On Saturday, October 17th of this year we sponsored a free kids Halloween Costume Exchange for our community. We had three goals in mind and all were met. First we desired to reach out to the needy in our community and of the nearly 100 people who participated, most were needy. One young mother told us, “If you had not done this, I would not have been able to have a Halloween with my daughter this year.” That was heart-warming. And only three families were involved with any church.
Our second goal was to advertise our church. We are two miles west of town and few people pass by our church regularly, so this put us on the map for those who attended. We gave each family a bag filled with church and children’s ministry information, a fun gospel tract about Halloween and provided cookies for the kids.
And our third goal was to use this as a bridge event into our trunk or treat outreach being held at the county fairgrounds on Halloween. This is an event where several churches combine resources to reach out to the community. Caring believers load their trunks with candy and then give it away as children walk by. Several use innovative object lessons to communicate the good news to the children. Last year there were an estimated 3000 kids participating in trunk or treat.
The preparation for the costume exchange was minimal and it cost us about $100 to purchase 30 Halloween costumes. In fact, we had costumes left over. Our children’s ministry staff did all the preparations and ran the event. We are looking forward to doing it next year again, two Saturdays before Halloween. We are grateful God blessed us with a successful event and an opportunity to meaningfully share Christ’s love with the participants.
Pastor Mike Lundberg
Church on the Hill
Montrose, Colorado