A Night Without the Light

So last night was Halloween night. The first Halloween night that Oakwood hasn't done our Festival of Light in 10 years. As I drove by the church a couple of times I must admit that I was saddened to see the building dark, no people to see, the lines, the crowds, the hayrides, etc. I had to remind myself that we are on mission from God. We decided to put our FOL resources toward Family Palooza, an event that we did in September, because we felt that we could have more time to relate to people. At FOL, it became all about the candy and we didn't feel like we ever got to stop and really talk to the people there. We were always too busy herding people through the event. Get your candy and keep the line moving! Family Palooza was a huge success in and of itself and it definitely was more missional as we touched and actually talked to many more people than we ever could at FOL. Family Palooza is about time together with families and relationship building. FOL became just about candy. All of that being said, last night was still an adjustment for me and my family.

My girls have never been trick or treating. Festival of Light is all that they know. It was interesting to go and do that with the girls last night. So different when you are on the receiving end of these events. It really changes your perception about how most of the world relates to Halloween and all of the "events" that are offered. To put it in a word...it's about candy. Almost greed about candy! Didn't matter if you were 25 and didn't have a costume or anything. Go buy a cheap gory mask, get you a bag and get yourself some candy! Push those little ones to the side and get yours!

We went to a church thing first, then the mall (which was crazy), and then went on to try the door to door trick or treating. Overall I think that the girls had fun, made some memories, etc. It was all just kind of weird though. Strange feeling about missing FOL. When you do something like that for that long, it's hard to change. But change we must! We prayed long and hard about that decision for 2 years and after last year really felt that the Lord had laid it on our hearts to do something different and redirect those resources to an outreach event like Family Palooza. And so we did!

Hope that everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!