Youth Mission Trip fundraiser

I had the privilege this past Friday and Saturday evening of being the emcee for our church's annual dinner theater that raises money for our youth group's summer mission trip. The group that puts it on is a talented collection of young adults called Sonlight. The last couple of years they've done a program around the theme of Uncle Phil's diner with a 1950s setting and lots of humor and songs from that era. This year they took a different approach and did a Tribute to the Oscars. They sang many of the songs that won Academy Awards for best song, as well as acting out scenes from three different movies--The Wizard of Oz, Steel Magnolias, and A Few Good Men (with the language cleaned up of course). We had a great crowd in our fellowship hall each night (about 260 each evening) with a delicious meal prepared by a young fellow in our church who is a chef and a young mother who bakes and caters for a living. The show also included door prizes donated by area businesses, and a contest to correctly identify the character, actor/actress, movie name, and year of some famous movie scenes as re-enacted and videoed by the Sonlight players. It was a thoroughly entertaining evening, and the best part of all was that $7800 was raised to help cover the cost of the youth group's summer mission trip. If your church has some creative and talented folks who like to sing and act, perhaps a similar event might be a good means for you to raise money for missions as well.