Season One · Episode Three
The Megachurch Raffle
Another mostly true story. The camel is real. I need y'all to know the camel is real before we start.
A 45-minute ride
Chapter One: Church Mail
This one starts with scissors.
Mamaw Pearl at her kitchen table on a Tuesday in October, cutting a picture out of a piece of church mail, and if you know Pearl you know the scissors are serious. Pearl cuts coupons the way a surgeon does hearts — same posture, same silence, same lighting requirements. But this wasn't a coupon. This was a big glossy mailer, heavy paper, and I want to say something about heavy paper, dawg: heavy paper is a suit. Your friends write you on whatever's near the phone. It's the people fixing to do something TO you that spend money on the postage.
Across the top it said: THE OVERFLOW FAMILY CHURCH — HARVEST FESTIVAL & GRAND FAREWELL BLESSING RAFFLE. And under that, in gold letters, a sentence I have now had a full year to think about and still can't say out loud without my ears getting hot:
Letters first
The rest rides by letter
Episodes Two through Five are for the letter folks. Put your address on the route and The Megachurch Raffle opens right here, right now. Already on the route? Same box — it'll know you.
One letter per story. No spam — promised on Mamaw Pearl's pie crust.