operation egg drop by Jason Taylor To learn more about the ministry of Free Will Baptist Home Missions, visit www.homemissions.net.

“Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above that all we ask or imagine, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

In Yuma, we often pray the words above. This Easter, we lived them out…

Six months before Easter, we began to plan ways to get our church name and God’s message out to the entire city, creating a buzz that would never be forgotten. In our wildest dreams, we never imagined what would happen on March 22.

I had heard about an event called “Egg Drop” that a church in North Carolina had done two years previously. When I shared the idea with Assistant Pastor Danny Wells, he took the ball and ran with it. We hoped at least 2,000 people would attend.

Danny said, “I want to see 6,000 people there, or it’s not worth it!” God answered his prayer as we nearly 7,000 people showed up at the school where we meet for the first Eggs Over Yuma Egg Drop. Our congregation spent three Saturdays stuffing 40,000 Easter Eggs with candy and taping each one. Two days before the event, we purchased an additional 20,000 pieces of candy.

Photo: 40,000 eggs begin to tumble to earth.

Our goal was to pre-register 500 children for the event. By Good Friday, more than 4,000 kids had registered. The local radio station told us the egg drop was the largest event in Yuma since the Beach Boys came! On the night of the drop, we were featured on local news reports of two TV stations, and the next morning we made the front page of the newspaper.

Best of all was that the following day, the son of the deejay from the number one radio station in Yuma gave his heart to Christ. On Monday morning following Easter, the deejay broadcast live from our church. He proclaimed to the entire city that he came to our church on Easter Sunday, and our church “Rocks!” He interviewed me, and during the interview I quoted Ephesians 3:20-22, telling all of Yuma that God did more than we could have ever imagined!

We wanted to create a “buzz” about our church. A buzz is different than marketing. Buzz is when everybody in town is talking about your church. After this event, people all over town knew who we were and where we met.

Photo: More than 7,000 people gather for the first annual "Egg Drop" in Yuma.

Jesus often created a buzz when He went into cities by performing miracles and meeting people’s practical needs. When He was done, the town was buzzing about Jesus.

That is our goal in Yuma, to make the town buzz about Jesus! As I stood on stage that day and saw thousands of eggs drop from a helicopter and saw literally thousands of people at our location. The first though in my mind was, “To God Be the Glory!”

ABOUT THE WRITER: Jason Taylor and his wife Melissa are home missionaries to Yuma, AZ. They have two children, Hudson and Haley.