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A spirit that is not afraid

Opelika First Baptist holds second-annual Fall Festival

The crowd takes in the scenes at Opelika First Baptist Church's 2022 Fall Festival held on Sunday, Oct. 30. The Opelika Police Department estimated that between 8-10,000 people attended the event.
The crowd takes in the scenes at Opelika First Baptist Church's 2022 Fall Festival held on Sunday, Oct. 30. The Opelika Police Department estimated that between 8-10,000 people attended the event.

 

For two and half hours, thousands gathered to enjoy various food trucks, inflatable bouncy houses and a friendly basketball competition between Auburn and Opelika Mayors Ron Anders and Gary Fuller before a nearly-20-minute-long fireworks show.

That was until a long-anticipated downpour sent some attendees scrambling through the rain and a thick cloud of gunpowder smoke to enjoy the rest of the display from the comfort of their vehicles. 

On Sunday evening, Opelika First Baptist Church held its second-annual Fall Festival on the square just south of downtown Opelika. In addition to serving as the church’s main outreach event, the festival was also intended to provide a safe place for families to celebrate Halloween.


Aubie greets children by the main stage at Opelika First Baptist Church's 2022 Fall Festival held on Sunday, Oct. 30.


According to Opelika First Baptist’s senior pastor, Jeff Meyers, last year’s event almost never happened.

“Last year, we did it just as an experiment because Halloween was on a Sunday night. And we thought, you know, there are so many families that struggle with safe opportunities for their children,” Meyers said.

For those families in attendance, that family-friendly atmosphere was much appreciated.

“I came out here because, for one, just for the kids and everything and, you know, the joy, the food, the festivities, and all that.” Ramir Reed-Hobbs said. “I think it's really important [to have a safe event], especially right now with all the things going on in the world. Stuff like this brings the community together and gathers people.”

Reed-Hobbs’ son Kebar was pleased with the entire event, especially a few specific aspects.

“The food, getting to play in the bouncy houses, and seeing the pastor,” Kebar said. When asked if he would like to see more events like these in the future, Kebar offered a quick, shy “yes sir.”


Amillieon Jones, 9, prepares to shoot a ball into a basketball goal while his father Casey looks on. The game was part of Opelika First Baptist Church's 2022 Fall Festival, held on Sunday, Oct. 30.


According to Meyers, the work to plan for the festival began roughly 10 months ago, thanks in no small part to event coordinator Kristen Meadows. After seeing the turnout, she said that she felt that the hard work of everyone involved behind the scenes was validated.

“It absolutely has surpassed expectations, it's been a great night,” Meadows said. “We’ve just had such a great turnout, even in the rain, so it's just been incredible to see the people turn out for lots of candy and fireworks. But our one goal is to be able to share the gospel with the community.”

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For those behind the scenes, such as Matt Johnson, a nearly 14-year member of Opelika First Baptist and event volunteer, the festival was an opportunity to connect with the surrounding community.

As he spent most of the evening passing out bags of candy that included gospel tracts, his excitement over the crowd size and hope that they were there for Jesus’ word made the damp weather irrelevant.

“As a church attendee, we know this is more than just about handing out candy or having food trucks. It's about spreading the gospel,” Johnson said. “So if I can help spread the word and all the other volunteers can do it, that's what we're gonna do.”

Before the rain, the event was planned to be an absolute spectacle. According to Meyers, the church had originally planned for skydivers to land on the square until a low cloud level forced them to abandon the idea late in the process.

Last year, there were performers on bicycles that performed flips and other stunts. And in addition to skydivers, the church had, unsuccessfully, looked at bringing in stunt drivers on motorcycles for this year’s festival.

While the main focus of the festival was to spread the word of God and evangelize to the crowd, which was done in English, Spanish and Korean, there were other reasons for holding the event.

According to Will Spivey, the college pastor, among those reasons was to help some of the estimated 800 college students involved at Opelika First Baptist put their faith into action around the world.

“We have students that are going on mission trips, and they're grilling out hamburgers and hot dogs to raise support for their trips,” Spivey said. “And so that's a way that we can be a part of all this and then also provide students ways to support trips that they need some finances for.”

Even before the festival concluded in thunderous fashion under the rain, Meyers was already looking forward to next year’s event.

“If all goes well and the Lord provides, see ya Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023,” Meyers said with a grin on his face. 


Daniel Schmidt | Assistant News Editor

Daniel Schmidt, senior in journalism, is the assistant news editor for the Auburn Plainsman. 


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