journey to bethlehem kelso wa

Journey to Bethlehem

Journey to Bethlehem (J2B) is an interactive outdoor drama production at Auburn Adventist Academy Church

happening November 30 through December 3, 2023.

Guests become part of the story as they take the journey to Bethlehem. Over 5,500 guests each year enjoy this family-friendly start to their Christmas season.

Tickets are $12/per person. $1 of every ticket sale is donated.

Everyone needs a ticket - even babies (we've found that strollers take the same space as an adult and it's the only way we can account for them in the group size).  Thank you for understanding.

Thursday, Nov 30

Friday, dec 1, saturday, dec 2, sunday, dec 3, frequently asked questions.

Do I Need to print my tickets? No. A digital version on your phone will work as proof of purchase. Our ticketers have a list of purchasers, so even without a digital or physical ticket, we can look you up by the name of the purchasers.

​ May I bring my dog?  Because of the wide array of animals involved in the program, we ask that you please do not bring your dog or any pets.

Will the program be canceled for rain or snow? If there is severe weather, cancellations will be announced on this website, and social media, and you will receive an email regarding the cancellation. This email will be sent to the one used for ticket purchasing. 

How can I be involved?  There are 2 main ways:

Donations are always appreciated. You will have an opportunity at the end of the Journey to donate to the production. 

Acting, Music, or Support Services.  You can volunteer by clicking on the button above. ​

Each ticket is $12.  $1 of every ticket is donated.  EVERYONE needs a ticket (no matter the age). Children/Youth under 18 need to be accompanied by a parent/chaperone.

GROUPS ARE WELCOME!  

The maximum size for each group is 20 people. Larger groups will be divided into 2+ groups. Please 1 adult for every 5 children or 1 adult for every 7 youths.

HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE

The J2B tour is handicap accessible. Surfaces include carpet, asphalt, and cobblestones.  A drop-off area and nearby parking are available.

ASL INTERPRETING - SATURDAY NIGHT ONLY

Scheduled groups with an ASL interpreter are available SATURDAY NIGHT ONLY.  Contact Nohelani Jarnes at 360-660-5909  Video | Phone

​ Dress warmly with layers.  You will want to wear warm, comfortable walking shoes, too.  Each Journey lasts for approximately 45 minutes outdoors (plus possible wait time inside)  Your entire car-to-car experience may take up to two hours.

Please plan to arrive 30-45 minutes before your journey. Traffic may be heavier than usual. Parking attendants will direct you to parking areas once you arrive on the campus of Auburn Adventist Academy.  It is a short walking distance from the parking area to the church where the Journey begins.  Please leave your valuables at home, not in your car!  Your Journey will leave from the Church.

You must bring your ticket confirmation printout with you.  You will exchange your confirmation printout for a tour pass in the lobby where you will be placed in a group with 20-25 travelers to take your journey. Tickets are non-refundable and only be scanned once. We do not have will-call capabilities.  Can't make it? Consider your unused ticket a donation.  Every person, regardless of age, needs a ticket.

Your ticket is for a Journey with a 1/2 hour time slot. For example, a 5:30 p.m. Journey will leave between 5 :30-6 p.m. You may have a short wait time in the church.  Groups leave every 5 minutes. By registering online, we guarantee that your wait Time will be shortened significantly! 

We want all travelers to have a meaningful experience so we ask guests to be respectful of others.  Please no flash photography.  We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.

We are excited to celebrate the Christmas season with you this year with our 22nd Journey to Bethlehem pageant.

This year’s journey will take place on saturday, december 9, 2023, and sunday, december 10, 2023., we look forward to seeing you this christmas season.

Saturday, December 9, 2023 at 6:00pm-9:00pm Sunday, December 10, 2023 at 5:00pm-8:00pm

What is the Journey to Bethlehem experience like?

You will register/check in for your journey in the church lobby and be assigned to a tour group. When your tour group is called, you’ll continue outdoors where you will meet your guide for the Journey. You will visit the Magi as they follow the Star. You will go into the court of King Herod and bear witness to his evil surmising about the “new” King. Along the way, you’ll be able to visit several merchant tents and maybe even find a few surprises on the road to Bethlehem. You’ll see the faithful shepherds abiding in their fields by night and hear the angel choir as they announce with song the birth of their King. Then, you’ll visit the inn that had no room for Joseph and Mary. You’ll then continue to the stable and see the “babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.” And before your journey ends, you’ll also learn about Jesus’ life and ministry while He lived among us and where He is ministering for us today.

Preparing for your Journey

We can’t predict what the weather will be like for our weekend. We normally will hold the Journey unless it is raining, snowing heavily, or it is icy. If it’s cold, windy, or snowing lightly, we’ll still have the Journey. Be sure you dress appropriately for the weather on the evening you come. There is no heat at any of the stations along the journey, and only a few are covered. Wear warm shoes or boots that are comfortable for standing and walking over uneven ground.

