Do you know why we like Halloween so much? One reason…
It is a MASSIVE evangelism field ready for planting and harvesting!
In 2018, it was reported that nearly 70% of people in the U.S. alone will be participating in some sort of Halloween activity, and the holiday itself has become a 9 BILLION DOLLAR industry. Like it or not, this holiday is no small thing. And so, in order to leverage the holiday and surrounding activities (and to take the battle directly to the Enemy,) we created the Realm of Shadow.
The Realm of Shadow is a gore-free community haunted attraction/maze that was started by Ron Love and Nathan Hamre nearly 15 years ago. Our mission has been simple: to put on a quality, creepy, fun maze each year, so that we can attract as many people as possible. As the people go through the maze, they are given great candy and gospel tracts. Doing this year after year has allowed us to create a ton of goodwill within the community, and allows us to regularly engage in spiritual conversations with the attendees. What Satan has meant for evil, God turns it on its ear and uses for His purposes each year. Prior to 2018, the Realm of Shadow had been opening our home-based haunt each year for multiple nights over the Halloween season. We were very blessed to reach an average of 400 people each year with the gospel. However, in 2019, God opened the door for us to showcase our haunt at the Midsummer Scream Convention in Long Beach. We reached nearly 4,000 people with the gospel over that one weekend! And during that Halloween season, we reached an additional 800 people in our own community. As God leads, we will follow. In doing so, we will continue to up the quality of the event in order to attract an even wider audience by reaching several of our building and equipment goals with the generous support of many friends and supporters. God continues to bless this outreach abundantly with increased opportunities to reach people, and it always appears that He has more in mind for us to accomplish.
Unbelievably, due to COVID restrictions, the Midsummer Scream Convention was cancelled for both the 2020 and 2021 seasons, as was our 2020 Halloween season in Bellflower. We were blessed by the opportunity to re-open for Halloween 2021 at a new location in Norwalk, and with your help, we were able to reach approximately 1,600 people with the gospel last year! We look forward to even larger opportunities in 2022.
WHAT’S COMING…
It certainly has been a strange couple of years, hasn’t it? I never would have predicted the cancellations of two Midsummer Scream Conventions in Long Beach and our own Realm of Shadow 2020 outreach. And yet…that is what happened. But God is always in control, and the new partnerships He has blessed us with have certainly enabled us to potentially reach many more people than we thought possible.
With a successful outreach this last October, we are ready to take on the hard, difficult task of returning to the Midsummer Scream Convention outreach. WHY? Because how do you say NO to being accessible to over 30,000 convention attendees, and being able to pass tracts out to people going through our haunt and possibly reaching 4,000 to 5,000 of those people during that weekend? You just can’t. It’s this interaction with people that makes all the hard work worth it! So, we are taking our build from this last Halloween, modifying it for the convention, and seeing what God will do. Believe me…those two days of build prior to the convention are crazy, but we are committed to hitting the 2022 outreach opportunities harder than ever. In the end, it’s all about reaching more and more people for Jesus, and we need your help.
WHAT’S NEEDED
We are seeking prayer and financial support for a very wide range of needs this year, and our goal is roughly $2,500 – $3,500 for the 2022 season. Our main and immediate needs are for the modifications for the convention build. We need many foam sheets, brick paneling, additional trigger modules, paint, and build hardware. We will be using mostly already owned props to keep costs down, but, unfortunately, building materials continue to be very high due to the last two years. We thank God for the infrastructure gifts He miraculously provided for the 2021 haunt, and so we look to Him to continue to provide through His hand and His people. Any amount of support will help and is deeply appreciated.
The opportunities God continues to place in front of us go way beyond anything we ever imagined, but we know that through your prayers and financial support, God will accomplish all that He has put before us to do! Thank you for being a part of this special outreach, and thank you for allowing us to provide the opportunity for you to extend your evangelistic reach by letting us be your hands.
Scaring is caring.
The Realm of Shadow Outreach Team