Well,
Bethlehem Street Market is over and I think I might have my wife back. Yes, the two are kind of related. She somehow became the go-to person for the
day, and she takes any responsibility like that to heart. Chris poured her every waking hour into
making the even successful, and from my perspective as pastor, it worked. I have no idea what the numerical totals
were, money or otherwise (although I’m
pretty certain Chris can tell you exactly).
But I do know that there were a few hundred folks who walked around
Seaside and received a free gift from us (a
cloth shopping bag with Scripture imprinted on it and filled with a copy of the
Gospel of John and a homemade Christmas ornament). I got to talk to quite a few vendors and
shoppers, and everyone seemed generally pleased with the way thing went
down. Oh, we have some logistical things
to work on for next year. Parking, for
one, was an issue. We even had a visit
from one of Jamaica Beach’s finest because one of the roads was almost blocked
with cars. He was very patient with us,
though, and the offenders soon drove away happy, oblivious to their near-ticket
experience. And we had a “Just to let
you know” visit from the real estate office next door about us taking up all
their parking spaces, but there were no vendors involved, so the problem was
short-lived. And they weren’t mad enough
to stay away from the scrumptious barbeque sandwiches in the kitchen. Or was it the taco soup? I heard that stuff sold out first. (A
Chris Vaughan specialty, I might add).
Our
Seaside work crew was nothing short of phenomenal. Several Seasiders took yard signs to
advertise. Others posted the event on
FaceBook. We had some trouble getting an
ad in the newspaper (The kind we actually
wanted to PAY for). For some strange
reason the “right person” wouldn’t return our calls. They did get us in the community Christmas
events section, though. Thank you to
Lauren for taking care of that. Shawn
picked up the Block Party Trailer from LaMarque so we could have the bouncy
house. And that monster was set up and torn
down with help from Cory, Jason, and Irv.
Jason also built the goat pen and got them settled in for the day. We always get so many great comments about
the goats. Robert was there to help get
the wooden sign up, and Lauren came in early (before she had to leave to board the ship for her cruise … that’s
commitment) to help get signs posted everywhere. Bob and Espy and Grace handled kitchen duties
admirably. Kara and Adrian and Dayna
manned the Bethlehem’s Best Sweets booth.
And among them all, they kept the Christmas music rolling (which most of the time consisted of the
Chipmunks, I noticed). Speaking of
music, Wes set up Christmas music for the worship center and for those
outside.
I
met one shopper couple who wanted to be placed on the vendor list for next year.
Another couple’s only question was “What
time are your Christmas Eve services?
We’ll be there.” Another asked
what time our Sunday services started. I
even had several sidewalk counseling sessions when folks found out I was the pastor. We got the gospel into the hands of quite a
few people. Chris heard one of them say
she couldn’t wait to get home and “check out the little book. It looks really interesting.” Interesting, indeed, ma’am. May God use it to touch and change your heart
forever.
1
Peter 1:24-25 says, “For, ‘All men are
like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass
withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.’ And this is the word that was preached to
you.”
Father,
thanks for covering our meager efforts yesterday. it sure wouldn’t have been the same without
your presence. Amen.
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