New Park = New Opportunity!

Our community just put in a playground about 6 blocks from our church. We take our boys there to play, and I started thinking of ways to use this as an opportunity for outreach. For the past few years, Jeff Bobin has brought in people to the Conference Center to teach how to make balloon animals. While some may look at this as childish, I see it as a way to make a connection point for people. Yesterday I took my bag of balloons, printed up a bunch of stickers with our church name and website and "Balloons from Bethany UMC!" on them, and decided to see what would happen. It was amazing! The second I started on the first balloon, I had a line of kids waiting with their parents. As I blew up the balloons and made the animals for each child, I asked their name, and shared with the parents who I was and what church I was with, and told them there was information on the sticker about our church if anyone was interested. I ran out of balloons just when the last kid came forward, so I was able to make one (or two, there were a few popped balloons along the way!) for everyone. Then as I was sitting down watching my kids play afterwards, it was easy to talk to some of the parents who were sitting there and engage in conversation about church, ministry, and family. Yesterday was the first, but certainly not the last time I will be doing this. I bought more stickers to print, and I need to get to the party store for more balloons!