This was absolutely the most amazing Christmas celebration I have ever encountered. From the first camel sighting and myrrh smelling, my children were completely transported by the entire experience. They were literally shuddering at the sight of the angel and shrinking back from the long arms of the Roman guards. They grasped the tangible need for hope and relief. To wander into a modest stable was a great privilege, the sight of baby Jesus an oasis amidst a city in fear. As we exited, my eight-year-old, shouted, "This was cool"--the highest complement possible.
Thank you to all the characters, set builders, costumers and volunteers who made this experience possible. I was moved to tears by the excellence and commitment I witnessed. To see God's people demonstrate such creativity renewed my faith in the viability of the local church. What a profound and wondrous gift to the entire city of Los Angeles. Bless you for your extraordinary efforts.
Allow me to catch you up to speed on how perfect God's timing is!
Each year, every piece of the 40,000 square foot park gets folded up and put away into two shipping containers. We have a 40' and a 20' that we normally store onsite here at the church. This year, we are in the middle of a construction project of one of our buildings, so back in February, we decided to have the containers picked up and stored off-site.
As the director of J2B, you'd think that I would want to know who has our containers, and where they are being stored, right? Well, I didn't know. And apparently neither did the guy who called in the mover. All we had was a first name and a cell phone number. There was rumor floating around that the containers were being stored on the mover's property about 5 hours drive from the church, out in the middle of the desert.
We had arranged to have the containers delivered the Monday before Thanksgiving. Or so I thought. About two weeks prior to their anticipated delivery, we had a feeling, and we checked with the person who arranged when the mover would return the containers. He replied, "Oh, I thought you said the Monday AFTER Thanksgiving!" So, we immediately began calling the mover to make sure our containers would be here before Thanksgiving.
Again, only a cell number was available, but every time that we called, it instantly went to voice mail, which was full. the recording simply siad, "This mailbox is full and cannot accept any messages. Please call at a later time." We got this recording about 437 times. The Monday BEFORE Thanksgiving came and went. No containers. The whole week went by. No containers. No response to our phone call attempts. So the Monday AFTER Thanksgiving arrives, and we send the guy who arranged the whole deal out to find the containers. He disappears for two days, and somehow returns with two containers, but without his own truck. He regales us with stories of how he tracked down the mover, (who was apparently incarcerated) and how he conned the sherrif's station receptionist into getting him the inmate's address so we could 'steal' our containers back. Ok, so he didn't really steal the containers back, but we did get them back legally.
When the containers were delivered yesterday, a big sigh of relief escaped us all. We knew we were back on schedule, though only a few days behind. We ralleyed the troops and cracked the containers open this morning. About a dozen guys showed up through out the day today, and we completely emptied BOTH containers AND set up the sails in the marketplace AND set up the lower story of the Inn! Talk about kicking patootie and taking names! These guys don't mess around!
So if you read this and come to see how things are going, bring a pair of gloves and help out! We welcome all the help we can get! As always, you can check out more info, pics and videos at http://www.journeytobethlehem.org.
by Audrey M. DeNeui, Hadasseh Aragi, the weaver and spinner.
In 2004, my church decided to make a Bethlehem village at Christmastime. It was a huge project. Everything our church does is so first class and professional; I didn’t feel confident that I was good enough to be out in the “cast”. I don’t know how to use a sewing machine. I’ve tried, with disastrous results. Anything I do is by hand. I can cut out patterns and I can measure, so I told Alice Hall that I’d help her cut things out. I cut and measured the cloth strips for the tents, and the vests and the tunics, and the belts for the costumes. While I was helping to cut, Alice and Marya and Susan and I would get talking about historical things and what people had, or didn’t have at that time, and I asked if they had someone who knew how to spin. No one had thought of that. I thought that certainly in a church our size, there ought to be at least one person who could spin. Alice, Marya and Susan talked me into talking to Jon Crowe. When Jon talked to me about it, I found out that there was indeed one person was interested in doing the spinning. ME. I looked up what people would have used at that time, using the internet. I found out that spinning wheels are only seven hundred years old. Before that, everyone used hand spindles. So, I ordered a hand spindle and some wool to re-learn on because I couldn’t wait for Jon to make us some for Bethlehem. I also found a couple of books and I entered a whole wonderful world of fiber. I learned how to spin again. I love Bethlehem! I love sitting in front of my “house” and spinning and showing others how to spin. Spinning is like the sun coming out. Sitting with my spindle and wool makes me happy, even when my fingers go numb. I have learned how to weave and am trying to get a period loom warped so people can do weft shots across it. I love doing the workshops and the planning. I like looking things up for people about their jobs. I like helping people get fitted with their costumes. I like getting into costume and character. I like making the stew. I like chatting about the wool with the shepherd and scratching the little Jacob sheep around their horns and ears. I like being a Bible time person because that is where my very first “friends” are. I have always felt shy about sharing my faith with strangers. I don’t feel shy about sharing Bethlehem with strangers. I have always loved nativity scenes—I have a small collection of them. Bethlehem is a super deluxe nativity set with real people playing along and acting out the parts and we have costumes! Real ones! Being a part of Bethlehem is an early Christmas present I look forward to every year. I don’t really need any other presents. For a few nights of the year it is really the time that the Redeemer of my people, the living Torah, has been born in my village sukkot. As a cast member, I have never actually been in our stable to see Joseph and Mary and Baby Jesus. But I don’t need to. My character, Hadasseh Aragi would be horrified to impose like that on a brand new mother and baby! God gave the law to us through Moses, but God gives grace and truth to us through Jesus. I know I will truly see Jesus someday, and Hadasseh and I can wait. Waiting is beautiful.
