Pearl Street Outreach
Children love Halloween. Dressing up as their favorite character and running wildly around is not uncommon amongst kids. But being able to do it and get bucket loads of free candy? Now that is every kid’s dream!
As a child growing up in Harrisonville many of us personally knew the allure of Pearl Street. Haunted houses with cackling witches, full sized candy bars, creepy old Victorian homes, and all your friends from school roaming the streets. It was a Halloween paradise!
Pearl Street was originally the main street of Harrisonville, now full of history and beautiful homes just off the historic town square. My wife and I both used to joke and dream of one day owning a home on Pearl Street. We would sit on the limestone retaining wall of a beautiful 2-story Colonial and watch the Homecoming and Log Cabin festival parades. Now as I watch my 3 boys run and climb all over that same wall, our wall, I am amazed at how the personal God of this universe orders and directs our lives and gives us the desires of our heart.
God used my heart for children and my love for historic homes and placed us right where He wanted us. The result? On that often-controversial night, when the sun draws low behind the town clock tower, the children begin the long walk with their parents down Pearl Street for Halloween, excited for the bounty they will receive. Some give out a few pieces of candy, some still hand out full sized bars, many houses receive gracious donations of candy from local businesses to help offload the cost. You may find that odd when you consider the maybe 50 children you see at your front door. But here on Pearl, we see up to 2,000 kids every year!
My heart was burdened to do something big for Halloween. And what that burden yielded has now grown exponentially. I knew I wanted to get the word of God into the hands of children and wanted to love on my neighbors. So, we decided to grill hotdogs and give them out for free! Year after year since 2020 we have given out Hotdogs (sometimes graciously donated by either Sonic of Harrisonville or QuikTrip), and goody bags containing at least 4 pieces of candy, 1 Chick tract, 1 Clean Heart tract, and a John & Romans with a custom designed cover by our very own Pastor Jeff Trude.
We have now dispersed approximately 4,300 hotdogs, and 22,000 pieces of scripture literature (tracts, John & Romans, Eternity booklets). All with the amazing hands of our Adult Bible Fellowship (ABF) PassPoint. If you haven’t attached yourself to an ABF, I highly recommend getting yourself established in the fellowship of believers. And our awesome YouGro youth group decided to join the fun. They set up and passed out 1,000 cups of hot chocolate, it was a big hit!
It is truly a blessing to see all our neighbors, people even come from out of town. They have come to expect us every year, even claiming us as their favorite house to visit! And knowing that many children have the potential to open the word of God, and hear the gospel for the very first time, or maybe that one time where it finally made sense. I do not expect to see a lot of fruit this side of eternity, but I hope and pray that we will see many on the other side.
I want to leave you with this challenge, Believer; what are you doing with the resources God has given you? Maybe it is your abilities, or your resources. Whatever it is, find a way to use it for His glory.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58