When the dart fell on Henderson Highway Saturday, Janie Waller was busy coordinating Hephzibah Baptist Church’s fall festival.

“Basically, this is to draw the community together,” Waller said. “We wanted to have a fun day for the children and adults as well. Everything we raise goes to missions.”

Throngs of people, not just from the church but the community as well, showed up to play games such as giant Jenga, corn hole and more.

“We invited the whole community,” Waller said. “We were hoping for a big crowd. We had it on Facebook and in our bulletin.”

Volunteers spent the majority of the day Friday setting up games and food for the fun day at the festival. At the end of the day, the festival was about community fellowship as well as raising money for mission work.

“We are a mission-based church,” Waller said. “We send people out every year. All year we send people out to foreign missions and local missions. We have a big youth group and everything we do is mission-oriented.”

Even though the church has thrown many festivals over the years, Waller said this one was special.

“We have done the Fall Festival for several years, but this is brand new because we have new games,” Waller said. “We had people in our church build these booths. We got new food and a general store. We are trying new things.”

Waller and the rest of the church are hoping this tradition will continue in the years to come.

Editor’s note: “The Dart “ is a Messenger feature highlighting everyday people around Pike County. Each week, a Messenger reporter throws a dart at a map of Pike County and features a story on someone out and about where the dart lands.