[img_assist|nid=8118|title=A helping hand|desc=Members of First DeQuincy serve hot dogs at the town’s Louisiana Railroad Days Festival.|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=362]By Rita LeBlue, Special to the Message
DEQUINCY – Members of the First Baptist Church have been giving out free water at the Louisiana Railroad Days Festival booth for more than 20 years.
“Free” anything is otherwise unheard of at the festival. Lemonade costs five bucks. So it’s a much-appreciated service. But that’s not the only way First DeQuincy members go about their Father’s business during this small town’s largest attraction.
Before the first revolution of the ferris wheel or the first sizzle of a funnel cake, some church members roll out their grills and set them up at the fairgrounds for a cookout and outdoor worship service for the carnival workers.
First DeQuincy has been quietly doing this for the last seven years. This year about 30 carnival workers participated.
Fair workers like Jerry Shankle lined up to eat. He’s a game operator from Gulfport who said that while his baseball throw game is not “rigged,” because “that’s against the law,” he pointed out, “there are rules that do make it hard to win.” This 12-year carnival employee had been in Christian tour ministry himself not so long ago. He got his first taste of carnival life selling Christian T-shirts.
Brenda Motes from Lake Charles said she works in a “food joint” and just started with the Mitchell Brothers Amusement Company in October. She grew up “here and there in foster homes,” and recently married to another carney “food joint” worker, Mike, from Athens, Ga. He started in 1978.
Faustino Galindo, from Tia Pachyan in Vera Cruz, Mexico, operates a kids’ ride. He works for Mitchell Bros. about nine months out of the year and sends money home to his family via Western Union after each pay day.
Gary Warren is a Level 4 wright inspector from outside of Waco who has been with Mitchell Bros. for a year and a half. He said he likes carnival life because “they actually treat you like a human,” he laughs.
Kevin Lord of Slidell remodeled stores, worked offshore and ran anchors for lay barges before becoming a “carney.”
After food and fellowship ended, worship began as the strains of When We All Get to Heaven wafted out over the fairgrounds, the travel trailers and the partially-set-up games and rides. It wasn’t a stretch to think of those present as among those Jesus reached as He traveled dusty roads, people merging their rough-hewn pasts with the hope they found in Jesus: a brighter future.
There was the former Christian trip organizer and videographer turned Beer Bust hawker; the newly married foodie; the bilingual Mexican working to provide for his family far away; the millwright who wants to be treated like family; the former offshore worker with the iconic “tear” tattoo that sometimes represents prison time or even a darker past; and finally, members of First DeQuincy, freely giving and expecting nothing in return.
Free water. Free food. Free love – God’s love.
Reprinted with permission from the DeQuincy News.