The outreach for the Salt Lake Bees (the Angels’ AAA team) ran into a weather
Eric's wife, Terri, handing out a card to two fans. Trust me, it was cold!
dilemma.
1. The opening game, Thursday, April 7, was snowed/thundered out
2. The second game, Friday, April 8, was snowed out.
3. The third game, Saturday, April 9 (a scheduled doubleheader with fireworks) went on despite the rain and was cancelled in the 7th inning of the first game due to snow. They basically played it so that those holding tickets from Thursday/Saturday would not be able to use their rain tickets for other games. Needless to say, most people thought the games would be cancelled because it rained the entire day. The newspaper counted a total of 27 fans in the stands “shivering and huddled up” when the game began at 5 p.m.
4. The fourth game, Sunday, April 10, was played with 38-degree temperatures. Needless to say, few people came to the afternoon game. A youth group from my church was there, as we handed out approximately 100 cards in the hour before the game–gates don’t open until the hour before. We think that they had fewer than 500 in attendance; the community here (70% Mormon) is not allowed to attend baseball games on Sundays; couple this with the weather, and it won’t be a large crowd.
5. Today, Monday, April 11, fared much better. We had about 10 people out at all three gates and we distributed approximately 500 cards.
6. Tuesday and Wednesday, it appears that it will rain throughout both days. If not, we will have people there to continue handing out. We’ll also be out there on Thursday, when the forecast appears to be better.
Most people are very accepting of the cards and we’ve had little trouble handing them out. The goal we have is for those getting them to visit our website, www.GotForgiveness.com, where they can take a “repentance” quiz, whether they’re Mormon or not. One of our volunteers from today was allowed to stand at the entrance and hand the cards out, which is amazing. Meanwhile, he had a spiritual conversation with the usher. Go figure. On the other side of the ballpark, meanwhile, our volunteers were told to move closer to the public sidewalk because they strayed too far over, in the security guard’s mind. From one side of the park to the other, there was little consistency.
We also made friends with the scalpers, whose business was definitely not booming because so few have gone to the games. We hope to continue these relationships in upcoming weeks.
We probably have 13,000+ cards left. Even if we hand out 1,000 more in the next three days, we have plenty to continue throughout the season. We plan to attend some of the more crowded games, such as the fireworks show games and Family Nights (a popular night in Utah). We will host these types of outreaches until our entire stock is depleted. So no rain outs will affect this outreach!
May God bless you and everyone involved–we’ll continue to pray for results!