If you have booked tickets, we will email you if there is a weather cancellation. You can also check our website each evening for any updates.

Reservations

• Advance tickets are encouraged, but not required (registration will open in November).
• We have reserved some walk-in spots for each tour, but there may be a wait before there is room for you in a tour group.
• There is a limit of approximately 23 people in a group.

If you have made reservations, we ask that you arrive at least 15 minutes before your tour time to allow you time to park and get registered. The tours take about an hour or so from start to finish, and there are light refreshments served after the tour in the church.

For Spanish tours, please do not book a ticket, but instead email us directly and we will let you know what tour times are available with a Spanish-speaking guide.

Para recorridos en español, no reserve un boleto, envíenos un correo electrónico directamente y le informaremos qué horarios de recorrido están disponibles con un guía de habla hispana.

For further information or if you have any other questions, feel free to email us and we’ll get back to you as quickly as possible.

  Reservations

• Saturday, December 9, 2023 – From 6-9 pm
• Sunday, December 10, 2023 – From 5-8 pm

LOCATION: Cicero Seventh-day Adventist Church

Event Information

Location: Cicero Seventh Day Adventist Church 24445 SR 19 Cicero, IN 46034

Dates: Saturday, December 9, 2023, 6-9pm Sunday, December 10, 2023, 5-8pm

Register Today!

Journey to Bethlehem

JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM 

About journey, journey to bethlehem is a free, unforgettable, interactive christmas experience for the whole family. take a guided walking tour through the village of bethlehem like it was during the time of christ's birth. over one hundred actors, with twenty-one sets, and many animals make the town of bethlehem come to life. browse the shops, talk to the wisemen and see their live camel, haggle with a goat merchant, try to get a room in the inn, watch a blacksmith heat & work metal, visit the stable where mary and joseph cuddle their new born baby, jesus, and more watch the story of christ’s birth unfold before your eyes, you may take the journey between 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on december 1 - 4.  although all of the reserved tour times are taken, you will be able to take the tour if you arrive anytime between 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. doors open at 4:30pm each night. , we are located at 507 n. 35th ave in yakima., overflow parking will be at the stone church (3303 englewood ave.) with shuttle service provided. , no admission fee.  questions  call 509-452-2041 ., the yakima seventh-day adventist church took on the task of putting together a journey to bethlehem in early 2009, something some of the other seventh-day adventist churches in the pnw had been doing for several years. they worked all year financing, building and decorating the sets, making costumes, and gathering the large cast needed for the production. the first weekend of december 2009 they opened up the experience to the yakima community free of charge as a christmas gift. after a 4 year hiatus, journey to bethlehem is back.

It will return December 5-7, 2024.

We are taking this year to repair and improve the village. We look forward to seeing everyone for a special experience next year!

Thank you for all of your support throughout the years!

Your interactive Journey begins indoors with Live Christmas Music in the Sanctuary of the Wenatchee Seventh-day Adventist Church and then continues outdoors through the town of Bethlehem.

A local Bethlehem resident will be your group guide as you see the many Shops, visit the Scribe, the Tax Collector and the Inn Keeper. You can ponder with the Wise Men as they follow the Star and see the Sheperds and the Manger where the Christ Child was born.

Journey has been over 7 months in the making, with many church members and community friends volunteering to help with construction, sewing of costumes, decorating, rehearsals and much more.

Journey includes over 150 Actors and Supporting Cast in Full Costume as well as a LIVING NATIVITY with Sheep, Goats, Donkeys, Chickens AND… a Camel.

For Directions or more information contact the Wenatchee Seventh-day Adventist Church at: 509-663-4032

Journey to Bethlehem

Journey to Bethlehem has become an annual holiday tradition for hundreds of families across the Inland Northwest.

Each year, approximately 5,000 people visit the South Hill to see the Christmas story brought to life.

This walk-through Christmas pageant features a cast of over 100 actors from eight denominations and many live animals, including sheep, goats, donkeys, and a camel.

Traditionally hosted the first weekend in December, the event is located at the South Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church on the corner of 57th Ave and Freya.

Doors are open from 6:00 - 8:00pm on Friday night, and 4:00 - 7:00pm on Saturday and Sunday nights.

No tickets or reservations are required.

Groups will be dismissed every 5 - 10 minutes. Enjoy Christmas musical performances while awaiting the start or your tour.

Dress warmly as there is typically a waiting line to begin the tour, and plan to be outside for 25 - 30 minutes once your tour begins.

Parking is available at the South Hill Church on the corner of 57th and Freya Streets. Overflow parking is available across the street at the Followers Church.

