A string of “coincidences”

Anita Nelson believes there is a point past which “coincidence” is no longer an adequate explanation.

“It’s a God thing,” she says.

The live outdoor nativity scene which was presented the evenings of Friday and Saturday December 9 and 10–and which was also presented in 2020 and 2021–is definitely a challenging endeavor. With ten different scenes covering Biblical moments from Genesis to James distributed along two blocks’ worth of sidewalk, and with 22 actors and many more behind-the-scenes volunteers, the demands and needs might be considered overwhelming. But guess what?

“It always comes together,” says Nelson, who conceived the idea back in 2019 when she looked at the brick canopy over the entry to her church, St. Paul’s Lutheran, and thought to herself, “Wouldn’t that make a nice manger scene?”

Unable to let go of the idea, she asked others for their opinion. “Some thought it couldn’t work out,” she remembers. But after receiving permission from her church’s pastor, Nelson decided to see what could be accomplished.

“Bit by bit, it all just fell into place,” she remembers.

There was a lot of “it all” to keep track of. Backdrops and set pieces had to be painted, found, or built. Costumes needed to be acquired.

Two other churches, Christ the King and next door neighbor St. John’s, joined the effort. Seamstresses Jennifer Ross, Audra Ryan and Gwen Johnson agreed to make the costumes–at their own expense. Artists and craftspersons contributed their skills and supplies. 

“We started this,” Nelson explains, “because we wanted to reach out to people who might never have set foot inside a church. We wanted to find a way we could comfortably introduce them to the Christmas story.”

From the first, “comfortable” has worked very well. “People can just drive by slowly in their cars and see everything. Children can be in their pajamas. And we can bring the story alive for them.”

This year, nearly 600 cars and about 1,000 people came to the two nights of the event.

There, too, Nelson sees more than coincidence.

“We were blessed with such nice weather,” she says. “It wasn’t particularly cold, and there was no wind.” Which was good news, of course, both for the 22 “character” volunteers and for the number of spectators willing to spend time outside.

Also beyond coincidence, according to Nelson, was this year’s addition of a live camel. In July, Nelson was on a trip for her company, Accelerate 100, in North Carolina. She had taken a local woman along as an assistant, and one day the woman showed her a text which featured a photo of a baby camel which had just arrived on her neighbor’s - Jim Borchert’s - Ellendale farm.

One phone call later, arrangements had been made. Not only was Borchert willing to make the camel part of the performance, he insisted on being there too, to supervise. Furthermore, he would transport the animal at his own expense. Oh, and one more thing–was there a place for a zebra?  While the first response among planners was, no, how could a zebra fit in, one team member pointed out that the first scene of the panorama is creation, and man’s fall into sin. So, yes–there was definitely a place for a zebra, and the donkey, too.

Still, even with the “inexplicable” number of blessings, bringing the live nativity scene to fruition each year is demanding and exhausting. About 60 volunteers set everything up beforehand–this year in particularly frigid weather.

“Just when I think to myself, ‘I’m never doing this again,’ a car full of children comes by. They have their faces pasted to the window, and they have these huge smiles.

“Or someone says, ‘Thank you. This was very meaningful.’ “

“And then we can’t help deciding it was all worth it.”