On September 9th – 10th, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd seized an opportunity for outreach at the annual Seafood Festival. The festival was heavily attended this year, with not only the regular attendees but all of the hotels and motels were booked with folks evacuating from Hurricane Irma. The festival weather was outstanding.
We had one booth set up on Saturday and Sunday, where we were handing out fans, coloring books, pens, and small toys for the kids, along with Bibles. The fans were a big hit with the warm weather; the men’s group purchased 1,000 of them and we gave all of them away. They had our church’s name, address, and phone number printed on them. On Saturday evening, 15 church members gathered at the fellowship hall to prepare gumbo for the Sunday gumbo championship. Ten groups entered this year – 5 professional and 5 amateur groups. The judges did not give us first place in the amateur division but, by the vote of the people’s choice award, we got 1st runner-up. The only group that beat us in people’s choice was Beau Rivage, which was a commercial entry. Many church members helped with this two-day event, hauling materials, setting up booths, manning the booths, making the gumbo, serving the gumbo, and talking to festival-goers. We hope we planted a lot of seeds and that some of them take root.
   