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Church Finds Unique Way to Tell Story of the Magi
By Craig Pinley
MOUNT VERNON, WA (January 3, 2002) - One parishioner found God most profoundly through the experience of receiving a heart and double lung transplant. One couple found God through the process of adopting a son and searching for the child's birth mother.
Steve Camp and Steve and Kay Heathers shared their spiritual journeys as Bethany Covenant Church in Mount Vernon presented a special Christmas event, The Journey, a story that combines a T.S. Eliot poem with the stories of parishioners to help communicate the Christmas message.
Four others - Deana Strom, Kaycee Grenz, Steven Jackson and retired Covenant pastor Roger Wiganosky - also shared portions of their spiritual journeys as part of the production. Linda Weiss, minister of worship and the arts, directed the play, which was performed three times in mid-December.
"What we were excited about being able to do was present a Christmas experience that was disarming to people," Weiss said. "This is an example of how we can be relevant for our generation. I think it was the cumulative effect of the whole thing - there was a breadth of
experiences told. And the story and music together was powerful."
Weiss had hoped to write a play that told the story of the journey of the Magi to visit the baby Jesus. She knew of one California congregation (Hillside Covenant Church in Walnut Creek) that had been producing its own Magi story, but wanted to integrate personal stories of seeking and finding Christ to which a non-Christian audience could relate. Weiss accomplished her goal by integrating testimonies of people in her church throughout a paraphrased reading of T.S. Eliot's The Journey of the Magi.
Three Bethany families contributed their stories. Christina Rossmolen related her story as a teen in Amsterdam during the 1944 "Hunger Winter" of World War II. She told of being welcomed by a family while she was searching the countryside for food.
Another parishioner, an eye doctor named Armin Mohr, recalled a previous Christmas with his critically ill son, David, who died not long after. Mohr, a descendent of "Silent Night" composer Joseph Mohr, told about how the family sang that song around their son's hospital bed at
Christmas.
Weiss began putting together her second edition of The Journey last summer. Kay Heathers told Weiss about their adoption shortly after seeing a bulletin announcement for the production. Steve Camp's story was well-known throughout the church - his parents were longtime attenders before moving to California. Following are excerpts from their stories:
" . . . I was drawn, enticed, pulled into a story I did not understand. And here I am. A traveler, older and wiser for my journey, having found to my surprise that it was not all folly..." (reflections based on T.S. Eliot's "The Journey of the Magi")
Camp, the son of retired Covenant missionaries Russ and Pat Camp, discovered at age six that he had primary pulmonary hypertension, a malady caused by the inability of the heart to circulate blood into the lungs. His parents left the mission field and headed back to the United States. Camp eventually became a surgical technician. However, his illness worsened and doctors told him that only a transplant would save him.
On September 13, 1987, after a 13-month wait for a donor, he received his new heart and lungs from a 16-year-old boy who died of a head wound. Camp has lived a healthy life for 14 years. And he has also found a job that suits him perfectly. After being on disability for a decade following his transplant, he is now an organ placement coordinator at a facility that helps match donors and organ recipients. He says of his job, "I enter into people's lives in a way that I could not have imagined . . . both grieving families and families that suddenly have new hope . . . "
"I had found the infant King. But more than that, I gazed upon the heart of God. For God, in His love, had entered my world, brought me to the place where I would find Him, and here we were . . . not a moment too soon . . . " (Reflections from Eliot's "The Journey of the Magi")
The Heathers were the parents of two girls and had considered adopting a boy. They said that the
timing for the adoption of their son, David, was "not a moment too soon." They were at home doing chores in July 1982 when a friend called and mentioned that an 11-month-old Native American boy in nearby Bellingham was in desperate need of a home.
The birth mother of the child had struggled with personal problems and a grandmother was caring for the child temporarily while adoption proceedings were put into motion. But the grandmother couldn't care for the child long, and the mother was concerned her child would find a good
home. She had signed a special affidavit stating that a Caucasian family would be allowed to adopt her child - considered a rare occurrence.
When the Heathers met with their attorney and a Bellingham attorney for lunch, they said they felt a sense of confirmation that the little boy was meant for them. When they arrived, they met the child's grandmother, who said, "It's right, it's you. I have peace to give up this child." Within five days of hearing about David, the Heathers took David home to live with them, an adoption process that the family believes could only be a miracle from God.
"I truly believe the Lord blessed us with our son through these miracles and it was His plan that we love and raise David," said Kay Heathers.
David (now a U.S. Marine serving on the USS Ogden headed for Afghanistan) has made
contact with both of his birth parents. He initially met with his birth mother in April 2000. Kay said the events surrounding the meeting of birth mother and son seem as miraculous as the adoption process.
One day, Kay was at a county courthouse looking for information about David's birth mother. She met a woman who was searching for a boy David's age. The next day, Kay learned that the boy the other individual was searching for was indeed David - that individual was doing research on behalf of the birth mother.
In reflecting on the past 19 years, Kay said, "What an awesome God! We were able to share our story of seeking . . . and finding. God has shown Himself to us in this search - and to our son - His sense of timing, His ability to work far beyond our imagining."
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