From the Wilder View - October 2008

Early in my life at Lafayette Park, someone referred to me as their ‘crazy pastor.’ I am not exactly sure who it was that gave me this title, and I’m not even sure they might not have been right. It might have been the idea of the tower climb, or making the sign (and holding it up during a sermon) that said, “No Struggling.” Or it might have been the crazy idea of hosting a pumpkin patch…after all as one of our early customers said…”I saw your patch from my car as I was getting off ’44,’ and I called my brother and told him we had a pumpkin patch in our Hood.” I guess it really did seem like a tremendously crazy idea to host a pumpkin patch five years ago. We were a relatively small church then (averaging 82 in worship). We had never seen a pumpkin patch. We just knew that someone was going to ‘steal our pumpkins’ or take the pumpkins and throw them at our beautiful stained glass windows. Yet, there were a few people who said, “Why not? This could be fun.”

Well, we made it that first year primarily due to the dedication of Debra Crowe and Lynn Chrisler, both of whom spent countless hours in horrible weather, watching pumpkins, and wiping the pumpkins dry every day (no small task considering it seemed to rain every day that year. ) Each year, it seems like we have more help and more people play on our patch. It has become something that the neighborhood looks forward to each year now.

I was talking to a couple of people just last week and they shook their heads at me and said, “Why are you so excited about the pumpkin patch?” I told them, that while our original intention was to be a fundraiser for the church, we never have really made what everyone projected that we would make. However, we have accomplished something so much more important.

You see, the very first year, we hosted the patch, a woman from the Family Resource Center stopped by the patch, and looked at it with great big eyes. She asked if their children could come to the patch and play. The children that are served by the Family Resource Center are children who have experienced great tragedy in their lives at a very young age. She told me that they would have the appropriate number of adults to watch the children but they also mentioned that the children might have emotional reactions to being outside. When she realized that the pumpkins were for sale, she explained that they really didn’t have money to purchase the pumpkins. “Would it still be possible for them to come and play, even though we can’t afford to buy pumpkins?”

I will never forget the first day they came. The children and their caregivers got out of vans, and they were all huddled together. The children had a mixture of excitement and fear, as they wondered what strange place they were being taken to. Then a few moments later, they were playing with chalk, and running around the patch. The air was filled with laughter and joy. For one day, the pain of their past slipped away and they were happy children playing in a pumpkin patch. The best part was that we had talked to various groups in the church and they sponsored a pumpkin for each child! Each year, we reserve time for children who would not be able to go to a pumpkin patch, and we find sponsors to send them home with a pumpkin.

Yes, we probably will never make the kind of money that other churches do on the pumpkin patch. However, the memories we make are priceless. Sometimes it is good to be crazy. Who knows how God’s grace will show up? You just never know what seems absolutely crazy today could become something that is just a part of our everyday life, a few years from now. What crazy thing is God calling you to do?


Grace and Peace,
Reverend Kathleen
lppastor@sbcglobal.net