More Evangelism Outside the Box

Today I went to Cropfest. That is Smalltown's annual festival, held the first weekend in November at the impressively large Smalltown fairgrounds. This was a great place to introduce myself to the locals. I passed out a slew of calling cards to folks all over Cropfest. I greeted folks selling concessions in the exhibition hall; children who came in Halloween costumes; and teenagers hanging out by the rides. One boy spotted me riding the Paratrooper and later asked me whether it was a good ride. I gave him my best recommendation. "It's fun but not outrageously fast or scary, " I told him truthfully. "Thanks ma'am," he answered, and hurried off with his friends to check it out. I handed him a card as he left.

When I first got to the carnival there wasn't much going on. One of the attendants at the "throw a dart, hit a balloon, win a prize" booth told me that if I paid for a dart, he'd guarantee me a prize. I took him up on it, bought one dart, and was lucky enough to burst a yellow balloon. I got a small stuffed gray donkey with giant teeth. Soon after that I ducked into the exhibition hall to get out of the hot sun. As I was checking out the hand-painted T-shirts, I spotted a boy who was taking care of his two small male cousins. I was impressed with the attentive child care the older cousin was providing the little ones. When they could not reach the drinking fountain, he lifted each one up in turn and held them until they had finished drinking. I gifted him with the stuffed donkey and a calling card. "Come see me sometime," I invited. As I was departing, I saw a couple of young parents with their toddler son in a stroller. The boy's name was Miguel, they said. We chatted for a minute about the fun awaiting Miguel at the festival. I realized I had four ride tickets left and that they would be worthless once I left Cropfest. There had been a sign at the ticket booth saying "No Refunds, No Exceptions" so I presented Miguel's parents with the tickets which would buy one kiddie ride. I also gave them a calling card.

I also watched the Cropfest parade march by on Main Street. Almost every float had people throwing candy to the kids. As throngs of wee ones picked up candy, they almost always left some lying on the ground because they were too excited to see it. So I would pick it up, wait for things to settle down, then go over to a group of kids and their parents and say, "I found some extra candy for you." After passing it around, I handed the parents a calling card.