Day 11: Building a Barnyard

Building a Barnyard

by Rev. MargaretAnne Overstreet

In the churches where I have served as pastor, one thing has been a consistent Advent tradition: the first week of Advent always begins with an empty stable. Regardless of where the nativity set is placed in the sanctuary, we always begin with the empty stable, anticipating all of those who will arrive there over the coming weeks.

Last year, though, not only did we add the characters of the Advent and Christmas stories to the stable, but we also spent the Advent season “building a barnyard.”

As an Advent mission project, the congregation collected money to purchase livestock (through Heifer International) which then went to help to subsistence farmers improve their family’s nutrition and increase their income. Cows and goats provide milk. Chickens, ducks, and geese provide eggs. Most of the livestock fertilize the ground and improve farming yields. The offspring of the livestock can be sold to generate additional income.

Individuals, families, Sunday School classes and other groups within the church were encouraged to choose the type of livestock that they wanted to add to the barnyard, and then to donate the amount that was required to purchase that particular animal or flock. Once the donation had been made, we added a symbolic animal to our stable.

Each week our barnyard grew. Soon our empty stable was full, not only of shepherds and angels and expectant parents, but also of cows and sheep and goats and varieties of fowl flocks. By the time we arrived at Christmas Eve, the stable was so full of the livestock that had been generously given to struggling families around the globe, that there was almost no room left for the manger and for the baby who lay within it.

I don’t think He objected to the crowded quarters, though, for we had found room for him in the hearts of the congregation.