Adventful Advent!

Over four hundred people crowded St. Stephen's campus and buildings for our annual "Christmas on the Hill" event this past Wednesday. The evening was warm and breezy and that had to help bring the crowds out, but still, it was an amazing event. Excluding worship, "Christmas on the Hill" displays everything that's good about St. Stephen. (I am prejudiced, of course!) This year we called it "Southwestern Christmas on the Hill." The theme was cowboy, and everyone was dressed fit to kill. Around here, of course, the odds are they were going to dress like that anyway! Cowboy hats and boots abounded. There was fake steer ropin', wagon rides, crafts and plenty of vittles. And then there's the "on the hill" side of our events--we always break out big sheets of cardboard and slide down the hill.

Becky Evans, our on-site representative of Presbyterian Children's Homes and Services, turned out probably twenty families she works with, adding at least 100 people to the crowd. We've partnered with PCHAS for years. We are one of the few churches-possibly the only church--that office a PCHAS rep. During Katrina, we worked together to provide aid for literally hundreds of families and to host one victim family for over a year. Every year we help PCHAS collect Christmas gifts for clients, but this was the first year we've used Christmas on the Hill as their day to celebrate Christmas. It was wonderful. It was a blessing to see how much the parents' faces lighted up as they watched their kids having fun.

My job was to write, direct, and narrate "A Cowboy Christmas." We performed it three times in the sanctuary. I have to say, it was a blast, and seemed to receive good reviews! I wrote it as if the nativity was taking place in the old West ('right near here in Palesteen!'). The angel Gabe, played with a perfect Western accent by 17 year old Sarah Sanchez, came and told Mary that she would have a baby and name him "Hey-zooz." Ihoma Owhonda, playing Mary, said, in the cynical sardonic teenage way she says everything, "Well... I AM a servant of the Lord..." as if she was saying, "Oh, oh-kay," and rolling her eyes. The angel Gabe then woke up Travis Johnson, playing Joseph, and told him "Be a man about this! Marry Mary!"

The Three Wise Men were "City Slickers from the East, from New York or somewheres," who rode their horses backward. They accidently wound up in Dallas and made the mistake of asking Sherriff Herod about the new king. And ol' Sherriff Herod was played by Art Clayton, a giant ex-football player who is a gang prosecutor. He dressed himself all in black with a big star on his chest and spat and swore he'd get a posse together to hunt this baby Hey-zooz down. So the angel Gabe told Joseph that they had to escape Herod by going to Oklahoma.

Like I said, so much that makes this church great was on display--numerous, hard-working volunteers, our mission orientation, our diversity, people of all ages, and most of all our sense of fun. For all that we have this strong commitment to high worship, mission, and thoughtful faith, one of the best things about St. Stephen is that we just love to have a good time. Thanks to Beth Fultz and Mark Scott and all the volunteers who made this event possible!