Imagination at work: Children cover church parking lot in chalk art

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake Alliance Church may have had the best-decorated parking lot in town Saturday. Children braved the heat for the Imagination Running Wild event, decorating the lot with drawings, inspirational messages and a long, winding racetrack. 

“One morning as I was walking through to the door, looking out at the giant parking lot that we have, I thought, how fun would it be to cover it all in chalk?” said Nick Armour, the church member who organized the event. “So, I came and told (Pastor Emmanuel Jatou), ‘I’m going to cover the parking lot in chalk.’ ... I said, ‘I’m going to get all the kids I can to come and help me do this, and I’m going to cover it all.’” 

At one point, 40-50 children were drawing in the lot, Armour said. 

“They did a good job,” Armour said. “They got almost total coverage.” 

Church members rallied to the cause, supplying not only chalk but food, water and Gatorade to keep the young artists hydrated in the Basin summer heat. 

“We did this whole thing with a budget of zero dollars,” Armour said. 

Not everyone who drew was a child to some extent, even the older ones. Theresa Yearout, a bona fide grownup who teaches preschool Sunday school at the church, was putting the finishing touches on a drawing of the sun. 

“I’m kind of being a kid for the day,” she said. “Just being goofy.” 

A large electric fan kept the food and the volunteers from getting too overheated, which Jatou said was divine providence. 

“I’m from Nigeria; I don’t care if it’s 110 (degrees)” he said. “But when I heard it was going to be 90, and then I saw the advisory that (there were) going to be heatwaves, I prayed last night “Lord, help us so that the weather will be good.’ … And then (I) came down and saw this giant fan here and I said to somebody, ‘That’s God, right there. He answered our prayers.’” 

The church uses its parking lot for other children’s events as well, Jatou said, like a trunk-or-treat at Halloween.  

“If we got more than five kids out here and they had a good time, it’s a win,” Armour said. “We definitely got more than that and it turned out pretty good.” 

    The parking lot at Moses Lake Alliance church was a giant canvas Saturday for the church’s first Imagination Running Wild event.
  

    A young artist fills in an outline at the Imagination Running Wild chalk art event at Moses Lake Alliance Church Saturday.
  

    Artists took advantage of the huge expanse of asphalt to draw a racetrack among the drawings at Imagination Running Wild Saturday.
  

    A two-dimensional stegosaurus adorns the parking lot at Moses Lake Alliance Church Saturday.
  

    Most of the parking lot was filled with artwork at Moses Lake Alliance Church Saturday afternoon.