Gnomes Invade Yards for BGMC, Community Wants to Know More

It began as idea to raise funds for Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge (BGMC) and ended up making Plainview First Assembly the talk of the town. The town was abuzz with questions about a pack of gnomes appearing in yards all over town — including how could they get the gnomes to visit their yard!

Katelyn Garcia is the children’s pastor for Plainview First Assembly. Plainview, a community of about 20,000, is located roughly halfway between Amarillo and Lubbock in West Texas. Many residents are already fairly familiar with First Assembly due to its community involvement. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that a significant percentage of the town — more than 1,000 community members — attend First Assembly.

After informing the church for several weeks prior about the BGMC Gnome-A-Home fundraiser, in September the Gnomes were “set loose” for a week.

“The idea behind this was people within our church and community would pay $25 to ‘Gnome’ someone's home,” Garcia explains. “A set of gnomes would then be placed in that person's yard. The only way to remove their new friends would be to pay the $25 ‘regnoming fee’ and they would send their set of gnomes to a new house. If people wanted to avoid being gnomed altogether, they were able to pay $75 for ‘Gnome Insurance’ and this kept all gnomes away from their yard for the week.”

Garcia says that within 30 minutes of being “gnomed,” the resident was called and informed that they had been pranked and now had some new yard companions.

“We informed them that if they were not able to pay, we completely understood because it was a surprise, and we gave people the option to either pay a smaller donation or let us know if they were unable to pay,” Garcia says. “This was such an exciting opportunity because it had our community talking and it even sparked curiosity to the point that we had new guests join our church because they saw our gnomes around town.”

In just a week’s time, more than $3,600 was raised for BGMC, but perhaps more importantly, the gnomes led people to connect with the church — even if initially only to call to learn more about the gnomes.

Garcia says that the K-5 children’s church she leads is well on the way to achieving a goal of raising $20,000 this year, as earlier in the year the boys and girls squared off in a fundraising challenge and raised over $10,000 for BGMC.

“The girls edged the boys, so they earned the privilege of turning the boys’ leaders into human-sized ice cream sundaes,” Garcia says with a laugh. “I was told the guys just ended up throwing the clothes they were wearing away and had to shampoo several times to get the sticky (ice cream, whipped cream, marshmallow fluff, syrups, etc.) out of their hair.”

Yet as much fun as the kids are having raising money for BGMC, Garcia says she clearly sees a spiritual response among the children.

“On a typical Sunday, we run about 120 on average for children — that includes 3 weeks old to 5th grade,” Garcia says. “After each service, the leaders and I debrief and tell about the wins — more and more, kids are beginning to notice the needs of others, asking what they can do to meet those needs, even at school.”

Logan Lilly Sattesahn and Ashton Varela, who are both in the third grade and attend First Assembly, each decided to set up their own, individual lemonade stand (among other things) to raise money for BGMC.

The girls, even though they set up their own stands and responded to questions individually, have a very clear understanding of why they are raising money for BGMC — their responses being nearly identical:

“So people around the world, who can't afford a lot of stuff, can get what they need like drinking water and food,” Sattesahn said. “And so missionaries can help kids around the world learn about Jesus.”

Varela responded a few hours later, stating, “So we can help kids all over the world and give them stuff that we have, and they don't,” she said. “[And] so they can learn about Jesus.”

“It makes me feel happy to know I can help others live a good life,” Sattesahn says about the satisfaction she feels by giving to BGMC.

Varela notes it makes her feel good knowing “that I can make a difference in others’ lives.”

Garcia says that she’s even had two kids approach her saying that they feel a call by God to missions.

“I questioned the kids about that — why did they feel that way?” Garcia says. “One of them said, ‘When we were praying for missionaries, I felt like I was praying for myself — that one day, you’ll be here praying for me, and I felt all warm and cozy inside.’ The second one explained that when she looked at people at school, she just wanted to share Jesus with them . . . and perhaps one day go somewhere else and tell people about Jesus too.”

Seeing the community respond positively to the church’s efforts and the kids not only buy-in to raising funds for missions, but actually developing hearts of compassion for others, has been rewarding for Garcia and the church.

“When they see tangible things resulting from giving to BGMC and how they’re actually making a difference . . .,” Garcia says, her voice trailing off, “. . .well, it’s just pretty cool to see how the kids have responded!”

Dan Van Veen

Dan Van Veen is news editor of AG News. Prior to transitioning to AG News in 2001, Van Veen served as managing editor of AG U.S. Missions American Horizon magazine for five years. He attends Central Assembly of God in Springfield, Missouri, where he and his wife, Lori, teach preschool Sunday School and 4- and 5-year-old Rainbows boys and girls on Wednesdays.