What an amazing 10th anniversary Expo celebration God gave us on Saturday! From the wonderful sunshine, great lunch by Shady Grove Methodist church [I had a tomato sandwich and a hot dog :) ] and awesome activities like the zip line, rockwall, animals, fishing, kayaking, dunk tank and more to the nearly 1,000 attendees, over 600 folks who received boat rides and over 2,200 bottles of water given out thanks to the Macedonia Missionary Baptist church, it was a HUGE GOD BLESSED SUCCESS.
It took a lot of hard work by a lot of people to set-up, execute and tear-down everything on Friday and Saturday but we know it was worth it as the smiles of joy on so many faces was a great reward. We were truly inspired seeing the Body of Christ come together and not only serve the community of East Tennessee but minister specifically to the individuals and families living with disabilities within the larger area community. God’s unexplainable economy of blessing and being blessed was the product of all those who prayed, gave, shared and served and it made a BIG DIFFERENCE in the lives of many in need of being touched by God in a special way that day.
There were local 13 churches, 11 area organizations and 12 regional businesses that came together for the outreach on top of all the wonderful volunteers that served, sweated and smiled that day. From First Methodist Dandridge and Jefferson City providing logistical and leadership support, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office providing free traffic support, Grant’s Chapel hosting our meetings and managing registration and New Freedom Missionary Baptist church bringing out 48 volunteers to First Baptist Dandridge and Lighthouse church collecting snacks, the Rutledge Fire Department providing water for the dunk tank, the Sunshine Shine Ambassadors dance performance and Tennova manning the first aide booth, it took the whole community to make the outreach happen. AND we want to put in a special call out to those who helped with set-up and tear-down. God knows who you are and you do too so THANK YOU for the extra help.
We have upload some special photos to the ETN Expo page on our website at http://www.access-life.org/etnexpo in case you’d like to see more smiles and things on social media are all tagged #ETNEXPO2019 and #accesslifeexpo so feel free to upload, download and share things there, too.
IT WAS TEN YEARS IN THE MAKING AND WHAT A MEMORY GOD GAVE US ALL THIS YEAR. :)