It's that time of year again! Journey to Bethlehem is already getting underway! The cast has been selected, and they begin the first of their three training workshops this Sunday. The new park Map has been drawn, (I'll post it up here soon!) This year, the park is bigger, there are more activities, more booths and more fun to be had by all who visit out little town!
Journey to Bethlehem will be open to the public December 6, 7, 8 and 9 from 6:00 to 8:30PM. It is completely free! Leave your money at home, dress warm and wear comfortable shoes!
If you have experienced Journey to Bethlehem in Manhattan Beach any time over the past three years, let us know! Either post a blog, or send us and email! j2b@journeyoffaith.com We want to hear your stories of your experiences, what did you like? What did you see, did you enjoy it? Are you coming back this year? Are you bringing friends or family?
My experience at Journey To Bethlehem as one of the cast members was a very spiritually moving experience.
At first, as the guests were arriving into our little Bethlehem, I was busy trying to organize myself and learn what I was supposed to be doing and saying. Around the third time the angel gave us the announcement of the birth of our Savior it hit me, "THIS REALLY HAPPENED!"
From then on, the announcement of the birth of our Savior by the angels became a special moment for me. Each time I kneeled down I tried to soak up those words, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom His favor rests."
I was reminded in a very moving way, HE did this for all of us. We've all been blessed with the greatest Christmas gift of all, the birth of our Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
This was my first year in Bethlehem. What a wonderfully Spiritual experience for me and my family. I loved my volunteer duties. I signed up for Thursday and Saturday, but wanted to be there every night, so I just showed up and served. It was so much fun. Thank you for the opportunity to service God and share the Birth of Christ with all of the wonderful guests.
I have a compliment Bethlehem received Sunday night while I served hot cocoa. This guest had seen the move 'The Passion' by Mel Gibson and she said "our angels were better then Mel's and had moved her tears and goose bumps."
First let me say that this is my third year in serving the Lord on such a cool program and hope to be able to continue doing so in the future. I enjoy the build and working with so many fellow brothers and sisters. I enjoy helping in my small way to create some of the special articles and I really get a blessing out of it.
As for the small roll I played as Pallu Ben Mosha the scribe, that was sheer pleasure. I really get a kick out of the kids watching me use the carved stick (bamboo pen) that I use and the look on their little faces when I tell them that the ink comes from squid and octopus ink along with certain plant dyes. Some of them wrinkle their noses and say yeooooou or yuk. Most of them ask me is hard to learn Hebrew or Greek and I tell them no, as scribes are very highly educated and respected as we did all the writing and transcribing, etc. for the community at large. This year was really nice because I had a second scribe who wrote in Greek and that really awed many of our visitors. We sold over 700 of the 800 samples that I made up. Cool! Even the adults were willing to ask questions about the scribes duties and the two texts. I also explained that there were four languages in use during this time. These are Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin. I explained the making of papyrus and why it was so expensive and why scribes rarely made mistakes. Most were duly impressed with us and I was pleased and yes just a little proud to be able to serve this way. All the work in learning and preparing everything has been very worthwhile for me. I also enjoyed talking to the visitors in general and tried my best to remain in character even when a couple of my friends were seemingly determined to get me out of character.
