WEST BADEN — Tucked away in the rolling hills between West Baden and Orleans will be a manger, complete with live animals on Dec. 1st and 2nd, much like the one scripture tells about. For more than a decade, the congregation of Bonds Chapel has invited visitors from near and far to enjoy hot cocoa and cookies, while watching a live nativity scene unlike others.
Once again, the cast of approximately 50 will dawn hand-sewn costumes and provide 25-minute productions to drive-in guests at the church, located 8625 County Road 810 North, West Baden. A Silent Night in the Country — Live Nativity Pull-in and Park will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 1 and offer shows every 30 minutes. The second night of performances begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 2 and continue through the 8 o’clock hour.
“We have live animals and portray Joseph and Mary coming in on the donkey, the wisemen, the shepherds and everything; we just portray that message right out of the Bible,” Pastor Rob Martindale explained. “We generally have about 16 cars at a time, so there will be about 200 people who will be able to watch the play. We want it to be a community thing to get out the message of Christmas.”
While loudspeakers play the narrative of the scene, the church has also utilized technology to broadcast over radio waves, allowing visitors to tune their radio dials for a convenient listening experience.
Since July, the congregation has been working to prepare the cast and look to make the experience as personable as possible. The event often serves as a family tradition for many, marking the beginning of the holiday season. Martindale said many are repeat visitors and neighboring community churches are likely guests with vans full of visitors.
“There’s just something special about it. We’ve done it at times you’ve almost froze to death, below zero, but it doesn’t stop us from doing it,” Martindale noted. “It doesn’t matter, we do it no matter what the weather is. There are no cancelations.”
The brainchild of 33-year pastor Martindale, the community offering has blossomed under the direction of Bonds Chapel Director Aaron Bennett.
“What makes this special is we are located deep I the country — yet people seek us out for the message of hope,” Bennett said.
As a boy, Martindale took part in a similar live nativity at his church in Greene County and brought his vision to Bonds Chapel, where the outreach effort has touched the lives of more than 200 people each holiday season.
“When we started putting it on here, it brought back so many memories. All of our kids at that point, if you go back and ask, they remember that special time of doing that, what it meant to the church and the community,” he reminisced. “What I took away from it was, at an early age, it just reinstilled in me the gospel message. We have a lot of kids here and they just love doing it, we teach them their role and what that means. They’re just excited to be a part of it, but we emphasize to everybody this is not about Bonds Chapel, this is about the ministry of the gospel we’re sharing with people we don’t know and we may never see again, but we hope to leave them with a message of hope and why Jesus came. If we can do that, then who knows what God is going to do with that.”
While the event is for entertainment, Martindale said the opportunity to provide ministry to those in attendance always presents itself.
“When I was a teenager at my home church, we did it every night of the week and it was a big attraction,” Martindale noted. “So whenever I became minister here, I said ‘Well, let’s do it here.’ We feel like this is unique. The story doesn’t change, but it’s a unique country setting out here to portray it. It’s something special for us to do and with it being Dec. 1st and 2nd, it kind of sets everybody up for the Christmas season. We want them to have that message of hope in the community. The response we’ve received from people has been just wonderful. The prayer cards we receive, you can tell people are hurting in our community, they’re going through things, so we much appreciate the opportunity we have to give people some hope. To us, it’s a ministry, it’s the gospel message that we’re portraying. We do it up right.”
