Friday, October 23, 2009

a trial run: part 1

As a Christian, the decision concerning whether or not to "celebrate" Halloween can be a difficult one. Many people struggle with the question of how one's participation may or may not glorify God. For us, over the past few years, our church has put on a 'House of Horrors'. We have been using Halloween as an outreach to preach the gospel in our city. We have seen hundreds of people come through our 'House of Horrors' and large numbers make a decision to ask Jesus to come into their hearts. Unfortunately, this year we will not be putting it on because we are attending a church conference called Harvestors Homecoming {where pastors and their families who were sent out to pioneer a church, come back to the mother church to be refreshed and encouraged-- It is also a time where others may be inspired to take up the mantle to do the same} My husband will also be preaching at this event as well.

So this year, with the children's involvement, we are planning our first 'front yard' outreach. Fog machine, strobe lights and candy attached to our church flyers. We will be using next Saturday night as another way to invite people to church. This is where my big boy in the Dracula costume {below} comes in. Being some kind of demonic character "just for fun" is really not an option in our house, but for the purpose of the outreach and Parker's understanding of this, an exception can be made; He has a big heart for Jesus. While he's involved with being the main attraction, what will the other Cuppycakes be doing? Running around the front yard and eating tons of the candy overflow, of course.

Next Friday and Saturday, I will be sharing the costumes the rest of my little ones decided to be. They are all looking REALLY cute. What does a Mommy with 7 children do? I guess you can call this a trial run. My thinking was that it would be kind of hard on Halloween night to take each sweetie's picture with all the running around, getting ready and general chaos that will surely be occurring that night. So I decided to do it in advance and save myself the stress! My kids thought it was great too!



......wait till you see Ruby in her costume.

6 comments:

Faythe said...

Praise Chapel ?

Pink Slippers said...

No we are not Praise Chapel. I don't believe we have that particular church in our county.

Iphigenia said...

It is nice to see your children having fun. I like it how you take the halloween theme and use it to suit your life, your faith (I hope I 've used the correct words)...good on you!!!! In our country halloween is not a big celebration and neither are we big on it. We are big on Christmas and Easter celebrations and of course birthdays espy my childrens. Can't wait to see the photos espy the one of groovy Ruby...have a marvellous weekend.

SueLovesCherries said...

Hi Wendy! (I have an older sis Wendy, and our maiden name is Pink!)

We don't celebrate Halloween either - it's funny how so many Christians look at us like we're aliens or something (well, actually "we are not of this world"!). When our 11th grader was in 7th grade we let her decide if she wanted to go trick-or-treating with her little non-Christian cousins. She went but, at that age, realized it was just a bunch of hype - it didn't impress her.

This year my other daughter, now in 7th grade, is joining her cousins - we'll see what her opinion is!

Mollye said...

Yay for your stand on a truly dangerous activity. Yep it's pagan and yep lots of folks adore it. My family used to celebrate when the kids were young mostly because two of the youngins had birthdays within days of Halloween, so I planned their BD parties with a Halloween theme with the costumes, treats etc. Now I just turn the light off, hubby goes hunting and I stay in and crochet. Quietly!

Unknown said...

That is a good idea to use your yard as an outreach...Can't wait to see pics of that night.