It's now the time for tear down. I also enjoy helping out here as well. As usual there are many items needing repair, some of which I did there and some I brought home as it is easier for me on the smaller more delicate things. Again, I am so thankful to be a small part of Journey to Bethlehem and also thankful for all those that participated in its various phases. A big thanks goes out to all those behind the scenes that never get seen by most, they are also a blessing to us.
I'll close now and I hope that next year will be an even bigger event. As always, I remain your servant for Jesus' sake. Carl Marsh aka Pallu Ben Mosha, scribe.
From Art Krispin - Lead Angel
Reflections on the role.. The role was quite a bit of fun, from the very smooth lift to the microphone, it was a classic, technical acting role. By technical, I mean the timing requirements were quite strict to enable all the different parts (music, lift, fog, heavenly host) to come together. The armor and sword took some management to keep the body working throughout the run, but the visual aspect made it more than worth it. The role required a good sense of balance and heights, but the stability of the lift was a tremendous aid. A concern of mine as the role went on was keeping the angels impressive while not scene-stealing, as afterall, the key to the show is a quiet moment in the stable. Its also interesting to reflect on what it took to bring about the gig, from the set design & welding to the armature & smoke operators to the microphone and sound board operator to the makeup artists (i.e. the other angels) to the spotlight operators to the costumers/prop aquisition to the response of the rest of the cast and to these works that were prepared ahead of time for all of us (in our own way) to stumble into...
For Next Year... Some kind of jerkin under the armor! Dan (our Roman historian) was telling me about a garment that helps keep the armor from digging into shoulders and hips and etc...
Based on comments I've heard, it would be great if we could extend the run for next year. 2000 per night is an impressive number, but I talked with a couple of people who found the parking struggle and length of the line to be too intimidating. I did also hear that the line, although long, moved fast.
All in all - I'd have to say that I found the experience this year to be quite uplifting...
-Art
From Teresa Whitworth - Animal Corral Keeper
What a wonderful experience to be a small part of the Journey to Bethlehem. Everyone was incredible. My only regret was that I did not have a camera in the Animal Corral - the children were wonderful coming through. Some of them did not know the difference between a goat and a sheep and most of them thought the baby calf was the donkey's baby. The parents, I think, enjoyed it as much as the children. What was also fun was to have the travelers bring in the Journey of Bethlehem children and the interaction between the Bethlehem kids and the visitors was so precious.
Journey to Bethlehem 2006 has come and gone. Well, almost. The shows are done, the actors have gone, the animals were loaded up into their trailers and the visitors have left. All we have to remind us of J2B is... The whole soggy set!
I am sitting at home waiting for my cough and cold medicine to kick in while a half-dozen or so faithful volunteers are sweeping and scooping up soggy straw from the 40,000 square foot park. Last night's show was inundated by a light drizzle from the moment we opened to the moment we closed (five minutes early.) Needless to say, costumes, canvas straw, actors and visitors were soaked by the end of the constant drizzle.
As I roamed the park last night amidst a sea of umbrellas and other head coverings, I was amazed to see the entire cast was still grinning, and still in character. You would think that they were completely oblivious to the fact that they were soaked. You'd think it was a perfect evening. Suprisingly, our attendance didn't suffer too much because of the weather. We beat last year's totals by 1000 people, and everyone who showed up stuck around to explore the whole town.
A small pizza party followed the cast's performance and I was honored with a gift that means so much to me, a cast photo frame signed by the entire cast. How awesome! Thanks to all of you!
Well, I will sign off early (I know you are dissappointed this isn't another novel) since I need to get to the set to help clean up.
Photos, videos and testimonials will be added to the website soon, so keep checking it for those and details about the cast and crew party in January!
Hey there readers- Ok, so it has been over a week since I wrote. Tonight's blog won't be a long one, as I am dead tired and my allergies to straw and hay are killing me...
Tonight was the third performance, (including the dress rehearsal) and the cast and crew performed magnificently! But this blog ain't about them. (I'll do a blog all about them soon, but not now...) This blog is about our God.
Let me back up a day first. Friday afternoon, we all showed up to start setting up the town, and the casting director looked at me and said "Hey Jon, look at how fast those clouds are moving!" Well, I looked up, and not 100 feet above out heads, white whispy clouds were booking along at a fair rate of speed. My exact words were; "Yeah, here comes the wind!" The words had no sooner left my lips, then tents start toppling from the gale force winds ripping through the set. A small prop girl pulled the most amazing Matrix move and avoided being crushed by a falling tent by mere fractions of a second.
