Heritage Days

By Brenda Rota

We were very excited to go back to Heritage Days in Middletown this year. Last year was the church’s first year to participate in this well attended event. With more than 30% of our church family from Middletown, it makes sense to have a presence there.

This year we tried something new. Our youth got involved by entering a float in the parade. They brought great energy to the parade! The youth praise team rode on the float with their instruments and many from our youth group and church body walked alongside to hand out candy. Hearing the lyrics, “Jesus is alive”, sung down Main Street in Middletown surely brought God glory. It also gave all those on the parade route a clear message of who we are at Grace Community Church.

GCC ran our tie dye booth for the second year in a row. We did not choose tie dye because we have a resident expert. I can confess to you I did not tie dye my first shirt until last year at Heritage Days. Rather, we chose an activity to bring people into our booth who we could engage in a spiritual conversation. I was asked several times if this booth was a ‘money maker’ for the church. I loved their response when I told them it was not our goal to make money. It was our goal, though, to meet our neighbors and talk to them about Jesus.

When was the last time you set aside an entire day to be in community? All four of our pastors, the staff and many from our church body spent the better part of September 25, 2011 getting to know the people who pass our campus every day. At the end of the day, the vendor next to our booth came over to hug me good bye. She said, “I’ve watched your booth all day. Your church is like a big family.”