Chase Oaks Church

It can be a challenging enough task to come up with a creative Halloween costume if artistry and imagination aren’t exactly your strong suit, like they aren’t for me. But add to the level of difficulty the setting of a third-world country that doesn’t have a party store in every town and your task can become as daunting as trying to cook a feast without a grocery store around.

While I was in Kenya on a short-term mission assignment back in my twenties, some of the American staff there decided to host an October costume party for the rest of us Americans—to give us a taste of home. Since I was there on a four-month assignment, I had brought just enough clothes to get me through the four months. I certainly didn’t have the makings of any costume!

One of my roommates, Donna, must have seen the fear in my eyes. She mercifully took me under her wing and found a green smock hanging in the back of her closet. She said to me, “Just wear a pair of tights under this smock, and you’ll look like Peter Pan, don’t you think?” Then she found some green fabric leftover from some project that matched the smock pretty well.

“You can use this material and my sewing machine to make the kind of hat Peter Pan wore, if you’d like,” Donna encouraged me.

I took the smock and the fabric and thanked her profusely for her help. What I didn’t dare tell her, after she had already been so helpful, was that I had never been anywhere close to being a seamstress—“neither recently nor in time past” (as Moses would phrase it)—and thoroughly hated the only home economics course I ever took. I was miles outside of my comfort zone, but I knew that wasn’t her problem. She had a demanding job, and her own costume to think about.

After wringing my hands for a while and contemplating feigning a headache on party night, I finally went to my bedroom, sat on my bed, and boldly prayed, “Lord, You are the maker of heaven and earth, and You created a bazillion different animals and plants and flowers of all different species and families. Nothing is too difficult for You and there is no limit to Your creative mind. Please turn your attention away from the things that really matter for a little while, and help me turn this material into a Peter Pan hat!”

Stepping out on faith, I measured the size of my head and drew on the fabric with a pencil the pattern and shape I thought the hat should look like. Holding my breath, I cut out the pattern and then sewed together the seams. When I turned the hat right-side-out and put it on, it looked great and fit perfectly! I enjoyed the party as I mingled with Princess Leia, the tin man, and Abdul the Cool, without feeling at all like my costume was inadequate. I even got some compliments on my cool-looking hat!

But that’s not the end of the story. A few days after the party, someone told me that our ministry director’s teenage son wanted to borrow my hat. He was planning to go to a party as Robin Hood, and someone told him I had worn just the kind of hat he needed! I gladly lent it to him as I marveled at the ways of God. He not only met my need wonderfully so that I didn’t have to miss the fellowship at a fun party, but He allowed me the blessing of meeting someone else’s need also by sharing God’s handiwork with him.

Now, whenever I have to do something that stretches me way outside of my “skills set,” I just pray, “Lord, make me a hat!” I figure He knows what I mean.