After the wind finally died down, 8 out of the 12 tents were down, and the canvas dividing wall was down, and two sections of actual town wall were down. Ouch! The crew set out immediately to assess damage (which was minimal- a few lights broken, a stool, etc...) and jumped into action repairing our fair town.
Then- Friday night, performance went great. The skies were clear, there was little wind at all, everything was smooth. The three hours flew by (for most of us) and we had no sooner gotten the cast up to wardrobe to change, then the rain set in. I mean it was perfect, impeccable, supernatural timing. All the guests had left, the cast was inside and the night was done. Perfect! So the crew and I scambled again and tore down all the tents, raced the props up to the prop room and tarped anything that could have been damaged.
I get up this morning, and the weatherman gives me his report of 40% chance of rain. (If you ask me, every report should be 50/50, it is either going to rain, or it isn't! Right? I digress...) So with the forecast looming over me like the clouds that rolled in around 3pm today, I knew that my God was perfect in all His ways. I told everyone that it would only rain if God felt that the South Bay needed rain more than the community needed Jesus. Having complete faith that God would stave off the clouds, we began to set up.
Dorthy in Kansas had a little rain cloud compared to the thunderhead that built over the next 2 and a half hours. And it was directly above us. Not off to a side, I mean it hovered. People were looking for basements, horses were running free in the fields, there was even a witch on a bicycle yelling that she'd "get me and my little dog too." (I told her it was the wrong production and that I don't have a dog, so she apologized and moved on...) Need I exaggerate more to describe how massive these clouds were? Black, ugly, looming clouds with torrents of rain just waiting to be hurled to earth. Yet- we persist and make the final set ready for the small line of people crazy enough to brave possibly the South Bay's worst storm on record. The show begins...
At exactly 6pm, as the gates are pushed open, so do the clouds. I don't mean that they opened up and let the rain fall- No! I mean like the Red Sea, the clouds literally split down the middle, and began fading until there was not a cloud in the sky. Our cicling searchlight no longer looked like it was only fifty feet long as it scraped the thunderhead's bottom, it now disappeared thousands of feet up into an inky black sky with a few scattered stars. God's handprint was all over this!
Amazing you say? Not for my God! But wait- there's more!
Tonight's performace was to be followed up with a brief photo session of the entire cast. Yes, that's like trying to herd 174 cats into one location, have them all sit and smile for the 8 cameras flashing like the press for about ten minutes. We even had the horse and goats, and a 1 month old 'baby Jesus' in the shots! I turn to the photographers precariously perched on his ladder, and ask, "Are you happy?" His reply was, "Yep. We got it!" I turn to the cast and say "Thanks you guys- head for the wardrobe!" Again- no sooner do the words leave my lips, the rain drops begin pelting the straw all around us!
Cast are running for cover, the crew make the mad dash to strike the set, and all-in-all, anything and everything perishable makes it to safety.
So- the reason for this blog? The reason I am sitting here typing this "short" blog while my head is spinning from all the drugs I have been cramming? The reason why we even do Journey to Bethlehem in the first place?
Because my perfect God is worthy of all the honor and glory and recognition we can give Him.
Jon Crowe here, director and creator of Journey to Bethlehem here at Journey of Faith in Manhattan Beach, CA. Now, I really don't take credit for J2B all myself. In reality, it takes over 300 people to create and build and act and teardown Bethlehem every year. I just get the joy of leading them all, and the blame when something falls apart. Trust me, this job is 99% joy!
This is the third year that we have produced this amazing event. Last year we saw 6500 people walk through the park in the four nights we were open. This year we anticipate 8000 or more. With a cast of 170 people, 30+ animals, angels, Roman soldiers and over 40,000 square feet of park, J2B is the largest production I have ever worked on.
In December of 2003, Journey of Faith decided to produce our own Bethlehem experience for 2004. I was the lucky one to direct the endeavor, it all hinging on whether we could build it in time, train the actors, and have it all fold up and fit into a container when we were done. Considering this is year three, I guess you know that we pulled it off.
So planning began in February of '04, and the cast was recruited in June. Set building began in July, and by September, I was sweating bullets wondering if we were going to run out of time. It came down to the week of the event, and all the sets we had built prior came out of the shipping container. Sunday following the last service, the lower parking lot was cleared of all cars, and the mayhem began. 150 volunteers with gloves showed up and started standing walls everywhere. Like ants with one goal in mind, they all literally created Bethlehem in about 3 hours. Ok, well- they created the outline of Bethlehem. It didn't look like Bethlehem though. That took the next 3 days...
