If bringing the story of the Nativity to life means wrangling balky camels and sheep, local institutions are willing to make the effort.

This year, churches and Concordia Lutheran Ministries in Jefferson Township are staging their first live Nativities or bringing the tableaux back after several years on hiatus.

At First Presbyterian Church of Bakerstown, its Dec. 14 live Nativity has been a long-held goal.

“It's something that the children's ministry team has been talking about for the past two or three years. We've been planning it for about a year,” said Sandy Floyd of Valencia, the children's ministry director at First Presbyterian.

“We wanted some way to tell the Christmas story that would be for all ages to enjoy,” Floyd said.

The staging of a live Nativity will also be a first-time event Dec. 15 at Concordia.

“We have been wanting to do it for a few years,” said Karen Daum, executive assistant to Concordia President and CEO Keith Frndak. “For Mr. Frndak, it's been his dream for quite a few years, and we're making his vision a reality this year.”

For Zion United Methodist Church, Sarver, this weekend marks the recent return of a 30-year tradition.

“We've done this for, I'm going to say 30 years, but this will be our second year after a four-year hiatus,” said Patty Burdett of Cabot, who is co-leader of this year's event.

First Presbyterian's staging will feature five stations around the church's administration building, said Floyd, illustrating the prophecy with Isaiah, the angel visiting Mary, the birth of Jesus, the shepherds visited by angels and the three wise men.

“They will be acting, but they will not be speaking,” said Floyd of the actors at each of the stations. “There will be spoken Scripture projected out.”

“People will travel from station to station. They will hear the Scripture and there will be explaining signs,” said Floyd.

“We're doing one scene,” said Daum of Concordia's production. “But we are having people in the live Nativity going through a narrator and several songs acting it out.”

“It's going to start every half-hour. It lasts about 15 minutes and gives the children some 15 minutes to pet the animals and become part of the scene,” Daum said.

At Zion, Burdett said, “the guests are escorted up the driveway, stopping at certain scenes and listening to the narration of the Christmas story and the music.”

“There are seven scenes illustrating the different facets of the Christmas story, such as the shepherds watching their flocks and choirs of angels,” said Burdett.

“We invite them in for refreshments and fellowship, and we also accept donations that will benefit the Cabot food bank,” said Burdett.

All involved said the staging of the Nativities, in addition to sharing the good news of Christmas with the community, is a chance for their own communities to come together.

“Just with the characters and the scene setters and the people serving on hospitality, there are 80 people,” said Floyd. “We have two sets of characters because we don't know what the weather is going to be like that day.”

“There are families participating in this as well. We have young and old angels, young and old shepherds,” said Floyd.

A Concordia resident helped build the stable for the manger scene, said Daum, and the Nativity staging will involve residents, staff and neighbors.

“We have some youths in the community participating as angels and shepherds,” said Daum. “Residents are baking and icing cookies. They will be our greeters. We are going to have some choirs inside.”

“After people witness our living Nativity, they can come inside and have cookies and enjoy music sung by our residents and a few other church choirs,” she said.

“We actually have residents and a family member making our wise men costumes,” Daum added. “We are excited about the resident involvement and the family involvement.”

“With our junior and senior high youth groups, we probably have at least 30 kids, all costumed,” said Burdett.

The organizers are taking different approaches to acquiring the animals needed. At Zion, they're keeping it local.

“We will have a donkey and two sheep,” said Burdett. “Honestly, I don't know where the donkey is coming from, but the sheep are coming from a farm in Boggsville.”

“There will be two camels with the wise men. The shepherds will have a lot of sheep and some newborn lambs as well that they will be holding,” said Floyd. “And then at the birth of Jesus, from what I've been told, there will be one donkey, maybe two, a cow or calf, chickens and sheep.”

She said the scenes with animals will be contained in 20-by-20-foot pens.

“The original plan was to have the local 4-H help us with animals, but that got too complicated,” said Floyd.

The Bakerstown church has contracted with the Barnyard Petting Zoo in Eighty Four, Washington County, to supply the animals needed.

Jan Marchezak, the owner of Barnyard Petting, said, “We've been doing Nativity scenes for 30 years.”

“We hand- and bottle-raise about 300 babies every year, potbellied pigs, lambs and goats, donkeys, llamas, alpacas, miniature cows, camels and zebras,” said Marchezak.

All the animals she supplies are well trained, she said.

“We do TV and movie work. All our animals are trained to go in and out of doorways and up and down stairs,” said Marchezak.

Barnyard's animals come with handlers.

“Here's the thing. When you do barnyard animals, pretty much everybody can handle them. Camels are some of the fastest-growing animals around,” she said. “Each camel gets a handler. A camel will jump up and down like a puppy. It isn't that they are being mean or aggressive, but it's like having four baseball bats coming at you.”

She said her animals will be featured in some 25 live Nativity scenes this holiday season.

Daum said Concordia plans to use a camel, a donkey, a calf and two sheep in its Nativity. It will also rent animals for the occasion.

“We decided to go through Living Treasures, a small petting zoo in New Castle,” Daum said. “They come with two handlers, and this way the children will be able to pet them because they are from a petting zoo.”

Erin Shaffer, the group and traveling event coordinator for Living Treasures, said, “This is really a busy time of year. We're doing three living Nativities Friday, five on Saturday and one on Sunday.”

“We have handlers that travel with the animals. They set everything up and clean up afterward.”

Shaffer said the animals used for Nativities are used to people and are very tame.

“They can pet them and get close to them and touch them,” Shaffer said.

Both Daum and Floyd said they hope the live Nativities become annual events.

<B>Zion United Methodist Church</B>WHAT: Living NativityWHERE: Zion United Methodist Church, 438 Bear Creek Road, SarverWHEN: On the hour at 5, 6, 7 and 8 p.m. Dec. 7 and Dec. 8, followed by refreshments and fellowshipINFO: 724-353-1720<B>First Presbyterian Church, Bakerstown</B>WHAT: Living NativityWHERE: First Presbyterian Church of Bakerstown, Route 8 and Heckert RoadWHEN: 5 to 7 p.m. Dec. 14, followed by refreshments, children’s prizes and fellowshipINFO: www.fpcb.org<B>Concordia Lutheran Ministries</B>WHAT: Living NativityWHERE: Concordia Lutheran Ministries, 148 Marwood Road, Jefferson TownshipWHEN: 4 to 6 p.m. Dec. 15, followed by refreshments, children’s prizes and fellowshipINFO: 724-352-1571, Ext. 8268