giant pumpkin at the front table, then "Nah"-ing each other's guesses as to the weight of all that orangeness. The early word is that Rob came in with the closest guess and wins the turkey dinner. Way to know your pumpkins, Rob.

Van, as usual, drove the hay wagon. This year, waiting bandits (Jeremy, Lucas, Nathan, Skylar and Korey) hid in shadows at the edges of our grassed acre. At a secret signal, they waylayed the hay wagon, boarded, and gave candy to all the squealing riders.

Peter and Elaina brought two-month old Sean dressed as a Ninja. I'm not sure I've seen anything cuter--ever.

My Tera made cupcakes and organized the Cake Walk, which was a big hit with the short crowd. Dave Kunkle revived his "Phat Jack's" hot dog cart and fed the crowd for free. The strangers in our midst expressed their surprise at his gesture. If they come back and hang around, they'll see a lot of that with this bunch.

Old friends came to visit. New friends were made. After a brief skit, one of the kids accepted Tammy's invitation to meet Jesus.

I'm not a big fan of Halloweeen, but I'm pretty fond of our Harvest Party. And I love my church like crazy.