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.