Forget Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and Vixen. Forget Rudolph and the sleigh. These days, Santa Claus rides a Harley-Davidson – or at least that’s how he arrived at the 2012 Angel Tree Christmas party put on by Bethany First Church of the Nazarene.
This large Nazarene church in Bethany, Okla., is one of more than 7,800 groups that have joined forces to reach children of the incarcerated this Christmas – but their Angel Tree party is unique. Prison Fellowship President Garland Hunt, who gave a talk encouraging prisoners’ children and their caregivers, called it “one of the most incredible Angel Tree events I’ve witnessed.”
The Christmas party was coordinated by long-time Angel Tree volunteer Judy Mills and her husband, Larry, who have personally mentored many prisoners’ children for years. But it also brought together the talents and enthusiasm of many people throughout their congregation and community. A drum line from a local high school played. A rap artist spun rhymes with an uplifting Christian message. A “power team” performed feats of strength, wow-ing children by crushing soda cans and ripping up telephone books with their bare hands. Basketball players from nearby Southern Nazarene University delivered bulging sacks of gifts to children eagerly awaiting a symbol of love from their incarcerated parents. And, yes, Santa revved the engine of his motorcycle.
“It was like an indoor carnival,” says Garland.
But beyond the holiday hoopla, the Angel Tree party – like others happening all over the country this month – was about connection: connecting incarcerated parents with their children, connecting children to God’s Son Jesus Christ, and connecting families with loving embrace of a local church.
At the party, many prisoners’ families reconnected with volunteers they knew from previous years, volunteers who had brought them to church services, helped them find employment, and cared from their children.
“Over time they’d developed a relationship,” says Garland. “Love, appreciation, and trust had built up between these families and the church volunteers, so seeing each other again at the Angel Tree party was like seeing an old friend.”
Those relationships change lives. Garland met one young woman – an ex-prisoner whose own children had once benefited from the Angel Tree program. Today, she’s in nursing school, and she helped to welcome Angel Tree families at the party, letting them know that they, too, can have hope for a brighter Christmas and a better tomorrow.
Photos courtesy Sondra Mitts / Bethany First Church of the Nazarene