Sean Allen
BRANT NEWS

Away in a manager hastily constructed when the weather wouldn’t co-operate, Freedom House Church closed out weekend performances of the Living Nativity inside its church at Market Square Mall.

After performing the musical theatre story about the birth of Jesus for about 1,800 people during four performances on Friday and Saturday, Dave Carrol wasn’t sure if many folks would show up for what would have been a rainy finale on Sunday.

“We were standing there in the rain thinking about how much it stinks because Sunday has been our biggest day the past couple years and we looked at each other and wondered if we could bring the horse inside our church,” Carrol said. “The guys from Circle Square Ranch said ‘sure,’ so here we are.”

With help from the Sanderson Centre set crew, Freedom House’s team quickly tore apart its set at Harmony Square and reassembled it inside the Market Square Mall.

The horse and donkey that were part of the show were brought in through the mall’s loading dock.

Carrol was expecting about 50 people to catch wind of the moved performance and come to see the show, but was floored when more than 200 showed up to take it in.

“At the end of the day that is what this show is all about,” he said. “It’s about bringing people together and bringing the community together and talking about the meaning of Christmas.”

The performance had it’s funny moments, touching moments and impressive moments, but Carrol said the key for him is taking people back to their youth.

“One of the things we wanted to do with this show was to give people who went to church when they were young and remember the (manger) story, but hadn’t been to church in a long time, a chance to remember that story,” he said. “We are working at changing culture to make church a relevant thing in our modern day and Christmas is a time when you remember what it was like to be a child and so many people grew up with this story.”

Freedom House invites anyone who enjoyed the Living Nativity to join them for their Christmas Eve service at the church on Dec. 24 at 6 p.m.