It was a HOT week at the Southern Iowa Fair in Oskaloosa. With temperatures and heat index over 100 degrees for several days, we felt the heat! However, it was still a fruitful week at the fair! CEF® Indian Lakes Chapter had a booth facepainting children’s faces and telling Bible stories. We love doing the fair, because we are able to talk to many children, many who would never step foot in church. Parents love letting their children get their facepainted and hear a Bible story because it allows them to walk around for a few minutes. Kids love getting their facepainted because we have great design options.
Summer missionaries worked the fair by telling the Wordless Book and painting faces. Several of the summer missionaries in the down time got their creative hats on and added new options, like a penguin, which quickly became a hit among children!
Throughout the week, we were able to talk to over 130 children and 10 of those children praying for salvation for the first time! All praise to God!! Sometimes the children would come in groups or with just one or two, but they kept us busy!
One of our favorite stories from the fair was about a little boy names Lucas (name changed for privacy) who prayed for salvation for the first time! The teacher read him Hebrews 13:5, which says “I will never leave you”. The teacher asked the boy to hold out his hand and put one word on each finger saying “I will never leave Lucas”. The boy did as the teacher instructed and did it a few times more. It began to sink in that Jesus will never leave him. His face lit up and said “woah! This is so awesome! Jesus is always with me!!”
Many children would come to our booth several times throughout the week. We had one family, who came every day. The children loved coming to see us and hear a Bible lesson. Sometimes we would review the story with them or tell them one of our 5-Day Club stories.
One of the other vendor booths was being run by some grandparents and their 11 year old granddaughter spent several days with them at the fair. She would come by our tent to help facepaint and check in on us. She loved helping us out and hanging out with the teenagers in the down time. It was great for them to be able to be a positive role model for this girl.
