Behind the scenes at the drive-through nativity

By COLLEEN FONTANA
UNLEASHED STAFF
“Are you all ready?” came the voice over the walkie talkie.
With these words, children and teens grabbed their hats and pulled them onto their heads. Adults helped younger kids wrestle costumes over winter coats and drape shawls over their hats. They also pulled on gloves with hand warmers stuffed inside, preparing themselves for another bone-chilling night.
In the weeks preceding Christmas, members of the West Valley Church of the Nazarene were decking their halls — make that their parking lot — with a different sort of decoration.
Strewn across parking spaces were piles of burlap, wooden structures, including crosses, and farm animals, like goats and donkeys, on loan from local farmers. As vehicles filled with passengers wound through the seven stations, church members acted out stages in Jesus’s life.
“This is the reason for the season,” said Teri Fleming, a church member who has participated in the drive-through nativity for the past 10 years. To pull it off, “There is so much that needs to happen.”
Her husband, 52-year-old Rockie Fleming, and their three children also help. In all, more than 100 people are needed to stage the drive-through nativity.
“Sometimes, people come to help expecting it to be a party,” Rockie Fleming said. “But when it’s not, they realize that they can still have fun without drugs and alcohol.”
He said he’s inspired by the way the living nativity inspires children. And he looks forward to the event every year: “I have a long-standing relationship with Jesus Christ, and I want to share that with others.”
So does Jason Johnston. “It’s a tradition,” said the church’s 31-year-old youth pastor. He’s been directing the drive-through nativity for the past five years, but it has been happening for the past 24.
“I grew up participating in the nativity, and now I’m directing it,” Johnston said.
For 18-year-old Isaac Bass, a senior at Riverside Christian School, the drive-through nativity is a way for people to “get a glimpse of Jesus’s life.
“It’s an opportunity to learn and a great outreach for us,” said Bass, who’s been participating in the event for as long as he can remember. “I was the boy Jesus when I was 5,” he said, adding that now he would rather “be a Roman soldier so I can stand by the fire.”
Each scene tells a story and is accompanied by a Bible verse. In some cases, live sheep and goats are used. There are difficulties to using live animals, though.
“One year a goat died,” said 18-year-old Chris Danielson, a student at Yakima Valley Community College.
Another year, there was a glove-eating donkey.
The actors have had their share of mishaps, too. Kids have fallen off crosses. Others have gotten a little too close to the fire; one boy found that the fingers on his gloves had melted away.
In order to make sure the animals stay in line and the kids stay safe, parents and other adults work endlessly behind the scenes. Volunteers do everything from preparing food and helping with costumes to regulating actor rotations and shoving hand warmers into gloves. Night temperatures can dip into the single digits.
“It’s fun, even though it’s cold,” said 11-year-old Rachel Bass, a homeschooled sixth-grader.
Good thing, Rockie Fleming said, “Costumes are big enough for clothes to be worn under them.”
“We’re basically in clothes you would wear to Alaska,” said 18-year-old Emi Berglane, another YVCC student.
The church hosts the drive-through nativity as a community service, and members are eager to continue the tradition.
“Sometimes, people don’t want to believe, but actual history validates what the Bible said,” Rockie Fleming said. “I want them to come to the nativity and begin to think of the truth.”

— Photos and story by Colleen Fontana. Colleen Fontana is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Davis High School.