In the towns and cities dotting the rolling hills of southwestern Indiana, there remains a sense of pride among residents in who they are and where they live. This can be seen in the annual festivals each town sponsors. These festivals provide a wonderful opportunity for small churches to witness about the love of Jesus Christ. The challenge is how to create a positive witness without offending others’ sense of pride in their own churches and towns, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
For six years, the Huntingburg (Indiana) Church has sold food at a booth during Jasper Strassenfest. This festival has a 26-year history and is held annually during the first week of August. Over 30,000 festival visitors celebrate the area’s rich German heritage, more than doubling the town’s population.
Members have tried various ways to present a positive witness at Strassenfest, including: passing out literature, raffling off vegetarian cookbooks, passing out balloons with the church’s name on it, etc.
Strassenfest runs from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon, giving the Huntingburg Church the challenge of determining what to do from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown each year. For the past two years, the Holy Spirit led us to a bold witnessing plan; we gave food away during the Sabbath hours.
The Huntingburg Church has never operated a booth at the Strassenfest to make money, but we do our best to break even. Giving away a few hundred dollars worth of food is a step of faith, based on the relatively small annual budget of a church with only 20 members or so. We put our faith in God, and started giving away food this year as the sun set in the west on Friday.
Persons approaching our booth during Sabbath hours fully expected to pay the full price for the nachos and cheese, water, vegetarian tacos or fajitas listed on our sign. Their look of surprise and confusion when told the food was free drew comments like: “You are kidding, right?”; “Can I give a donation?”; and, “Why are you giving the food away?”
Each visitor received a card with with the words of Exodus 20:8–11 printed on one side and on the other, the Seventh-day Adventist Church name, logo, and the words, “A Sabbath gift for you!”
Historically, our slowest day to sell food is Sunday. Even with the parade passing directly in front of our booth, situated on the west side of the Jasper town square, the three-mile route spreads people out so far they are not just located on the square. In the past, a normal Sunday-sale total averaged $200 to $300. The cooler weather, and the blessing of the Holy Spirit, resulted in sales of over $600 this year.
Just as the people of southwestern Indiana have a sense of pride in who they are and where they live, the members of the Huntingburg Church feel a sense of pride in Who we serve and what He accomplished through us during the 2004 Strassenfest.
Brian Wilson is a member of the Huntingburg Church.
