This past weekend, Emmanuel Baptist Church of Athens presented its annual gift of the Live Nativity to the Athens-Limestone community. Emmanuel’s Minister of Music Mark Rodgers was pleased with the response and estimated that at least 700 visited the nativity over the weekend.

“This is a big production for us. Of course, we are always concerned about the weather, but that turned out great. We saw a lot of traffic each night,” Rodgers said. “Our goal is to give a gift to the community and hope that gift is well received. The feedback I have received has been positive.”

The tradition of the live nativity was revived 10 years ago after a hiatus of several years.

The drive-through nativity consists of seven stations with church members serving as actors in the Christmas story. As visitors make their way to each station, they can listen in their car to the telling of the birth of Jesus Christ.

A goat named Olaf “stole the show” at this year’s event, according to Rodgers. The very vocal and curious goat kept trying to eat Joseph’s costume. “Olaf was very feisty. Normally Joseph would just sit still at the manger, but this weekend, he had to get up a move around because of the goat. It’s hard to keep the angel solemn with the goat jumping around,” Rodgers said.

This year’s live nativity was a success with a great message, and a good time was had by all who were involved. “The brains behind the whole thing is Marla Harvey, and she does a fantastic job,” Rodgers said. A couple of the booths saw an upgrade this year, thanks to the artistic skills of Nancy Wallette and Deanna Babb.