More views from the cast (part 2)

From Marcelo Vignali (Samuel the flower vendor)

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.

Marcelo Vignali

Views from the crew (part 1)

From Pam Brown - Hot chocolate booth

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."

God Bless you,
Pam Brown

Views from the cast (part 1)

From Carl Marsh - Master Scribe

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.

That is all for now.
Blessings,

Teresa Whitworth

That's a wrap...

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!

Shalom and peace be with you!

Jon

God's timing is impeccable!

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.

Shalom, and peace be with you,

jon