Dylan Houser (left), Eric Schulden, and Donny and Kenny Redinger, members of Zion’s Lego Building Club, gather around a Lego model of their church.
Legoland A
A different sort of
Congregation’s young people built it, and people came Text and photos by Jeremy Long
group of youth—mostly boys—in Jonestown, Pa., make the Christmas story come alive using what they know a lot about: Legos.
It started out nearly four years ago as an idea for a con-
fi rmation project for Eric Schulden, now 17. “I was visiting Eric’s house and noticed he had a ton of Legos,” said Robert
Myallis, pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church. “He was in confi rma- tion at the time and I said, ‘What if you could build a nativity?’ ” Myallis had noticed big nativity scenes at churches in Germany and
thought it would be “kind of fun for our church” to have a big nativity. Schulden’s model of between 3 and 4 feet was just the start. He rounded
up a few more “wise men” (Lego afi cionados) who wanted to help, including Kenny Redinger, 16; Dylan Houser, 13; and Donny Redinger, 13. T ey set out planning something larger. In this the third year of group production, about 10 Zion young people
(only one girl) built a nativity that’s 10 to 12 feet long and 5 to 6 feet deep— roughly 60 square feet. It features 1,000 pieces, 100 mini fi gures (angels,
36
www.thelutheran.org
Visitors are invited to view “O Lego Town of Bethlehem” at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Jonestown, Pa.
soldiers, Mary and Joseph, towns- folk) and more than 50 animals. T ere’s a city wall, homes and a place of worship. It took more than 10 hours to
build (as a group) and many hours of planning, researching, purchas- ing and arranging materials. Schul- den did the hard work of lining everything up so group time was productive, said Myallis (
rev.rob@
comcast.net). “None of this is a standard Lego
kit,” Schulden explained, adding that some Legos had to be special ordered from Germany. “T ese are all designs we did. It’s hard sometimes because Lego doesn’t always have the things you need.” During Advent the scene changed
each week. Like other great builders, the kids inserted secrets and inside jokes to make the story an adventure. A Roman army marches through-
out Bethlehem. A tax collector goes door to door collecting taxes for the Roman Empire. A man falls into quicksand and slowly sinks. A little drummer boy plays his drum throughout the city. T e Lego Building Club did con-
siderable research into Bethlehem from that time period—the types of homes to people’s diets. For instance, there are two diff erent types of fi sh in the markets. And, of course, they had to consider what was available in the Lego universe. “T ey really got into the idea of
COURTESY OF THE LEBANON DAILY NEWS
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