May 2024 | 13
and third grade, and fourth through sixth grade.” The hunt is the shortest part of the evening. “Now the egg hunt really only takes two point five minutes. It’s not long.” In addition to the novel time for an egg hunt, Central BC also has an interesting and cost effective plastic egg approach. “I don’t want to say the word ‘lazy,’ but we’re lazy. We don’t put anything inside the eggs,” Whiteford said. “We like to keep our eggs from year to year to keep that cost down because if you give the eggs away, the eggs cost.” Instead, children collect the eggs and turn them back in and receive a bag of candy. Each child keeps one egg and takes it to the prize distribution area to re- deem the egg for a prize. “We were concerned at one point that we weren’t go- ing to have kids hunt for eggs because they would be wise and go ‘it doesn’t really matter if I do this. I’m gonna get a prize and candy anyway,’ but that didn’t seem to be an issue.” The egg hunt was a success, and children heard the gospel. An evangelism grant from the State Conven-
The S.O.S. Blacklight Drama Team performed during the Nighttime Easter Egg Hunt at Central Baptist Church, Williamsburg.
tion of Baptists in Ohio partially sponsored the event, and Central BC used the funds in two ways. “One, that helped us to be able to give a monetary gift to the Blacklight Team because they also do mission trips and stuff like that they self-fund, so it helped us be able to help them.” The church also bought 200 Easter devotional books for families from Lifeway. Each child received one. “We wanted to give them something that we thought they might use at some point.” For Central BC, a church of 40-60 in attendance on Sunday mornings, the egg hunt is an all hands-on deck event. “I would say we probably had at least 35 of our adults there doing it. Usually, the ones that can’t do it are the ones that are just not physically able. We try to be as accommodating for people as possible so they can be there to do something.” After all the preparation and work, Whiteford says his church is pleased with how this year’s Nighttime Eas - ter Egg Hunt turned out. “I think we as a church are excited this year because we finally accomplished all the things we wanted to.”
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