"Welcome to the Sojourners Neighborhood Center for our very first Christmas!" exclaimed 15-year-old Teresa. Her greeting was followed by a Christmas play, The Day Jesus Came to Us, and a program of dance, poetry, and songs performed by 10 girls, ages 8 to 15, from our neighborhood.
Fifty people had gathered, including families and friends, to enjoy the program, the first event to be held in the newly renovated ground floor of the neighborhood center. Afterward people lingered for a time of fellowship and refreshment.
A few of us at Sojourners had dreamed of starting a children's program operated out of the Neighborhood Center in the fall of 1983. Despite the support of the community as a whole and of its local ministries staff, we were faced with a lack of resources, time, and energy, and the program never materialized. Without a structured program, we tried as best we could to keep in touch with neighborhood children through our personal relationships with them.
As Advent approached, Sister Abigail Maria of the Little Sisters of Jesus, who volunteers regularly at the center, and I felt more and more that we wanted somehow to share Christmas with some of the neighborhood girls. On the spur of the moment, we asked them to join us for an hour each Wednesday during Advent to light an Advent candle and talk about Christmas. Ten girls came to our first meeting. When we talked about what Christmas meant to them, they spoke of presents, money, and clothes; but they listened attentively and were eager to learn when we talked about the birth of Jesus.
After discussion and prayer, we heard, "Is that all?" followed by, "We should have a Christmas program!" More ideas were quickly offered—to have a play, a talent show, bake desserts, decorate the center, and make invitations. Although Abigail Maria and I felt a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of adding a project such as this to our already full schedules, we knew we couldn't say no.
Four rehearsals were arranged, and Abigail Maria wrote a beautiful play about Joseph and Mary's desire for a home and about gifts of bread and milk brought to baby Jesus. It ended with an invitation to the new little family to come to our homes and our neighborhood.
The parts of the pageant began to come together. Abigail Maria's community, the Little Sisters of Jesus, lent us a small statue of the baby Jesus lying in a manger that usually graces their altar, and we received fabric remnants that with safety pins made wonderful costumes.
Mid-afternoon of the pageant day, the first floor of the center was still a construction site. We cleaned and swept and began decorating with pine branches, streamers, and candy canes. We made a stage of plywood and paint cans and constructed a stable of cardboard rolls and rubber bands.
Our anxiety level rose as the pace of work increased and the cast was late; furthermore, we were acutely aware that the pageant's second half (the talent show portion) had never been rehearsed. Thirty minutes before the event, with only one girl there, we sat down and prayed.
Moments later we had blessed chaos—all the girls arrived with families and friends close behind. A few costumes had not come together, poems had been left at home, and some songs had not yet been decided on. Nevertheless, the lights dimmed and the play began—and it was beautiful. It ended with the girls singing, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine all over the neighborhood" as they went around and lit the candles the audience had been given. After receiving abundant applause and discarding their costumes, the girls confidently and excitedly went on to the talent show portion of the program.
The next day we lit the fourth Advent candle and prayed together, thanking the Lord for our pageant and for the baby Jesus. Christmas meant something different to the girls now.
As we talked together about the pageant, it became clear that as the girls had given us their energy and enthusiasm, they had received a sense of accomplishment and pride in themselves. We asked them why they thought the pageant had gone so well, and they replied that it was because they had worked hard and had trusted themselves and each other. When we inquired what they thought they had given the audience, they replied, "Joy at Christmas!"
I can't think of a greater blessing I could have received for Christmas.
Gayle Turner was a member of Sojourners Community and worked on the staff of the Sojourners Neighborhood Center when this article appeared.
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