This Coffee Break is a little different than normal. Instead of giving you several links that have caught my attention this week, I want to give you one single link to explore, and encourage you to take a coffee break and take a look.

This week is the Missouri State Fair!
And it is a fun place to be!

I don’t know if you have ever visited a state fair or not, or if you even have one near you or not. But if you ever have the chance to take one in, I encourage you to do so. And, if you are close enough to come visit the Missouri State Fair, I believe it is one of the best around.

When we moved to Sedalia, Missouri, home of the Missouri State Fair, I wasn’t too thrilled with the prospect of all the crowds in town, all the traffic, all the hassle of dealing with so many people in so small of an area. I enjoy crowds up to a point, but when they slow down the drive across town, or make it hard to pull into the bank, I can get kinda grumpy.

But with the fair in full swing this week, my perspective has shifted somewhat. I am helping run the booth for Show Me Christian Youth Home, drawing attention and awareness to the ministry that happens there, and have met a lot of people. And when I’m not working in that booth, I have wandered around the fairgrounds, looking at other booths and exhibits, watching and meeting people from all over the state and even the Midwest.

Frankly, it has been a very fun and energizing experience.

Friday afternoon, I was walking through the rides and carnival games, on a literal coffee break. You know the ones, where you can shoot a basketball into a hoop that is too small, trying to win a cheap prize. Or throwing a dart at a balloon, or shooting a BB gun at a target. All ways to separate you from your money without a high chance of winning anything. But I still manage to get sucked in every now and then. It’s kind of fun, and it takes me back to my childhood when I spent hours at the county fair, wasting all my hard saved allowance.

But as I walked through that stretch of the fair, with people of all ages around me, I couldn’t help but think of Jesus statement, when he saw a crowd that was probably very similar to the one I saw a few days ago. Matthew 9:36-38 tells us:

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Of course, many of the people in my crowd may be believers, and may be very involved in their church and growing in their faith. But many more of them may not have ever heard the message of the gospel, and they are like those sheep without a shepherd. And so, as I walked though that mass of humanity, I prayed for them, asking God to send laborers out to wherever they may call home, to reach into their lives with the truth of God’s love and his desire to save them.

I don’t know if you have a state fair near you. If you do, go enjoy it. If you are close enough, come check out the Missouri State Fair. And as you fight your way through the crowds, don’t get annoyed by all the people. Have the compassion of Jesus, and pray that God will send workers out to wherever those people may live.

Missouri State Fair
Check out the website for the Missouri State Fair! And if you are close enough to come spend some time there, make sure to stop by the Show Me booth and say hi!