Sunday, December 14, 2014

December 14 – “Success and joy”

The Bethlehem Street Market 2014 is officially in the books.  And right off the bat, I must begin with thanks to God.  Sounds so … meager, doesn’t it?  But I have to say I had more opportunities yesterday – walking around in my dress and bathrobe (AKA my Bethlehem period costume) – to talk with people about the church and especially about Jesus, than I have had at any single event (where I wasn’t teaching) in as long as I can remember.  What camp is like.  Where it is.  The history of the church.  Our style of worship.  Our laid-back atmosphere and dress.  What time we begin.  Our main focus being what you decide to do with Jesus.  Moving beyond complacency.  Returning to God and church.  Restoring relationships.  Yep.  Every one of those things and more came up in my conversations yesterday.  Quite the dream day for a pastor, right?

So … for the third year Seaside has put on a craft fair in the early days of December with the express purpose of raising money to help send our teenagers to camp in the summer.  They go to the Centrifuge Camp in Glorieta, New Mexico, so the expenses can be substantial.  We have to rent at least one van and sometimes a trailer for luggage.  And there’s gas for the van.  We pay for the counselors to attend.  After all, they are basically on call and at work for 24 hours a day for a full week.  It gives them a little taste of life in the ministry, I guess.  There are other incidental costs as well, as is the case for any major road trip.  And that is on top of the actual cost for the camp itself, which is usually just over $300 per person.  As you can see, it all adds up quickly.  So the Bethlehem Street Market really cuts into that budget and hopefully gives the kids a bit of a breather on their individual costs.  As it stands right now, it looks like we made over $1300.  Now that’s a successful event, I would say.  That much completely covers the cost of renting one van and then some.  Now the kids will be planning some car washes and the like to knock down the rest of the cost.  Thank you so much to the vendors and especially to those who came by the market to spend some money.  If the vendors are happy, they will come back next year.  Thanks as well to those folks who gave way over and above in donations at the Gentile-ly used market.    

Of course, special thanks to Lauren and Dana for their coordinating work and for all the preliminary footwork they put into the event.  The Wyrick Family was invaluable, providing some incredible barbeque, and lots of time working the food concessions, not to mention the guitar and harmonica solos by Houston.  The Stone Family goats (and their talented goat-herder, Jason), were perhaps the biggest hit of the day, especially with the youngsters.  Two nanny goats and two brand new, four or five day old babies were enough to fascinate children of all ages.  And the pen was set up right next to our newly renovated playground equipment.  The Holt’s put in some hours building the goat pen and getting the wi-fi up and running and covering the bake sale table and handling the event money and helping with cleanup.  John Weldon and his crew finished up just in time to provide some jungle gym/slide/swing action.  Thanks to Chris for her day spent manning the Gentile-ly Used booth and for giving us all marching orders when it came to clean-up time.  Of course there were others, and of course I’m sure I missed more than one thank you, so please fill in your name here and know that we appreciate what you did. 

So now … camp sign up has begun.  Planning for next year’s Market will begin after the holidays.  It’s the Third Sunday in Advent … the Sunday of Joy … and right now it’s 6:30 in the morning … and the Bible says, “Joy comes in the morning” … so Be Joyful!  Have a wonderful day.

Psalms 30:5 says, “For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”

Father, thank you again for so obviously being around yesterday.  Draw those folks to you – the ones you put in my path to talk to.  Gift them with some real joy when they wake up this morning.  Amen.

No comments: