The Making of Joyland Festival
Our annual Joyland Festival is right around the corner, but this year it'll be a little different. We're anticipating 200 kids will come — a 150% jump from last year! Plus, it won't be at our church building on Alcatraz Ave. but at a warehouse in Alameda that's about three times bigger.
What does that mean? Bigger space = more game booths = more cardboard, paint, lumber, fabric = more manpower = more of EVERYTHING. It's definitely not something that a small group of 20 Joyland teachers can accomplish. So who can we call? Our entire church! This church is unique in that there are never problems finding volunteers. With a quick email, a brief phone call, or a short text message people from all the various ministries cheerfully give their time and energy to Joyland. Our members go to Costco to collect cardboard (the sturdy kind found in the toilet paper section), Home Depot to buy lumber, Walmart to buy enough fabric to cover an entire football field, and even a local junkyard to buy a huge treasure chest. Then, after going to almost every major store in the East Bay and with a lot of energy to spare, our volunteers help cut, tape, glue, paint, screw, and trace.
All this work goes on for just two hours on October 31. But is it worth it? For each child who will walk through the doors of that warehouse and see a tall model of the Space Needle, play at booths called "Wild Wild West", "Chicken Flip", and "Sum Fun" while munching on popcorn, and experience the love of God that was the driving factor behind every sign, decoration, and game…yes, it's all worth it.