At GC Surrey Hills, we were planning a huge community egg hunt when COVID-19 struck our nation. Like everything else, we had to cancel this event to respect social-distancing laws.
The closer Easter came, the more our neighborhood was longing for something to do to get the family outside. We, as a church leadership team, were longing to find a way our church could serve our community and “be the Church” in the midst of tragedy.
This pandemic forced us to rethink everything and what a blessing it has been. The idea we came up with was a bit “outside the box” for our love venue, but we love it “outside the box.” So, we created a digital egg hunt for our neighborhood. We teamed up with neighborhood business and within a few hours one evening, we collected $1000 in prize sponsorships and donations to award 10 gift baskets to the first 10 families to successfully finish the hunt.
We know our target community well. There are so many young families with children and they are also a competitive bunch (we are in good company, ha!). So, we came up with something we thought all ages would enjoy.
We hid large eggs all around the neighborhood in hard to see places and released a list of clues via our facebook event page. The goal was for families to figure out where the clues were leading them, find the eggs, and take a picture of each of them without any need to get out of their cars. Once a family found all the eggs, we had them upload all the pictures on to the event page on Facebook.
We had over 500 people out and about participating in the competition and it was a total blast. If you’d like to see all the pictures and see all the details and fun, the Facebook event page is “Surrey Hills Digital Egg Hunt.” Be sure to click on the “discussion” tab. Neighbors were so into it. They came out in war paint, team colors, and plenty of friendly, neighborhood smack talk. Everyone had so much fun (even when storms and hail came down in the middle of the hunt) and so many neighbors asked if we could do this every year.
It was so great that most of our leadership participated in the hunt in some way! Pastor Joe went live on our church Facebook page as he and his family competed. It was so wonderful because many of our church members who were at home were able to participate through his video. If anyone wants to see that video, our church Facebook page is Crosswalk Community Church.
I just wanted to share this in case anyone can take this idea and possibly morph it into a community digital scavenger hunt instead of an egg hunt (since Easter has now passed). There are so many ways for the love venue to flourish in the midst of tragedy. We just have to think outside the box.
Ceeja Malmkar
GC Surrey Hills, Leadership Team
Großartig! It is simply amazing to witness how God has been blessing the spreading of the gospel in this challenging time.
God makes beautiful things out of the dust! He is SO good…ESPECIALLY in this time of tragedy. His love shines in the midst of darkness in an incredible way…through relationship. <3
Wow! That sounds like a great way to connect with your neighborhood! I like the idea of having a scavenger hunt using your idea! It can be done at any time.
What incredible fun/ joy for all and … in the name of Christ with all.