- November 17, 2024
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Andy Jelsik, 76, has been participating in Parkview Baptist Church’s Palm Coast Living Nativity since its inaugural year in 2006 as the Bible character Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet who predicted the birth of Christ hundreds of years prior to Jesus being born.
According to Jelsik, Parkview Baptist holds the event as a way to reach out and share the story of Jesus to the community.
“There’s so much pressure on stores and businesses to refer to this time as the holidays,” he said. “We want to make sure that Jesus Christ is honored and is back in people’s minds as the important reason for Christmas.”
The Nativity is performed by all volunteers, who begin preparing for the event in July. They meet on a monthly basis, and as December draws near, their meetings pick up.
“In the beginning, the program had six scenes with roughly 28 workers,” Jelsik said. “Now, it’s 16 scenes, and there are 60 volunteers.”
Parkview goes all out for this community event. They rent animals. The church members design all the costumes that resemble the ancient Middle Eastern culture. They even rent a horse and have a man dress up as a Roman soldier and ride up and down Belle Terre Parkway. Jelsik and others start growing their facial hair to look as authentic to the Bible characters as possible.
“The kids really love to see all the animals and the festivities,” he added. “I’m just grateful that the community always comes out to support the Nativity. That’s why we do it.”
On Halloween night, Parkview held its annual Trunk or Treat program, and over 50 cars participated in the event.
“We never ask for any donations or any money from the people,” Jelsik said. “The only thing that we ask is that people would consider donating toys, because we give away hundreds of toys to kids in the community during this time.”
BOX:The Nativity will be held 6:30 p.m.-9 p.m. Dec. 11-13, at Parkview Baptist Church.
The volunteers of the event will be stationed throughout the parking lot for the community to either walk or drive-thru and see the many different Bible-based themes that surround the birth of Jesus.