Begin this holiday season by celebrating the beautiful Christmas story. Come experience Bethlehem on the night that Jesus was born!

Want to help create the experience?

This year in honor of nancy engle.

Journey to Bethlehem: Adventist Outreach in 1,000 Communities

December 14, 2015:    It begins at a city gate where a Roman soldier talks roughly to the crowd and asks people why they are coming to Bethlehem and what they plan to do in town. They hear the rabbi reading from the scroll and see shopkeepers making bread and selling their wares.

There is a camel, a horse with a Roman captain riding it, a donkey, a calf and three sheep, all real live animals with the natural smells and sounds. Visitors are led through Bethlehem as if they were visiting the village more than 2,000 years ago until at last they arrive at the scene recreating the birthplace of Jesus. The experience takes about a half hour walking with a group of two dozen people and it ends with a hot drink.

“I love what it does for the families that go through,” Pastor Michael Pearson of the Meridian Seventh-day Adventist Church told the Idaho Press-Tribune . “It enables people to connect with the real Christmas story.”

Journey to Bethlehem is an interactive walk-through experience which is being offered this month at more than a thousand Adventist churches and schools in North America, as well as a few in Australia. At least a half million people, maybe as many as a million will participate.

“It keeps the focus on what Christmas is all about; the story of the birth of Christ,” one volunteer told a different newspaper reporter. Some of the churches provide a gift book to each family.

There are churches across the United States and Canada who put in the hard work to do this event each year, but it is especially strong in the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho where Positive Life Radio, the Adventist radio network based at Walla Walla University, makes a special effort to promote it. Commercial television stations in a number of cities also announce the local event and send out cameras to cover it.

It is not a simple activity. It takes 100 actors in costume and as many as 250 volunteers to assist with everything from parking to tour guides. The Yakima (Washington) congregation has built 21 sets each outfitted with furniture, accessories and other touches all faithful to the time and place; Palestine two thousand years ago. Some smaller congregations have a simpler set up.

Every place it is organized by an Adventist church it requires the help of others outside the congregation, including farmers who loan animals, local residents with specialized skills and civic leaders who help promote the event. This is something that other Christians can join in without any reservations, so it becomes a way to make friends and develop relationships.

In fact, Adventists are not the only ones who do Journey to Bethlehem. There are places where other Christian denominations organize the event.

Some Adventist churches have been mounting this event each year for two decades now. It is usually scheduled for anywhere from two evenings up to ten nights over the two or three weeks leading up to Christmas.

Sadly one of the first Adventist churches to do this outreach cannot do it this year. Journey Adventist Church in Kelso, Washington, had its equipment destroyed by a fire set by an arsonist in late July. It resulted in $60,000 worth of damage and the event had to be canceled to provide time to rebuild.

“It is an opportunity to make the village more authentic,” Pastor Jim Wibberding told The Daily News . “Because we’re trying to reshape it, we need some time to design it well.” The original sets were made of wood and the team plans to rebuild using less flammable materials, he stated.

“We’re committed to telling the Jesus story, both for and with our community,” he was quoted by the newspaper. As he stood among the ruins for the interview, he said, “I think about the people that have invested so much over the years. This was their creation and now its charred.” But, “I see more potential than anything.”

The church has 730 members in a town with about 12,000 population, an outer suburb north of Portland, Oregon. It is located at 1185 Westside Highway.

Adventist Today arrived at the estimate of Adventist churches who are using this outreach program based on a Google search of global news media in the English language. A random sample was extracted from the Google search and hand counted to allow for duplicates and see the geographic concentration.

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We apologize. Journey to Bethlehem will not take place this year but will return in 2019!   Thank you for all of your support thoughout the years!

If you are interrested in volunteering for the 2019 program please email: [email protected]

Your interactive Journey begins indoors with Live Christmas Music in the Sanctuary of the Wenatchee Seventh-day Adventist Church and then continues outdoors through the town of Bethlehem.

A local Bethlehem resident will be your group guide as you see the many Shops, visit the Scribe, the Tax Collector and the Inn Keeper. You can ponder with the Wise Men as they follow the Star and see the Sheperds and the Manger where the Christ Child was born.

Journey has been over 7 months in the making, with many church members and community friends volunteering to help with construction, sewing of costumes, decorating, rehearsals and much more.

Journey includes over 150 Actors and Supporting Cast in Full Costume as well as a LIVING NATIVITY with Sheep, Goats, Donkeys, Chickens AND… a Camel.

Refreshments will be served at the end of your Journey

For Directions or more information contact the Wenatchee Seventh-day Adventist Church at: 509-663-4032

Google Directions: 600 N. Western Avenue, Wenatchee, WA 98801