From An Egg Hunt to Free Car Washes, Manna was Busy on Saturday

A carpet of colorful plastic eggs covered the grassy field of Festival Park while hundreds of families lined up back near the library to the bridge entrance waiting for the egg hunt to begin.

hosted the city's largest egg hunt, ever with 100,000 colorful plastic eggs covering the lawn at Festival Park downtown.

Jeff Toomer, Manna's site pastor at the Cliffdale location said everything went smoothly Saturday morning and best described it as organized chaos. They had eggs on the ground and the stations of volunteers, music playing, face painting, corn hole games, bouncy castles and even sno-cone machines set up around the grounds.

The eggs were empty and were exchanged by the basketful for a bag of candy. Each egg hunter received a basket and a stuffed rabbit.

Manna is an outward focused church boating approximately 7,300 members, best known for serving their community. 

All across town on Saturday, church members were taking part in the Servilution ministry project of their choice wearing their Servolution t-shirts. Why? They wanted to show the love of Jesus in a practical way through performing random acts of kindness.

And that, they did.

Off the 1000 block of Rochester Drive, a team of people equipped with their own lawn gear spruced up and provided some much needed maintenance to the front and backyards of seven area homes. The residents were most appreciative.

"I offered to pay them, but they would not take my money," said one elderly resident. "This is the nicest surprise I've had in awhile."

At the intersection of Raeford Rd. and Robeson St. crews held up signage and passed out free water and soft drinks. Many were perplexed as nothing is rarely free these days.

Behind the parking lot of Dunkin Donuts there was a line of cars flowing into the free car wash.

A few of the other ministry projects across town included free oil changes, a free movie night in Hope Mills, building projects and partnering with Operation Inasmuch working on a shelter for the homeless population.

"As a single mother of three, getting a free car wash was the nicest gesture ever," said Marsha Gainey as she waited on her car. "Now I guess I'll have clean out the cheerios inside"