The Magic of (Drive-Thru) Bethlehem

I would pretty much bet my paycheck that we are the only people “working” in Bethlehem who don’t actually believe in the story of the wise men and the manger…

Let me back up. 

There is a DRIVE-IN CHURCH in Daytona Beach, Florida.  I know this because we live part-time in Ormond Beach, the city next to Daytona, and we happened upon the drive-in church once while out on a drive and found it hilarious.  What a concept, eh??  A drive-in CHURCH!

Us outside the Drive-In Church the first time I saw it in 2013.
I thought it was hilarious.  I didn't realize how KIND and
ACCEPTING the people who go there are.  I hadn't met
them yet!

Then one year I read a little blurb advertising DRIVE-THRU BETHLEHEM, hosted one weekend a year by the drive-in church.  If that ad didn’t intrigue me, nothing would…  So, I signed us up!  No, I didn’t sign us up to GO to Drive-Thru Bethlehem, I signed us up to VOLUNTEER at it!!!  The first year I signed up (online, sight unseen) to be angel and signed David up to be a wise man.   Only, when we got to the church on the appointed night, they were in a pickle:  they had a JOSEPH but no MARY!!  They asked, I obliged.  And thus began my volunteer career as Mary in Drive-Thru Bethlehem!

Getting dressed for my first gig as MARY!  2013

David as a wise man (or, as he liked to say, a WISE GUY) in 2013

 The following years David joined me in the stable and we played Mary and Joseph.  We love it every year – it has become a tradition and we always come away from “Bethlehem” feeling happy and loved.

Drive-Thru Bethlehem 2014 - that is a REAL donkey named Rachel!  We also had sheep, ducks, and a calf with us!

But this year, this hellacious year, we didn’t’ know when/if we were coming to Florida in December.  We are not in the holiday spirit by any stretch of the imagination.  Plus, sign-up for Bethlehem starts early…  So, I didn’t register us. 

But, as fate would have it, we arrived in Ormond Beach at 1 am on Sunday morning (late Saturday night) and there were still volunteer slots open for Bethlehem Sunday evening!!  I messaged with the coordinator on our drive to Florida and told her we would be willing to work any position, though would prefer not to be the tax collectors (who have to ask for donations).

We showed up this evening and they dressed us as SHEPHERDS, which was fine with us!  We jumped on the golf cart to ride to our station (this Bethlehem is fancy – transportation to your sheep!) and crawled into the pen which was filled with hay, SHEEP, and 3 or 4 teen and pre-teen girls who were also playing shepherds.

Let’s just say, pre-teen girls don’t take their volunteering as seriously as David and I do.  We were not interested in doing the limbo under our shepherd’s crooks, or standing on folding chairs and shouting, “WELCOME TO BETH-LA-HAMMMM!” to people in vehicles.  Before long we were moved out of the pen and told to “wander around the village” and talk to people.  That suited our style even better 😊 .

Just two shepherds hanging out with their sheep...  Yes, REAL LIVE sheep!

 So, we wandered, chatted with visitors, told corny jokes, sang carols in the moonlight, and wished car after car a very merry Christmas.  Then I saw a white bus-like van coming in.  Cars and trucks were bumper to bumper – one night of the event was cancelled this year due to bad weather so all visitors to Bethlehem crammed into 2 busy evenings.  But when I saw the bus, I thought I recognized it as one just like the nursing home in Omaha where my dad’s wife now lives has.  I looked at the side of the bus, and sure enough, it had a nursing home logo on it.

“C’mon, David, let’s get on the bus!” I said.  They had only passed the angels and shepherd area, the very, very beginning of Bethlehem, and I wanted to make sure they had a great time.  So, we jumped on board!!!  The driver was surprised to see 2 shepherds, plastic crooks and all, boarding his bus, but we came on and started chatting. 

Those senior citizens loved it!  The bus was tall, so it was rather hard for them to see everything out the windows.  Plus, I think many of them had Alzheimer’s.  So, we became their official welcoming committee for Bethlehem!  As they drove thru the “town”, I had the driver open his door at each stop and I would wave the volunteer over.  “What are you selling???” I would ask.  “Ummm, bowls???” said the first one.  “May I see one of your beautiful wood bowls???”, I asked, and he handed it to me (not sure of what was going on, most cars sort of just drive THRU Bethlehem, it doesn’t tend to be interactive).  But those seniors LOVED it!  They touched the bowl.  They saw the fruit.  They saw the fake fish – they saw it all!  They smiled such big, genuine smiles.  When we got to the bakery the volunteer handed me her tray of cookies and I passed those treats out – they were a huge hit!  The whole bus loved the big black horse, too, I even opened the back door of the bus to let that horse stick his majestic head in so the man in the wheelchair could get a good look! 

If I only volunteered for Bethlehem half an hour and it was the time spent on the bus with those seniors, that would be plenty to feed my heart for the year. 

Getting a photo of 2 people and a bunch of sheep using a timed camera sitting on a folding chair is hard.

We did have one other special moment tonight.  When chatting with a car, I asked if they had been to Bethlehem before.  “Yes!” said one child.  “No,” said another wo was seated next to the first.  “They are just my foster parents.”  I knew what he meant – basically, “No, I haven’t lived with them long.  Maybe their “real” family came to this place in years past, but I have never been here before”.  But the “just” didn’t sit well with me.  Foster parents are so important!  They CHOOSE to be there – choose to parent a child, to take care of her/him, even when times are really difficult.  They don’t “have” to do it – it is a choice.  I looked at the little boy and it just slipped out of my mouth, “Wait, they are not JUST your foster parents!  They ARE your foster parents!!  Foster parents are amazing!  They are important.  They ARE your foster parents!”.  The look on the man and woman’s face was beautiful.  It was as if they had been thanked for this huge thing they do – this gift to society. 

Every year at Drive Thru Bethlehem something like that happens, something magical.  Something that makes me believe in the spirit of the season.  Some years it is a woman alone in a convertible quietly singing “Away in a Manger” with a sincere, unashamed voice.  Some years it is a child with wide eyes saying, “Happy birthday Baby Jesus,” to the doll I am cuddling in the manger. 

So, back to believing.  I would bet my paycheck that we are the only people “working” in Bethlehem that don’t actually believe in the story of the wise men and the manger.  Don’t believe it in the “it was written in the Bible, so therefore it is factual and this is what actually went down” sort of sense. 

But I would also be willing to bet that we are the shepherds (with plastic crooks) or Mary and Joseph (on most years) who come away from Drive-Thru Bethlehem feeling the SPIRIT OF THE SEASON more than anyone.  Merry Christmas everyone, and to all a good night.

P.S. – for our second shift tonight, I was the fruit market vendor and David was the wood worker.  He made up some really corny jokes to tell visitors, like, “This is a wooden bowl, and when I say “wooden”, I mean, “wooden you like to buy it??”.  😊  His other homemade hit was, “This bowl is made of olive wood, because it is “olive the wood” that I have, so I made it out of that”.

Bonus photo - 2014 when Andrew (a duck?  goose?) refused to let us take a proper family portrait and kept walking in front of the camera before the timer could go off.