LAUREL HILL — Softly lit by 600 luminaria lining their paths and the glow of seven campfires, 150 area residents made “journeys to Bethlehem” at the fifth annual Living Nativity hosted by the Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church.
Several attendees said attending the Nativity and sharing refreshments and fellowship after their journeys has become an annual tradition for their families.
Ellie Emerson said her grandchildren always look forward to the event. "Are we going to go see Jesus, Maw-Maw?’ they always ask me.”
Even political rivals laid aside differences to attend. Laurel Hill City Council rivals Mary Bradberry and Scott Moneypenny made the journey in the same group.
“Now that was a blessing to see,” the Rev. Mark Broadhead said, partially jokingly.
More than two dozen volunteers from the church, its sister church in Crestview, and friends spent Friday evening and all of Saturday preparing for the two-and-a-half hour event.
Three volunteers wrangled a pair of goats from the Allie Lee Campbell farm to give shepherds Kerra Beasley of Crestview and Jessianne Fortune of Laurel Hill a flock — albeit small — to watch by night.
Performers represented students and adults from multiple area churches. The Three Kings, for example, were an elder in the Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church, a member of Live Oak Baptist Church in Crestview, and a member of the Laurel Hill First Baptist Church. King Herod was an elder at the First Presbyterian Church of Crestview.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Annual Laurel Hill Living Nativity ‘a blessing’ to 150 residents