Colin and Jennifer Jump’s well-kept secret was out on national television and in front of their congregation at Living Word Family Church in Wake Forest:
Colin, of Zebulon, was the second place winner in Wheel of Fortune. The episode aired Tuesday night..
“When they told us he was going to be on the show, we thought it’d be fun to have a little party,” said Micah Caronna, a pastor at the church. “And of course, it’s their anniversary too.”
So the church brought in a popcorn machine and drinks, used the sanctuary worship screens for television and turned the church into a theater.
Colin gave a good showing on the television word game show. He came back after hitting a bankrupt spin on the wheel to take home $8,150.
Just how well Colin did had been kept secret because he agreed with show producers to keep it quiet so it wouldn’t spoil the show.
But Tuesday night, broadcast from four large television screens in the church sanctuary his fate was anything but quiet.
“Way to go, Colin,” church members cheered. One wanted to know if the wheel was heavy. It was. Another wanted to know how big the set was. Small.
And Colin gave a willing play by play after the show. “If I’d have just taken a deep breath and bought a vowel, I would have had it,” he said of the puzzle, “And now for something completely different.” But instead he went for the spin and hit the bankrupt slot.
Oh, well. That’s the way his mom, the late Marty Jump, taught him to play. “Kind of have fun, go for it and blow it out and let the chips fall where they may,” said Colin. He played the game with his mother when he was a boy, and still plays true to her philosophy today.
“Happy anniversary and thank you for sharing this with your church family,” Youth Pastor Jody Mitchell told the Jumps from the altar at the end of the show.
Colin won’t get the money until October. He doesn’t know exactly what he’ll do with it. The state of California will get 7 percent, and he’ll give his church a tithe of 10 percent, he said.
“But it ought to be a pretty good Christmas,” he said.
Denise Sherman enjoys combing eastern Wake County for features and news. She writes about Knightdale, Zebulon and Wake county schools. She can be reached at