It is an amazing experience to see all your hard work to come to fruition, to see the fruit of your labors being used for Kingdom work. In the spring before Journey 2018, Jeff, and his building partner Jeff, for all things Journey, were tasked with building two sets for the interactive Christmas moving production that Compassion Christian Church puts on every other year, usually the beginning of December. Each set would be two scenes along the Journey to Bethlehem, one for Mary’s home and one for Joseph’s home, because while they were betrothed they were not yet married.
Towards the end of May, on most Saturday’s through the middle of October, Jeff, Jeff, and their team of ‘builders’ planned and built the two sets, forging a friendship that would carry on long after the Journey was over. Once the sets were built, the creative director and her team came on the scenes and transformed those sets into homes of Nazareth, were Mary and Joseph lived.
Jeff’s team were ecstatic seeing all their work finished, but more so, when ‘travelers’, (guests who were coming through The Journey) gathered around the sets that they built and heard the beginning of the Christmas story and the long awaited Messiah, and the intricate plan and part Mary and Joseph would play in the story. It is a huge time commitment, we all have to adjust our lives around Jeff going to the church to build, but it is always so worth it. Over the years, the two Jeff’s have become skilled at time management, planning out the project and managing it so well, that while they work long hours it isn’t overly taxing on family time.