It has begun... One Week and counting!

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.

One week and counting!

See you soon!

Shalom,

jon

Spinning for Bethlehem

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.

Audrey M. DeNeui.