I am in Piteste Romania working with a church that is focusing their outreach on neighborhood kids age 6-10. Our main ministry has been advertising and facilitating carnival events that happen each Saturday at the church. Every day of the week, our team goes out twice a day to hand out fliers with little pieces of candy attached.
(Notice the different clown costumes, this one is my favorite!!)
Here’s the fun part. We do it dressed in full clown costumes! It’s lucky I already went to clown school to be a street clown for the Dallas Children’s Parade! On Saturdays, we have the carnival for the kids with games, face painting, balloon animals, snacks, and a Bible story that parallels the children’s classic book Heidi. As you can imagine, this ministry is loads of fun! Here we are out at the park playing with kids!
What I love about the church is their outreach is focused on a group and they have invested so much in it. They have at least 10 full clown outfits with all the accessories. Kids are captivated for sure by us and come running down the street to see what is going on. We can give them an invitation to the event at the church. The parents also come and get to see what the church is all about.
It’s a pretty good system, but it takes a lot of commitment on the part of the church. When we leave, there will still be invitations to pass out and carnivals to throw. The church volunteers have an appointment every Saturday at carnival time. It’s a commitment, but it’s a great way to reach the young kids of the community. I think this kind of model could work well for churches in America, too. I’m totally in for being a clown back home if we want to do it!!
I hope this kid comes to know Jesus after getting introduced to the church at the carnival!! His sister and Dad both came, too!
Here’s a little video of the Parade of Clowns the first day we went out from the church into the neighborhood. What a fun month!
