Displaying the Christmas spirit
By GAYLE WEBER
QUINTER -- It took about a dozen church volunteers and about eight months of work, but a new nativity scene for the Quinter United Methodist Church finally is complete.
Nellie Kepferle, along with other members of the church, began the task of making a new nativity scene more than a year ago.
First, volunteers cut out all the kings, animals, the baby Jesus and other figures that would be included in the scene. Then, others sanded and primed the plywood cutouts. Finally, the details -- the faces, hands and robes -- were painted on the 14 figures in the scene.
"We wished we would have kept track of all of the hours, because we worked eight months or better on all of them," Kepferle said.
Most of the pieces of the nativity scene were on display during last year's Christmas season; however, a donkey, camel and cow were added this year to complete the scene in front of the Quinter United Methodist Church.
The new scene replaces a plastic one that was more than 30 years old and falling apart.
"We knew we wanted something," Kepferle said.
The nativity scene went up Saturday afternoon, just in time for the four Sunday services leading up to Christmas at Quinter's UMC.
The Rev. Kennedy Mukwindidza said he was excited to see the finished product. Along with all the decorations going up inside the church Saturday night, he said it was refreshing to see a symbol of Christianity during the Christmas season.
"When you have that scene outside, it does not speak on its own. It points to the church," he said. "The church is not only inside the sanctuary."
Mukwindidza, in his fifth year of ministry at the Quinter church, said he's never seen a congregation come together on as large of a scale to contribute something back to the church.
Church members donated their time, and in some cases, materials to complete the project. The church's memorial committee also helped pay for the new nativity scene.
"It'll be something that will last a long, long time," Kepferle said.