DAN SCHRAITH Come to Bethlehem and see …
Every four years, English Lutheran Church, La Crosse, Wis., builds and opens wide the doors to “Bethlehem,” complete with sets, animals and costumes, for more than 4,000 visitors. In addition to the two December days of community visitors, the church hosts 600 area confi rmation students on two Wednesday evenings. Mark Soyst, one of the pastors, said the congregation hopes visitors use their senses of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste when they wander throughout Bethlehem. Here, Chris Dreves (left) presents fresh-caught fi sh while Bob Weeks stands behind him as a baker. Visitors to Bethlehem taste nuts, grapes and other foods. Many children (top right) are among the 400 to 500 volunteers. Pam Strittmater, on the committee in charge of props, poses with a donkey, but there were also sheep, goats and chickens.
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National Defense Authorization Act) for special immigration visas for vulnerable Iraqi and Afghan people, but called for more changes. LIRS President and CEO Linda Hartke has urged an expansion of the visa program to cover people who served as translators for U.S. media and nonprofits, as their lives and those of their families “are now at risk because of their association to U.S. missions.”
Gold for Portico ELCA benefits provider Portico Benefit Services won a 2013 Mar-
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www.thelutheran.org
com Gold Award for its 2014 Open Enrollment Campaign, in the cat- egory of “Marketing/Promo Cam- paign/Benefits/HR Materials.” The award was presented by the Associa- tion of Marketing and Communica- tion Professionals.
Duck or Downton?
Fans of two TV family sagas—Duck Dynasty and Downton Abbey— may live in parallel worlds and the divide is deeper than who wears camouflage and who wears tweeds: populist A&E or elitist PBS. One fan group follows Phil Robertson,
patriarch of a duck-call dynasty on the rural reality show. He’s strongly supported by those who cheered his return to the series after he was suspended for controversial public remarks. He’ll return in the spring because the network says the show resonates with a large audience who consider his family one “that Amer- ica has come to love.” Of course, no network, including PBS, can sneer at ratings. Hence, on the cusp of a new year there was a parallel Amer- ica eagerly awaiting Season 4 of a fictional family and servants set in early 20th-century England.
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