Whew..... OK here's another one....yay me! Two in less than a week!
The Christmas season came fast for me after Thanksgiving. Normally I'm only working on art orders but this year I had orders AND I helped organize "The Living Christmas Story" at church.
Over 5 weeks we built 4 scenes pertaining to the birth of Christ. Guests checked in at a tent and got a number...thank goodness we had numbered tickets or it could've gotten chaotic...had some hot chocolate and a snack, sang Christmas Carols with the choir or our wonderful worship pastor Russ Lee, and then got on a hay wagon and rode around the church to each scene. When they pulled up at each scene it was like they were taking a glimpse into life back then. The actors had no dialogue but a narrator spoke about the scene and then read scripture from the Bible about that scene.
The first scene was the temple where Micah and Isaiah were prophesying the birth of a child that would become a ruler. We painted huge canvases to look like a stone wall. We had a fire pit and a sheep we named Matt cause that's what it sounded like she was saying every time she opened her cute little fuzzy mouth....mmmaaaaaaatttt. Our AV Directors name is Matt so we got a big kick out of that.
As you continued down the back of the church the second scene showed the wise men set up on a hill with a tent and a fire and a camel. They read from their scroll and looked up at the stars as if they were trying to figure out which way to go next. Again they spoke nothing because the narrator talked about the scene and then read scripture from the Bible.
The third scene, and a favorite for many, was the shepherd scene. It was in front of the church where we have huge windows. The shepherds were outside with their sheep....they were so cute!....and they had a fire and just wandered around taking care of their sheep. The narrator read about the shepherds and then scripture from the Bible. When she got to the part where the angels appeared we had angels appear at different levels in our huge windows. It was breathtaking.
As the hayride continued around the church, the last scene was the nativity (pictured below). You had to get off the ride and walk up to the nativity that was situated near the three crosses that always stand on the church property. We had built a little stall where we had cows, a donkey, a ram, sheep and then Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and two shepherds. It was simple and lovely. And overwhelming. I've never seen so many people that were so taken into the moment of wondering what it was like for a mother and father and the birth of their baby, a king. People stood and prayed and walked over to the crosses and prayed...it was wonderful.
The whole experience of planning and carrying out something so awesome was thrilling.
I was very excited that two of my guys got in the newspaper.
This photo is kind of dark but this is the nativity scene....Ian is a shepherd on the far left, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus in the middle and Hal as another shepherd on the right.
This is Ben(right) with Bobby Blondin building the temple scene.
It turned out COMPLETELY AMAZING and worth every second of work but BOY was it a lot of work. Next year we will know so much more since this was our FIRST YEAR and we were literally holding on by a wing and a prayer. We learned a lot though. Like...make sure the slow tractor is the last to go around or you get stuck behind slow traffic. Make sure you take the plastic bottles out of the tiki torches when you fill them with oil so you can see when they start to get too full (or you might catch a tiki torch on fire if you light it). Ummm, make sure you have a set up crew AND a break down crew (trying to take down scaffolding is NOT as fun as it might seem to some). Here's another....make sure the guy that owns the camel knows how to calm him down in case he gets tangled in his rope. Yeah...that was a big one. Oh and if you've never been around a camel then its probably not a good idea to try to make friends with him. You don't know him and he doesn't know you so stay away or you may get bitten...Aaron. Make sure you have enough hot chocolate and snacks in case you have over 400 people show up all within an hour and a half. Oh and make sure you have fire extinguishers at every scene. We did but with all the wind we never knew if something would catch on fire or not. I was blessed so completely just by being a part of it. Seeing our church come together to bring the message of Christ to our community....it was exhilarating and I can't wait to do it again next year.
There were so many times when we looked at each other and said 'we need more time' but we had given it to God from the very beginning. Of course as always He came through with flying colors.
I hope you all had a wonderfully MERRY CHRISTMAS and may 2008 bring many many more blessings to you!
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