These shepherds are among nearly 50 church members who act in “Come to Bethlehem and See.” Dozens more work behind the scenes in costuming, props, lighting, sound, music and sets.If you go
› What: “Come to Bethlehem and See”› Where: Hickory Valley Christian Church, 6605 Shallowford Road› When: 6-8 p.m. Friday-Sunday, Dec. 16-18. First tour begins at 6:15 p.m., last tour at 8 p.m.› Admission: Free› Information: 423-892-4270› Note: The outdoor walking tour is wheelchair-accessible.
Members of Hickory Valley Christian Church are bringing to life first-century Bethlehem to remind their 21st-century community of the excitement and wonder on the night of Jesus’ birth.
“Come To Bethlehem and See” is a free, walk-through, live nativity that will be presented at the Shallowford Road church from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday-Sunday, Dec. 16-18. This is the second year the church is putting on the event. Alex Henderson, co-chairing the presentation with Robin Gobble, says planning for this year’s nativity began in July.
“We have about 250 in our congregation, and everyone is involved somehow,” says Henderson, children’s minister at the church. “It takes 46 to 50 actors, not counting numerous people behind the scenes.”
Visitors walk through vignettes depicting the events of Jesus’ birth as told in the Gospels. Because the purpose of Mary and Joseph’s trip to Bethlehem was to register for the census, visitors to the church will also register (sign in) for a census, Henderson says. Guests will be gathered into groups of 25 to 30 people and led by a narrator through the vignettes.
“The narrator is a citizen of Bethlehem taking visitors around his town, who have happened to come during this chaotic census,” Henderson explains. “But at the end, it’s not how the census has turned everything upside down but the birth of this child. The idea is that the narrator experiences this with the visitors.”
Each tour enters a marketplace first, then stops by the inn, stable and shepherd’s field where a choir of angels rejoices in praise, he says. Connie Coblentz and Jerita Lawrence have been responsible for costuming the cast.
“The marketplace is fairly crowded, makes you feel it’s a very busy place,” Henderson says. “It gives visitors the feeling of vendors calling out to them to check out their bread, or oils or spices. They can walk into the stalls and talk with vendors, look at what they have to sell.”
He adds, though, that marketplace wares are only props and not actually for sale to guests.
Rebecca and Adam Bryan were one of two couples who alternated playing Mary and Joseph last December.
“Joseph steps out to greet the tour, tells them the baby is sleeping and asks if he can help the narrator,” says Rebecca Bryan, 34. “I come out holding the baby and we talk with the tour guide, telling him we were expecting, couldn’t stay in the inn but were able to find room in the stable.
“Then the focus shifts up to the angel over the stable when the tour guide asks, ‘Hey, do you know there’s someone standing up there?'”
The X-ray tech says she had given birth to her son almost a year previously and that helped her better understand what Mary was going through on the night of her son’s birth and Mary’s steadfast belief in God.
“Having just had that experience and understanding what it means to be a mother, it changed my perspective of Mary,” Rebecca Bryan says. “She’s had to travel on a long journey while pregnant, with a man she’s not married to, so she’s unsure about what he’s thinking about the situation.
“They don’t have a place to stay, but she’s taking it all on God’s promise that he’s going to take care of them. I would hope that if, it were me, I’d have had that same faith,” she says.
Henderson says the church welcomed about 400 visitors to its inaugural presentation last year.
“They really enjoyed the fact that it is was so sensory – the sounds and sights of the marketplace, smelling the animals. It was a full-body sensory experience they really enjoyed that brought the story to life for them,” he says.
Last year’s vignettes included two donkeys, four sheep, a horse, goats and a llama dressed up in finery to resemble a camel. The animals are rented from Bagby’s Critter Coral, Henderson says, which picks them up after each night’s performances, takes them home, then returns them the following day.
The only glitch encountered in the production’s debut was coping with a higher number of visitors than anticipated, he says. Due to that, every visitor this year will receive a card stating their tour departure time. Time slots will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis, he says.
Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6284.