This might seem odd to post now. Why a post on last year’s County fair in January? I was about to delete this post that was written last year when I had second thoughts about it. We had discussed it and decided not to post it because we didn’t want the focus to be us. That still is our heart’s desire, but as I reread this now, I feel, it might be a needed encouragement for families to be busy about God’s leading. So please as you read this, it isn’t about us, but about the Lord Jesus Who wants us to be busy telling others about the reality of Heaven and Hell, and Jesus, Who is the ONLY Savior of our souls and way to the Father.
Steve
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(Update previously written by Sarah)
Thank you all for your prayers during the fair week. We were so grateful. It was an amazing thing to be able to hand out tracts, make balloons, and share Jesus. One girl I spoke with, when I asked where she was going to spend eternity, looked a bit puzzled, and asked me, “What’s that?” I remember another woman said she was going to face it when she got there. Sadly, it would be too late. May we all be faithful to share Christ!
Usually I’m the one taking pictures in the family, but during fair week, Dad took quite a few pictures. He even went to the grandstands to get a different perspective of our booth. We hope you are blessed by a pictorial view into the fair week.
I have a feeling Christopher was sharing Jesus while he made the balloon! đŸ™‚
A perspective on the booth from the grandstands (directly across from us!)…
A family who had just been by our booth–the dad and daughter had balloon hats!
Christopher was going over one of the tracts with these girls.
Christopher had quite a group of guys, and I think most of them wanted “crazy hats!”
I thought this was a cute picture, a cowboy Grandpa with his cowboy grandsons!
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“What would you like: a flower or a crazy hat?” was the sort of question we would frequently ask. It was easy when they just wanted a dog :-).
My daddy sharing Jesus!
Crazy hat and it’s designer.
Someone graciously took our group picture. Left to right: Nathan, Melanie, John, Anna, Joseph, Dad, me, and Christopher
I am glad you decided to post this. It was very encouraging and oriented” in order to share Christ. It is good to see a picture (literal and word) of this being walked out.
Could you please tell us more about your fair ministry.
It looks like you opened a booth and started handing out balloons and sodas. I think of the fair and think that in 10 minutes you would be cleared out. Could you please let us know some of the logistics of what you did?
Thanks
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Nathan made rough estimates for the week based on fair attendance. He tried to guess high for the first night and then went evening by evening. We almost always “sold out” by the end of the day. There were roughly 400 or more each night with a total of over 3,000 units of water and soda. It took a lot of coolers each night and they had to be filled each day so they would be cold at night. Usually, John helped Melanie during the day get those things ready. I don’t know what the projected attendance was and not everyone took something.
One thing for sure, it was a blessing and well worth it.
In Christ Jesus,
Steve
We are very glad that you posted this- you have blessed our socks off! By the way- the pictures helped us to enjoy it even more!)
We know what a joy it is to do such things as a family to reach out to the community, and it gives us so much joy to read about your experience. We have been recently working on a web site that inspires other families to serve together for the sake of the Gospel, and this was just the encouragment we needed to keep pressing on! Thank you, Maxwell family, for spurring us on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24)!
We had also lost hope in free giveaways, as we have given out glow necklaces, sodas, quarters at the laundromat, and waters on different occasions over the years, and have not seen a whole lot of fruit. But we love how you did it- having the tracks “out there”, instead of waiting for people to ask why it’s free to begin our conversation about our Lord. (Surprisingly, so few people did ask!) Thank you for giving us better direction!
We are so thankful that you posted this!