Several years ago at Hume Lake Conference Center we had a camp of about 500 teenagers. The first night of the week-long camp, I was asked to give the announcements; the DOs and DON'Ts of camp. I'm humorous and the kids liked my approach.
All the kids were crowded into the auditorium, new friends, new experiences ... ready for the week at this beautiful camp.
As I was giving the announcements a thought struck me and I followed it through. "You guys listen up! This year with your registration you all get a free badoni. Just go to the snack bar and ask for it." Well, you could see the impact immediately! All the kids started asking each other what a badoni was.
Yep, the seed was sown.
Looking back it was really unfair to the speaker, bless his heart. The kids weren't into the message at all, they were into the badoni, what ever that was. They figured it was free and it must be something to eat.
So much for the bait, now for the hook!
Ah the snack bar just across the street from the auditorium. Every teen knew where the little snack bar was.
As soon as the service ended, literally everyone headed for the doors and out to the snack bar. They wanted to be first at the badonis; whatever they were.
Well, the snack bar could hold about fifty people or so as I recall, and now it was flooded with teens asking for their badonis. Of course the snack bar staff knew nothing about badonis. They asked the kids "what's a badoni?" and the kids didn't know ... only that Pastor von said that they had a free badoni coming. Some of the kids sitting at the counter were starting to chant ... "We want our badonis!!!, We want our badonis!!!" The terrified staff went into the kitchen to see what they could come up with. Indeed terror produces genius. They took two saltine-crackers and put a slice of pickle in the middle, stuck a toothpick in the thing and it became the first badoni! They handed that out to all the kids that wanted one.
As you might expect, I wasn't popular with the snack bar staff that week! (To be honest I have no idea what a badoni is, I just made it up as I was speaking.)
I love doing things like that (Forgive me Lord.)
