Shaarda's Story - It's God's Story!: December 2023

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

First Ever Live Nativity

I am so excited to share with you our first ever live nativity in Obule! We called it Journey to Jesus because they don't have a word for nativity here. God has put this desire on my heart for a few Christmases now, but I was afraid it wouldn't work, people wouldn't understand and people wouldn't come. Actually, I could think of a bunch of reasons it could be a disaster here! But this year I couldn't shake the idea from my mind. So I figure it must be from God and so I had to try. I talk to Josh who also questioned it but was supportive knowing the Lord often leads me to do things. We then brought the idea to our church leaders and asked if it would work and if they wanted to do it. The idea was very new to them and hard for them to completely understand, but they really wanted to do it! All of them agreed this was a new way for people to learn and see the love of Jesus.

We decided to do it at our annual church conference so the other UCFM churches could be involved. This way we could work together and they could bring it home to all their districts.

I prayed so much and left it in God's hands to use it as He wanted to. It was my prayer that God's people grew in Him through seeing and hearing the Christmas story, that the community would come, and lost would be saved. I wanted the last station of the Journey of Jesus to be the cross and empty tomb so that the whole Gospel, the Good News, would be shared. I got all the props and costumes ready with material and things I had at home. The setting is perfect here, sheep are available, and the weather and whole way of life here is similar to the Christmas story. Josh wrote the scripts for the five stations and our leaders helped us translate so everything was in Ateso.

The night before the Journey to Jesus everyone who wanted to be involved got their parts, the angel choir practiced, and a group went to the center to invite people to come.

December 15 was show time! (And my birthday - what a special birthday!) Everyone got very into it when we started setting up and dressing up! It was fun! Everyone looked great! It was very exciting to me to see them now understand, take leadership, and do a great job. They shared the story perfectly with expression and made it personal. Others led groups around. The angels blew us away with their organized song and motions! They looked amazing. The shepherds had their sheep, the wise men had their shining star, and the manger with a real new born baby! It was beautiful.

We had all of the other conference people get into groups and take the Journey to Jesus. Then a few people from the community filtered in to see and hear. But after that the group decided to take the Journey to Jesus to the center so everyone there could come and see. Great! The whole group, in costume, walked to the center singing and dancing. Love it!

After marching around the field to draw attention, which we did, we set up on a path for people to come and see. Our church did a great job welcoming, inviting and escorting people through the Journey to Jesus. They did it! They got it! And many people heard the good news!

The whole thing was an answer to prayer. We were unified as a church and shared the Gospel. I was thankful that a few people said to me, "We didn't just share Jesus birth, we shared the whole Gospel!" God is at work and He used us. Thank you God for inviting us to do the Journey to Jesus in Obule.

Walk through the Journey to Jesus!

Inviting people in the center.

The big day! Welcome!

Time for costumes.

The Prophets foretold Jesus will come.

The Wisemen followed the star to the newborn King.

Shepherds were told the Good New, a Savior has been born to you!

The angels glorified God!

Joy to the world the Lord has come!

Jesus came to save us.

Makai wanted to be an angel but in the morning he found his solider costume and put it on.
That works, Roman solider. He went around all night with his sword.

Our Mary is really named Mary, her brother Joseph played Joseph and Mary's baby (Joshua), only 2 weeks old, was Jesus. How perfect!

How real, how precious.
People kept looking to see if she really had a baby. Mary laid him in the manger (fitting) at one point and everyone came to see the live baby in the manger.