Here’s a wrap-up of this years Relay for Life event from the Director of action-events: Kenna Schaller:
I am so proud to be a part of a church that takes their mission statement seriously!
Loving God, Loving People, Taking action…..The actionchurch crowd was
seriously into it the entire weekend. Everyone was able to use the skills and
talents that God gave them to make this event a success!
We had people at Vo-Tech at 8:00 in the morning scouting the area and doing
pre-setup…..People took their lunch hours to come out and plant the
actionchurch logo at various stations throughout the track! Crews and crews of
people, walking the track, loving kids, making coffee, makng friends for over 24
hours!!!
Our FREE coffee bar tent was the happening place to be at Relay…..we
served countless (literally) countless cups of coffee. Three 40 plus cup coffee
pots running continuously from 9:00 P.M. until way after breakfast. You do the
math, but I stopped counting at about 500 cups!
Team members walking all through the day and the night! A continuous 24
hours on the track . Someone in an a/c t-shirt on the track at all times,
representing our church!
At the crack of dawn, the troops started coming across the track like Moses
people crossing the desert! The volunteers kept coming and coming and coming!
at one point I was looking for things for people to do – we had THAT MANY
volunteers!
And the really really cool thing was that we had everyone involved from the
very young to the very old. Wee little actionkidz walking the track, taking
turns doing laps so our team would be represented….entire families and friends
cooking and baking and pouring coffee and juice, running eggs and pancakes from
the grills to the serving line – one person said to me ” My son couldn’t be
here, so I brought my neighbor” soooo cool! …serving and encouraging
…loving and honoring God! We had a teenager there who VOLUNTEERED to wash
dishes….and when all the dishes were done she took a turn at the bounce
house….we had elders serving bagels and fruit! It was so wonderful – Gang, we
served a complete, delicious, nutricious breakfast to close to 500 people!
The bounce houses were a HUGE hit – it wouldn’t be Relay without them and
it took some very dedicated people to supervise the fun! (We only had a small
amount of blood!) The kids absolutely love the bounce houses and they are a
very important part of our mission at Relay.
And don’t forget the cleanup crew! Those dedicated people who hang to the
bitter end to wrap up the whole event. The preacher’s wife herself with a
garbage bag walking the field picking up after other campers! How dedicated is
that?
This year actionchurch was given the Generous Heart award by the American
Cancer Society. All I can say was it was a God thing. We couldn’ t have made
it happen without Him.
150 biscuits, 33 dozen eggs, 100kazillion cups of coffee, 24 hours and lots
of blisters later, we can start planning our next actionchurch event. I’m
looking forward to it! – Kenna