Holiday Chaos Ahead

Over this past weekend Ginny and I planned for the horrendous holiday season ahead of us. Between now and mid-January we face 4 family birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, an anniversary, a vacation trip. out-of-town guests, Luminary Night, New Years, Superbowl, a “What? Party” (to celebrate Ginny’s hearing aids when she get them), and Halloween.

We placed an order for toys and give-away stuff for the Halloween packets we prepare each year. We attempt to give the kids who come by our house the very best treat packet they will get anywhere. This year’s packets will include flying dinosaurs, color books and crayons, train whistles, rubber frog zappers, spider rings, and of course gobs of candy, and a bunch of other stuff to delight the hearts of trick-or-treaters.

Of course the reason we distribute all this stuff is to convey tracts honoring Christ into the homes of the kids who visit us.

Over the years we have given out hundreds and hundreds of such packets containing little comic book tracts put out by the Chick Publishing company. These little booklets often carry a strong gospel message illustrated with powerful drawings. But, you have to read them carefully yourself before buying one to give out because the artist sometimes attacks others in an uncharitable manner and they can be offensive.

My favorite Chick tract is one called "One Way". It is designed for people who can not read and it carries the message through pictures. We also gave out "Titanic" about a man who thought he had it made in life when he voyaged aboard the luxury liner, "Room 310" about a man dying of cancer being witnessed to by his also dying roommate, and "Holy Joe" about a soldier who testifies to Christ in battle. We also gave the children tracts about a church mouse and other figures suitable for young children.

Word has gotten around among the neighborhood kids and we have repeat batches of them come to our house year after year.

We really can’t afford to do this this year but what the hell, we do lots of things we can’t afford.

Of course, Hurricane Wilma may put a damper on our plans. But if it does, we’ll just pack the nonperishable stuff away for next year.

We are not much for handing out religious tracts but since we usually have anywhere from 60 to a hundred people walking up to our door, why not give them the best we can give? It’s just a feeble gesture toward evangelizing our own neighborhood.

This weekend we also planned the Halloween display we’ll set up – Gin wants me to put it together next weekend. We decided to use the same one we did last year illustrating the 23^rd Psalm; Here’s a photo of last year’s display: