1. When I arrived at Harris Field shortly after 3 PM yesterday afternoon one of the first persons I recognized was Tom. He was up on a ladder posting huge signs on the fences of the baseball fields which were later transformed into our MASSIVE egg hunt fields. After that Tom recruited me to assist him in putting up and securing into the ground the four canopies that spanned the Registration area. Tom is a genius with his hands, and when all was said and done Tom put in about 14 hours yesterday of blood, sweat, and tears. Tom is what Life Pointe Church is all about !
2. The lines at the Registration tables began forming well before 5 PM, and at their peak they were over a quarter of a mile in length. I’m no statistician – oh wait a minute – YES I am – so if I had to estimate how many people actually showed up for our event then I would put it in the general vicinity of about 5,000 to perhaps 6,000. That’s pretty much triple the amount of people that we were expecting. If 2% of those adults and kids show up for one of our three Easter Sunday services tomorrow morning (8:30, 9:40, and 10:50) then we will be quite busy at the movie theatre.
3. From inception to event we had exactly 4 weeks to plan and prepare for everything. We did an incredible job pulling everything together, working as a team, and putting on this event for our thousands of guests. Ms. Annie H. and Ms. Kelly J. were absolutely amazing as leaders of the overall Registration area. Sure we had our glitches that occurred, and chaos that ensued, and tempers that flared, but at the end of it all this event was nothing short of an overwhelming success story. We came. We saw. We conquered. We will go back to the drawing board once the dust settles, and decide if we want to do this all over again next Easter. If we do then we will begin planning for it many months in advance to greatly improve upon everything.
4. Based on various reports all throughout Harris Field the kids and the teens in attendance were very well behaved. We had some problems with some of our adult guests. We encountered a few of these problems during the lengthy Registration process, within the concessions area, out on the egg hunt fields, and especially during the prize-claim and exit process. It was a long night for everyone. In response to one particular verbal outburst that occurred late in the evening we may be ‘church people’, but we are also regular human beings – just like you. We are no better than you. We never make that claim. We make mistakes too – just like you. We also learn from our mistakes – just like you.
5. We took Harris Field back at around 10 PM, disassembled everything, and cleaned-up the joint with several boxes of trash bags chock-full of garbage. I was absolutely proud of my City Of Homestead for being there on-site with a pick-up truck to collect all of the trash that we collected. They have learned from their mistakes in the past, and we will as well.
6. Pastor Travis brought us all together at the end of it all to cap off the night with an awesome prayer to put everything back into perspective. This event was not at all about us. This event was all about giving back to our community. That is why we exist – to serve God first and foremost – and to serve our guests – those who live and breathe all around us. Some of our guests will hopefully join our rapidly growing family and mission in the future. God is always at work here in Homestead Florida. Unfortunately Satan is working hard too. On this night God absolutely won hands down – no questions about it !
CountUp 