Pumpkin farmers, I hear, are competing to be the first to grow a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/garden/the-race-to-grow-the-one-ton-pumpkin.html?_r=2&amp;partner=MYWAY&amp;ei=5065" target="_blank">one ton pumpkin</a>. What a feat that will be!  I would love to see that pumpkin.  Because I love pumpkins.

In part because I love Fall. The moderate weather, the beautiful Fall leaves.  My birthday is in the Fall.  But the main reason I have fallen so completely in love with pumpkins is <a href="http://www.pumpkinsusa.com/" target="_blank">the Pumpkin Patch</a>.

Specifically the Pumpkin Patch at <a title="Trinity_United_Methodist_Church_Rome_GA" href="http://www.trinityumcrome.org/" target="_blank">our church</a>.

[caption id="attachment_126" align="alignright" width="233" caption="Pumpkin Patch at Trinity United Methodist, Rome, GA, 2009"]<a title="Trinity United Methodist Church, Rome, Georgia" href="http://trinityumcrome.org/" target="_blank"><img class="size-medium wp-image-126 " title="Trinity_pumpkins" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Trinity_pumpkins1-300x208.jpg" alt="" width="233" height="162" /></a>[/caption]

Fourteen years ago, Grant Magness, our youth minister walked into a youth council meeting and talked to us enthusiastically about the possibility of selling pumpkins, on the front lawn of our church, to raise money for the youth program.  At that point we had three children in the youth group - the reason I was a member of the youth council.

A church selling pumpkins didn't seem like a good idea to me. But I loved that youth minister and was, therefore, willing to keep my mouth shut and to give his idea a try. That taught me to keep my mouth shut more often!

2011 is our fourteenth year of selling pumpkins.  Each year we have around 1500 children come for field trips.  The field trips consist of 30 minutes of storytelling and music and another 30 minutes of children "in the Patch" - finding a tall pumpkin, then a short, fat pumpkin, then one with lumpy-bumps, then watching a pumpkin being carved.  If the children are very brave, they put their hands down inside the pumpkin and pull out a handful of slimy pulp and seeds.

For a couple of  years, our son Andrew carved 35-40 pumpkins a year!  You can see a video of him carving for a group of children <a title="Andrew_carving_pumpkin" href="http://www.trinityumcrome.org/content/carving-pumpkin" target="_blank">here</a>.

[caption id="attachment_128" align="alignright" width="499" caption="Susan telling a story, Andrew waiting to carve a pumpkin"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Patch_storytelling.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-128" title="Patch_storytelling" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Patch_storytelling.jpg" alt="" width="499" height="304" /></a>[/caption]

And my Octobers for the past 14 years have included storytelling for about half of those children. I love the storytelling and I love seeing all those children, with their smiling, excited faces, running through the pumpkins and having a happy time.

Pumpkins remind me that God can use anyone or anything, even pumpkins, to reach out to His people. Members of our church who attend different worship services and different Sunday School classes, people of different ages, get together and get to know each other pulling 2000 pumpkins off a truck, or working in the Patch.

People who otherwise have little or nothing to do with a church, come and buy a pumpkin and experience joy on God's property.

[caption id="attachment_133" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="2000 pumpkins come off the truck and down long lines onto the pallets on the front lawn of Trinity UMC, Rome, GA"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Tayler_Jay_pumpkins.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-133" title="Tayler_Jay_pumpkins" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Tayler_Jay_pumpkins.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="413" /></a>[/caption]

We read the book, <a title="Pumpkin_Patch_Parable" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400308461/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&amp;pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&amp;pf_rd_t=201&amp;pf_rd_i=0785277226&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_r=10N0X05RE6VFTGXRFMDM" target="_blank">The Pumpkin Patch Parable</a>, to preschool groups.  That book describes how, like a carver cleans the yucky stuff, the pulp and the seeds, out of a pumpkin, God can clean us up inside.  And like the farmer puts a candle in the carved pumpkin to make a shining jack-o-lantern, God puts His light inside His children.

What amazing Good News!