The afternoon kicked off with children carving pumpkins and wrapped up with a big chili supper and chili-cook off. The scene was Liberty Baptist Church in the Martin area on Saturday October 20th.

The photos tell it all. The children had a great time designing the face that they would carve, then they used their hands to scoop out all the gooey insides of the pumpkins. Some carved scary faces and others carved happy smiles. The little ones painted small pumpkins.

Then all the children gathered around as Bro Harry Bamburg read them from the gospels. He recalled Jesus telling his disciples not to prevent the little children from coming to Him. Bamburg asked, “Why do you put eyes in the pumpkins? So they can see out! And you put a candle inside to shine out through the eyes.” Then Bamburg asked, “Why do you scoop all the stuff out of the pumpkin? Because Jesus is the light that shines in our lives. He gets all the yuck and old stuff out of us.”

There were at least five large pots of chili entered in the chili cook-off. All were delicious, however the judges selected the chili prepared by John Perry Bamburg as the winner. Hanna Picket created and modeled the grand prize, a Chili Cook-Off Apron. There was a great crowd of parents, grandparents and the children and all enjoyed the chili until they were satisfied.