Grace Lutheran Brethren Church in Lynnwood, Washington recently engaged in a unique Sunday School Christmas project. As the fall season approached, and the necessary planning began for the Sunday School Christmas Program, we realized that not all of our kids could be present at either of the two possible dates. As we considered what to do, the thought came… maybe we could make a movie!

The movie approach would allow us to plug the kids into certain scenes many weeks beforehand, with the added bonus of not having the annual challenge of the multitude of microphone stands up on stage (and often to no avail). Now we are not a large church (averaging 70 in attendance), so we had about ten elementary age kids—and four of those were in pre-school.

We started with Leanna Kraakmo writing a script (including the adaptation of part of “PuzzleTown”) that looked like it could work, and allowed us to have some kids play two characters. So the filming began. Various home scenes, a street scene, a neighborhood park for the nighttime angels scene, and even an “on location” shoot at a country farm with a barn about an hour out of town.

We have a sophomore college student, Mindy Kim, who is taking some videography courses, and was willing (even excited) to take on this challenge. We’re thankful that she has taken the time to fit this “Adventure” into her busy study and work schedule.

Did I mention the word “International”? We needed the Wisemen and Herod scene. Who could we get for that…? Well we live in 2010, a new world when it comes to communication, images, video, YouTube, Skype, twitter, Google... but I’m getting carried away… it’s a new world!

My son Kristopher is on staff with the seminary church in Sendai, Japan where he teaches English and helps with other ministries. (By the way he has a very informative and entertaining website: kristopherkraakmo.blogspot.com. Check it out!) So we thought we could get him to be Herod and maybe get some of his students or guys from the church to be the Wisemen from the East... perfect! He was on board with that; so using the applicable technology he sent us some footage, along with some Japanese shepherd scenes for good measure.

Mind you, this is no award winning production (it’s only about 20 minutes long). But it has been fun. Maybe more work than the memorizing of lines, practicing scenes, dress rehearsal, lighting and sound that are a part of the traditional Christmas Program. But we’ve learned that there are possibilities that could not have happened even five years ago.

We have a talented webmaster in our church, Bill Abella, who has put together a pretty fun movie trailer. We invite you to visit our website, and hopefully by the time you read this, the whole movie will be there... or a link... YouTube... something.

Find the film and more at www.gracelbc.net or watch it below

May God bless the work you do in your church this New Year!

Victor Kraakmo serves as an elder of Grace LBC, Lynnwood, WA.