Sweet is the Work

The largest portion of volunteer hours in Florida (37%) goes to religious causes--more than education and social service combined. The value of general donated time averages around $20/hour. And to make our Nativity happen, we have had everyone from electricians to musicians to theater professionals, to painters, experienced stage assemblers, decorators, landscapers, and seamstresses, and best of all: regular citizens,  donate their time to create a holiday celebration that brings people together to honor the Savior of mankind.

There is no better way to learn about and love people than to serve with them. Jessica Robertson helps her dad Dave set up lights at dusk for a play rehearsal. The beauty of Christmas in Florida is the weather; the downside is that you have to haul all your equipment (and in some cases, your children) in and out several times before the event. That takes dozens of volunteer hours.

Alan Laabs has helped with the lighting for 2 years now. Joe Burtoft (not pictured) has helped us every year give us the "power" to pull off a big outdoor event!

The Hendry family spent a few days reassembling our Hebrew home replica, which tends to lose it's bricks when it's disassembled. The Hebrew home will act as Joseph's house in the Nativity play.

Bob Chilson is one of our volunteer carpenters, and responsible for several pieces, including our beautiful star. This year one he offered to make some animal cut-outs for the play. Not ba-a-a-a-a-ad Bob!

Here's Tim Nielsen rigging up our stage lighting. Two missionaries and Mark Balls spent their time setting up the stage platforms, and properly, too. (Last year we just guessed.)

Mark and Alan also installed our signs in the cold and the dark after working their regular jobs during the day.

And of course, we can't forget the guys who not only put up our structures in November, but also will be doing a LOT of stuff the day of the event.

Marcia Cereza, our Cuban grandmother, and Susanna Mardonnes (not pictured) decorated our church. If you think dressed up your house for the holidays is time-consuming, try doing it twice! The church will be open for tours during the Nativity (just please forgive the mess in the gym...)

Below, Sheyla Norton paints our camels. The work spent on these Nativity props is for a good cause that will never die: we can use them year after year. And if we ever stop hosting our Nativity night, we can donate our supplies to several other area churches, who also put on free Nativity nights for the public. And we can never do enough to celebrate the birth or Jesus or help those around us remember Him during the Christmas season.

Here's my (Liz Robertson) painting project this year: Mary's house will take about 12 hrs by the time it's done. (Fabric scenery is so much easier to store than foam, and less expensive to make and maintain!)

Thanks to Keri Balls for painting another background wall.., which we got done in less than 90 minutes.

Lottie Whitehead, I believe, is our most distinguished helper, and spent 2 hours recycling coffee bean bags as play props by stuffing them with old construction drawings. Thanks a bundle Lottie!

Here the Shurtz family works on assembling some props for the Christmas pageant. They are part of the cast, who spend several nights rehearsing for double performances on Dec 11 (6:30 & 8:30pm).

And Gilbert and Leslie Jaimes, who are expecting their first child, and playing Mary and Joseph, help our special effects department with some blue lighting screens.

And then there's the countless hours of practice by the performers. Julie Montgomery below directs the outdoor rehearsal for the Angel Alert! children's choir as the weather gets rather chilly for south Florida.

Some of the 7:30pm concert numbers include Mt. Carmel Baptist church sent a praise dance team over to perform,

and we have a volunteer youth quartet from our community,

and a violin sextet that sounded very good already. Meghan Shurtz (not pictured) is organizing our music concert, which will be fun to hear as we walk around our "city of Bethlehem".

I haven't documented everyone who is helping, but I wanted you to appreciate all the behind-the-scenes efforts that goes into an event to keep it free and under budget. These are truly the sweetest unpaid laborers a person could work with! The Nativity Experience is going to a wonderful night, thanks to all those good people!

Come Play with Me

You know how it goes: it starts as mass chaos, but somehow it comes together into a beautiful heart-warming vignette of the Savior's birth. And isn't that what the life of Jesus Christ was about? Transforming lives? 

How could you not get excited to take a step back in Jesus' time by stepping into different clothes? There was energy in the room when the pieces are passed out. And nothing that changes a person faster than a beard, 

Let There Be Light. And Sound.

Performing the pageant-play of the Nativity outside at night is no easy task. Light and sound equipment, power tools and costumes all must taken outdoors for every rehearsal. Fire ants, bad weather, and perpetual shortage of extension chords are always trying to trip us up. 

Sewing Something Special for Christmas

For 6 weeks, expert seamstress Nancy Morris has been teaching sewing classes on how to make Biblical costumes. Attendees constructed outfits for children, themselves, and clothes for actors in the Nativity pageant. We've learned how to follow a pattern, finish edges with bias tape and hemming, and get thread into those complicated machines!

Welcome to Bethlehem!

The educational, hands-on kid-friendly part of the Nativity Experience is our town of Bethlehem. While you wait for the play or the music concert to start, roam around and see how Hebrews in the 1st century A.D. lived, worked, and played. Our congregation members have researched and brought examples of Bible culture, like these below:

Living in Bethlehem

As a visitor, you'll stop first at the Tax & Census table, to have your party "counted" and tell us how you heard about our event. In 2008 the Hendry family collected can goods for a public food pantry. In 2009, Meghan Shurtz handed out empty bags and prizes for kids who visited every booth and collected beans as tokens of participation.

Peruse this display of photos of Isreal from Ralph & Tina Telford's trip to Bethlehem last Christmas.

Mary and Joseph's Wedding

This year, our Nativity play is adding a wedding scene. It's such an important part of the story of Christ's birth: God very deliberately planned for His Son to be born into a complete family.

Hebrew weddings are so fascinating! After bargaining for a bride price, the marriage contract was legal, (although it could be annulled for certain reasons.) The bridegroom went away during the "engagement year" and built an addition to his family's home, while the bride prepared clothing and home furnishings. They didn't speak to each other, but sent messages through friends. The bride didn't know the exact night he would come to get her. But when the time was close, friends would gather with her at night with lamps and wait to hear the music and shout of the groom coming.

Of Thread, Trees, & Trumpets

Last Tuesday, about 20 women cut and sewed biblical costumes for the Nativity at the LDS church. Head costumer Nancy Morris (below, center) is a top-notch crafter, and loves costume sewing, including for Rennaissance festivals. She helped Cindy Jacobs (right) and Sonya McDonald (not shown) to sew a costume from a sheet for Tina Telford. Jocelyn Neilson is sewing a dove (below left). There was lots of finger food and and friendly chatting.

Keri Balls, with her colorful personality, picked out the brightest fabric in the 'free' pile and made her lime-green tunic and green, orange, and white braided sash in one night. Leslie Jaimes, who will play Mary in the Nativity pageant, helped sewing costumes for the wedding scene.

Sister Gonzalez is

Sew Excited For the 2010 Nativity!

In 2008, our area church leaders encouraged our Jupiter-PB Gardens congregation to become more involved with the community. It wasn't meant as a conversion effort: Public Affairs for the LDS Church works with good people in neighborhoods, other churches, and government in any good cause. It's important work for any Christian, but we are just now organizing larger efforts in service and interfaith relationships.

One thing we chose to do was to take advantage of our beautiful Florida winter weather, and hold our Christmas celebrations outside. Our church building sits on several acres of fields, perfect for a little Nativity play with animals and room to run. We looked at other successful events across the country. After inviting all area churches and local residents to join us, and the Nativity Experience was born.

In 2008 we built a little "City of Bethlehem" where you could dress up