My Church is Cool....

Last weekend, First Pres held its first Bethlehem Village, where we turned our entire church parking lot into a village, with canopy tents making booths, hay everywhere, live animals, and a re-enactment of the Nativity story every 1/2 hour. It was a fabulous event that involved most of our church community in some capacity, and drew people from all over Burbank. Really though, pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are some of the highlights from the two evenings:

Visitors to Bethlehem had to register with our census takers at the gate, and were given gold "Bethlehem coins" to spend at the various booths. There were 3 Roman soldiers on hand to make sure that people paid their taxes and didn't try to skip out on registering. I'm not sure I would want to avoid paying my taxes with folks like Michael running around! Once you made it past the census takers and soldiers, you could visit any number of booths. You could go and pay a visit to the Jewish rabbi and receive a prayer on a scroll and learn how to light a menorah. You could visit our wonderful book sellers--and receive a copy of the Christmas story...

You could go to the carpenter's shop and watch some of our wood workers actually make...well...I never did figure out what they were making, I think some stools....And of course, if you were hungry you could visit the bread and cheese shop--but only if the Roman soldiers hadn't taken away all your gold coins by the time you got there! Our fearless leader and Pastor, Ross, and his wonderful wife Kathy

Then, every 1/2 hour, the Nativity would be re-enacted. First, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus (Dave, myself, and baby Isabella) would come in, followed by a host of beautiful angels who danced to Joy to the World. Three of our high school students played the angels that would rise up on the scaffolding above the manger to announce that Jesus was born. Then Dave & I--sorry, then Mary & Joseph! presented baby Jesus to the villagers--notice the very authentic Bethlehem pacifier :) Baby Isabella was awesome, she made it through 4 performances a night for 2 nights in a row--she didn't cry at all until the second night, she was quite the trooper!The shepherds (with their live sheep and goats) came next to bow down before the baby, I think that they look a little tangled up in this picture...Then came the 3 kings, each with their own entourage--a banner carrier, someone to carry their robe etc. They each had a gift for the baby, which really were the spcies that the kings would have brought, so between performances you could go talk to the kings about their gifts and smell these spices for yourself, and they would explain why that gift would have been so precious in that time. It was a very educational evening!And of course, we got to pose for lots of photos! Don't they look angelic? :)

Ann-Marie--our new children's director and the dreamer behind the entire event--she did an incredible amount of work and I think managed to enjoy herself too! Here she is with one of our very kingly kings. One of my favorite angels, miss Stephanie, and a friend