Forget Waldo, Carmen Sandiego or Matt Lauer…

Where are Mary and Joseph?

By Todd Gale
Member, Diocesan Pastoral Council

"A traveling lawn display that moves surreptitiously through the parish? A display that’s hiding in plain sight with thousands of blinking lights and promises a chance at pretty cool rewards for those who spot it?" Sounds like madness to hear Todd Gale describe a parish project it in those terms, but there was nothing crazy about it. What it turned out to be was a very successful contest that put even more excitement into Advent for parishioners at Queen of the Miraculous Medal Parish last December.

The contest challenged parish members to locate and track the statues of the Holy Family and the Three Magi as they made their respective journeys to Bethlehem which, for this event, was located on the front lawn of the Jackson church. After four weeks of moving through the parish, Mary and Joseph arrived on Christmas Eve. The Magi joined them two weeks later on the Feast of the Epiphany. In the words of Fr. Robert McGraw, "The contest achieved exactly what we had hoped and worked so hard for: a parish-wide 'Advent Adventure.'"

"A friend of mine in St. Louis, who had been ordained in the same year as I was, came up with the idea," says Fr. McGraw. "The statues would make various stops throughout the parish and make their ways to the church. We went a step further and made it into a contest in which the parishioners would be challenged to locate them each week. I was really pleased at the way so many of our people responded."

The parishioners kept track of the locations on forms that, at the contest’s end, were dropped into the collection baskets. All of those that showed the correct locations were entered into a raffle. The three top prizes included a weekend stay at a Frankenmuth hotel, dinner for four at one of that city’s fine restaurants and gift cards redeemable at the Christmas stores there.

As usually happens with all good ideas, sooner or later, everything resolves down to work. The task of overseeing that work fell to Todd Gale, coordinator of youth ministry.

"The logistics seemed a bit complicated at first," Todd recalls. "Who would host these displays? How would we physically get them moved from place to place? How would we conduct the contest and how would we communicate all of this to the parishioners?"

"Our Parish Life Commission came to the forefront and took the lead," says Todd. "The answers to our questions seemed to fall right into place. We put some 'teasers' in the bulletin and had more than enough volunteers to host the displays. We arranged paths that made geographic sense for the statues… the Holy Family came from the west and the Three Kings came from the east. With the Commission's assistance, we had the manpower to move the displays each Saturday morning. That included packing up the displays, the extension cords and the timers."

"It was gratifying to have so many families volunteer to host the displays each week," Fr. McGraw adds. "We did have a few 'bumps' in the early going. We noticed after the first week that some of our folks were getting frustrated finding the displays. One couple said they had searched everywhere but could not find the statues. It turned out that the statues were around the corner from the couple's home. They had just turned the wrong way. That told us we needed to make sure the exhibits were findable."

To help the parishioners in their search efforts, the priests started giving out hints in their remarks each weekend. What kind of hints?

"One of the hints I used," says Fr. McGraw, "went along these lines: 'When we water our lawns they're green. When we don’t, they turn this color. Well, Mary and Joseph are on this street.'"

That week the Holy Family was on Brown Street. Not much frustration after that.

Todd and his cohorts also encountered some 'glitches,' "The palm tree with Mary and Joseph would occasionally short out half the lights. Another time, one of our scheduled stops for the Three Wise Men turned out to be a store front that was much too small. In a crunch, our people grew creative and put the trio on the roof of a neighborhood tavern! Fr. Bob had no problem with that. He reasoned "Men crossing a desert tend to get thirsty so this lent a touch of reality. Incidentally, the tavern is owned by a parishioner’s son!"

Father Bob had hoped to have the project up and running the year before, but logistics got in the way early. Making silhouettes would consume time – a commodity in short supply in most parishes. The problem was overcome just after 2005's Holiday Season.

"I was in one of those large home improvement stores just after Christmas," Fr. Bob recalls. "There were the statues I wanted… wise men and all and they were marked 'half-off' in a post-holiday sale. That problem was solved and I knew there would be no stopping us in 2007!"

In the end, the "Advent Adventure" achieved exactly what had been intended.

"Everyone from the children to the senior citizens enjoyed this project," Fr. McGraw notes. "The families that hosted the statues really prized their involvement. But, for me, the youngest daughter in the family that won first prize summed it up best when she said 'This was great. It's such a busy time of year and, each week, the search for the Holy Family gave our family time together.'"

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Person to Contact: Todd Gale
Coordinator of Youth Ministry
Queen of the Miraculous Medal Parish
606 South Wisner Street
Jackson, MI 49203
517-782-8874
Email: toddgalecym@hotmail