HOLT – One of the challenges Michelle Brooks has faced this Christmas season was helping men, women and children from her community imagine themselves in the fields outside of Bethlehem when, suddenly, a host of angels appear in the night sky.
“The biggest challenge is coming up with the ‘wow factor’ of the angel’s appearing, … how magical and heavenly that would be,” Brooks told The Pathway. “How surprising that experience would have been for the shepherds!”
Brooks was a member of the team directing “Journey to Bethlehem,” a Dec. 11-12 outreach event organized by Northern Hills Baptist Church here.
Since this summer, she has joined more than 100 other church members to build an interactive drama that would transport people to Bethlehem at the time of Christ’s birth. Along the way, they would see Roman soldiers and wise men. Brooks’ particular task was to recreate the shepherds’ experience when the angels (acted out by members from the church’s youth group) appeared to them on that first Christmas.
Pastor Jonathan Hayashi said, “Journey to Bethlehem is where you get to walk the road, experience the story, so you can live the journey – the journey where you get to know and love Jesus. You get to follow Him.”
Brooks likewise hopes the drama at her church created a “tangible experience” for people and give them a fresh encounter – if not their first encounter – with Jesus and with the events of Christmas. And, with the use of imagination and help from many church volunteers, the drama did just that.