65 gallons of paint, 1500 feet of burlap, 200 sheets of lattice, about a mile of jute rope, 300 palm branches and 60 bales of straw helped create the look of the old, biblical Bethlehem we were aiming for. I sat back that Thursday morning and just couldn't stop grinning. I was so proud of all the work the volunteers had accomplished in the past 6 months. It looks fantastic! Like the set of a big budget movie- Journey to Bethlehem had come into existence. Now it just needed to come to life...
So let me jump back in time again, to August of '04. Our cast of 140 had been selected and roles given out. These actors then began attending Actors' Workshops, learning what the culture was like back in real Bethlehem around the time Christ was born. They also learned how to 'stay in character.' This acting technique is crucial to keeping Bethlehem alive. If a cast member was to break character, they ruin the image of really living in Bethlehem. So weeks of training into the late nights had to happen. The cast really stepped up and devoured the material, learning their characters and learning the techniques. Improvisation is really what it all comes down to. When a visitor asks you a random question you are not prepared for, you have to know how your character would answer! Not as easy as it might sound!
So with cast ready, and the park ready, all that was left was getting a production crew ready. We need a highly-trained, well-oiled, smooth-as-butter operating team. We had a handful of volunteers. Don't get me wrong- these are the right and perfect people for the job! It was just that they (nor I) had ever done something this big before! So, you'd think we'd practice it a few times before we opened to the public, right? Of course not! Ha! "Boldy going where other would have rehearsed themselves silly!" Our thinking= Why waste that practice time? Let's just see how it goes! That Thursday, at 5:30pm, the cast showed up, the crew showed up and the line outside the park started growing. I ran through a crash-course in how I envisioned the production cues going, where the exits and bathrooms were, and we sent them out into the park. 6pm hit moments later, and we opened the gates...
Flawless! (Except for the minor fire.) Ok, yes, we had a small fire. And I mean small. One of the stage curtains for the angels landed on one of the hot lights and started smoking. I ran up there, told the curtain pullers to raise the curtain mid-angel announcement. Everyone was puzzled why the curtains came back up covering the angels when they were only half way through their number until the curtain popped into flame! I think all of 10 people actually saw the flames that burnt a silver-dollar sized hole in the curtain before I beat them out with my bare hand. The small scar I have on the back of my hand served as a HUGE wake up reminder about how easy it could have been for everything to go wrong. Needless to say, Journey to Bethlehem 2005 had many improvements, first of all being flame-proofing the entire set- TWICE. I personally sprayed every bit of canvas, the straw, the sets, all of it twice with Fire-Marshall approved flame retardant. We now do this every year. We also improved the angel stage so that curtains can not land on a light. Ever. Our videos for the people waiting in line talk about "no smoking" in or out of Bethlehem. And we now have added emergency exits all over Bethlehem, marked with red flags. We want to be safe!
Ok, so the first year performances went great. We saw about 4000 visitors, and everyone loved it. The second year, we had to beg and plead to get 125 cast members. And I already mentioned we had 6500 visitors. We wanted J2B to be bigger and better from year one to year two, so we also added another 15,000 square feet (the marketplace) to the park layout, bringing it up to the current 40,000 sq. ft. you will visit this year. Do we plan on adding more footage in future years? You'll just have to come back next year to find out, now won't you?
This being the first (and hopefully not last) blog, I'll sign off now. Don't expect to hear much from me over the next two weeks, as I have my hands and head full of the million-and-one things I need to make sure get done, built or solved before J2B '06 can launch on December 7 this year. I've provided some links below with some promotional materials.
I need to get some sleep, so I can get up early in the morning to cut some metal for a new feature to this years' Bethlehem. (You'll have to visit to see what it is!) Then I have to pick up dirt for the brick-makers, and reeds for the basket weavers. Ok, so make that a million-and-four things...
Journey to Bethlehem's gates will be open to the public December 8-10, 2006 6:00pm to 8:30pm Journey Of Faith Church 1243 Artesia Blvd. Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 P: 310.372.4641 CLICK HERE FOR MAP
Hello! Welcome to the behind the scenes blog for Journey To Bethlehem! We'll be posting more content shortly so keep checking back often! Don't forget to add us to your favorite feed reader!
Journey to Bethlehem is an interactive, hands-on experience for you to walk through the city of Bethlehem during the time of Christ's birth. Journey of Faith church in Manhattan Beach, California has re-created a representation of the birth-place of Jesus Christ, and here's a look into how we make the birthplace of Jesus come to life every year!
