Anyone who has ever doubted the power of prayer should have been at New Beginnings Community Church’s seventh annual Easter Extravaganza and Egg Hunt on Saturday at J.F. Gregory Park.
Pastor Steve Lane said he and other church members working the egg hunt watched the skies open up Saturday morning and drop torrents of rain on the park grounds before the event’s 11 a.m. kickoff.
“We knew that we had a lot of people coming. We prayed for a break in the rain so the families could enjoy the fun at J.F. Gregory,” Lane said.
With less than an hour before throngs of children would scoop up the eggs, the rain stopped. The sky temporarily cleared a little and thousands in attendance embarked on the hunt.
“We had a perfect window. After the hunt was over, the skies opened back up and the rain started back up,” the pastor said.
Children sought out 30,000 candy-filled eggs, had their photos taken with the Easter bunny and played a variety of games.
The festivities wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of dozens of volunteers, according to Lane.
“We had more than 50 volunteers filling eggs. We started filling them the first week of February. We called them ‘egg-stuffing parties.’ None of this would have been possible without their hard work,” Lane said.