Nativity ‘festival’ this weekend celebrates birth of Jesus

HARLINGEN – It’s been long, hard work that has involved up to 200 volunteers.

But, for St. Paul Lutheran Church Pastor Nathan Wendorf, it’s “a beautiful thing.”

For days, if not weeks, church members and other volunteers have spent countless hours preparing for the church’s Nativity Nights event, this weekend. They’ve been building, making crafts and collecting food.

Now, they are in the final stages of preparations and Wendorf is expecting big crowds for the special event, which includes a live nativity scene and about 100 nativity sets from around the world. He said the church is planning for attendance around 2,000 and that’s why the team effort has been so important.

“There are a lot of people pitching in,” he said about the preparations.

It’s his favorite part of the event.

“Seeing everyone come together to make it happen and to do something big,” he said. “I love that about it and that it is a celebration of the birth of Jesus. The church all coming together is a beautiful thing.”

Wendorf called the event a “festival” celebration that will speak to people with different interests.

Last year, the church had its first live nativity scene held on a Sunday. Another day, they had the nativity scenes set up. Attendance at the live nativity scene was impressive with about 600 or 700 showing up on the only night it was held. So, because of that success, church leaders decided to combine the two events.

Wendorf is confident anyone attending will find something of interest. But, there is one main goal of the event.

“It is important to the church to make Jesus known,” he said about the church’s mission. “We want to talk about and share the story of the birth of Jesus.”

That’s one reason the church is holding the event early in the month, before everyone turns their focus on the other parts of the holiday.

“Before all the stress and busy times, we want people to pause and remember what the holiday is really about,” Wendorf said.