Believers’ Fellowship of Lakeland Hosted 5th Annual Family Christmas Festival
by James Coulter
For two straight nights, Believers’ Fellowship of Lakeland helped usher in the holiday spirit one week before Christmas with their 5th Annual Family Christmas Festival and Live Nativity.
More than 500 visitors attended the annual holiday festival last Friday and Saturday. Each attendee received a ticket for a free hot dog meal, and a card that allowed them to partake in such activities as roasting s’mores over an open fire, creating holiday crafts, riding a hayride, and enjoying free popcorn and hot chocolate.
Highlighting each evening was the performance of a live nativity. Church members dressed the part of Biblical characters and even brought along live animals to re-enact the nativity story twice a night. Each performance ended with an altar call encouraging people to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
Jonathan Kimmel served as the narrator of the play each evening. He has been attending the church for more than 30 years, and has volunteered to participate in church functions and events such as this. With plenty of experience serving in plays, on the worship team, and as a vocal coach, he utilizes his skills to help spread the gospel message.
“So anytime we can come out and proclaim Christ, it is good,” he said. “Bringing the community together, especially during these days and time we want to bring joy of the Lord to everyone. And if they can accept Christ and be saved that is where we are going for.”
Jon Friedt hosts this event every year to not only offer a “family-friendly” holiday event for the local community, but also a “Christ-centered” event to help bring everybody together and remember the reason for the season.
“We are here to celebrate the birth of Jesus,” Friedt said. “We love this community, and we want to have an event that is absolutley free for the entire community to come out and have a good time and hear the real message of Christmas which is Jesus…We have a lot of good feedback. A lot of good people who have come two to three years in a row. They really appreciate the atmosphere and the stuff for the family and the blessing for the community, this year has been wonderful.”
