A Really Big Easter Egg Hunt

I was uploading pics the other night and realized that we haven't taken any since before I left for my missions trip at the beginning of March. Crazy! Yesterday was a busy day, and we were more concerned about making sure all our volunteers were where they should be than we were about taking pictures, so sadly, there is nothing to pictorially document our day. I will have to do my best to describe it with words.

Every year, our church hosts two outreach events. We have Fall Festival in October and our Really Big Easter Egg Hunt near Easter. Dave and I were already attending our church when we had Fall Festival, but since we weren't on staff yet, the Easter Egg Hunt was our first major event with the church as a part of the behind-the-scenes crew.

The craziness began the week I was away, so I was unaware of the time commitment involved in this event. For the last two weeks, however, I jokingly referred to myself as an Easter Egg Hunt widow. Dave spent many evenings at church working on this event. Even when we were together, his mind was in Easter Egg Hunt-mode. After running around buying prizes on Saturday, we were able to spend our first evening at home together in a long time. It was nice, but we couldn't relax too much since this event was the next day.

Set-up for the event begins as soon as the 11 o'clock service ends, and it is the craziest thing you've ever seen. Suddenly, our church's foyer is home to two inflatables and candy vendors, and our gym/worship center is turned into a carnival full of games, more inflatables, and food vendors. Tons of people fill every square inch of the building, and full (controlled) chaos ensues. It is quite an amazing sight.

Because Dave was officially the one in charge of the event, he was busy making sure everything was running smoothly with the help of the other staff members. I was assigned different tasks as the needs arose until I went to my egg-exchange post and then to my Scrambled Eggs game. In the midst of it all, we had (I think) three Easter egg hunts for the different age groups. We finished up the event with door prizes, and then the crowds of people left, and all that was left in the gym were the leftover games, deflated inflatables, and discarded candy wrappers. It was then our job to pick up all the trash, take down all the signs, and put away all the games. Last night, our team was finished in less than two hours. The church was put back together, and our tired bunch of staff members and some volunteers headed for home, ready to relax after a fun, fulfilling day.

The event requires hundreds of hours of work, but it is so worth it! One of my favorite parts about the event was seeing all the community kids there. Sure, I'm excited that the church kids were there, but I consider it a success when I see more kids I don't know than kids I see every week in church. It's then that I know we're doing a good job reaching out to the community.