OFF PAGE ONE
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Nativity:
Continued from Page A1
Joseph, shared his thoughts
on what he thinks Joseph
may have been thinking.
“It’s hard to challenge the
providence of God,” Brandt
said. “God was leading Mary
and Joseph and He came to
Joseph in a dream and He
changed his whole per-
ception of what he needed
to do. That made all the
diff erence.”
Joseph’s dream — and
Mary’s visitation from an
angel — explained the
immaculate conception and
directed them to name the
child Jesus, “because He
will save His people from
their sins.”
Angels and shepherds
The Bible tells us that
the fi rst people to receive
the announcement of Mes-
siah’s birth were shepherds
— the lowest of the low in
fi rst-century Jewish culture.
Savanah Ritch, of Joseph,
portrayed the angel Gabriel,
who announced Mary’s
pregnancy to her. Ritch
also portrayed the angel
who announced the birth of
Christ to the shepherds in a
fi eld near Bethlehem. Asked
what she thought of having
God delegate such a momen-
tous pair of announcements
to her, Ritch was at a loss for
words at fi rst.
“I’d probably be really
happy,” she said.
Samuel Winters portrayed
a shepherd who seemed to
know something about tend-
ing sheep.
“You have to keep them
in order so you have to
whack them with your staff ,”
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
King Herod (James Hambelton) asks the Magi (from front, Scott Schmidt, Bob Hipple and
Phil McGregor) to let him know where to fi nd the newborn King of the Jews “so I can worship
Him, too,” not telling them of his devious other plans during the fi rst night of the live Nativity
presentation put on by the Enterprise Seventh-day Adventist Church outside Wallowa Valley
Eye Care on Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021.
he said.
But he also recognized
the honor of being one of the
fi rst to hear the Good News.
“It’s cool and it’s kind of
sad that I never got to see
it in real life,” he said, add-
ing that he wished he could
have been there on the fi rst
Christmas.
Shepherdess
Kytanna
Ballard of Enterprise said
the sudden appearance of
the heavenly host singing
“Glory to God in the high-
est” would’ve been startling
and even a bit scary.
“At fi rst, yeah,” she said.
“It’s not every day you see
such a bright light in the
sky.”
Mr. and Mrs. Innkeeper
Jaden Dunbar, who por-
trayed the innkeeper, seemed
fl ustered that he couldn’t
off er a room to Joseph and
his obviously pregnant wife.
“I tried. There was not
enough room,” Dunbar said.
“There were too many peo-
ple here because of the cen-
sus” ordered by Roman
Emperor Caesar Augustus.
His wife, portrayed by
Kasara Ballard, was a lit-
tle more sympathetic to the
holy family and not to her
“husband.” She admitted she
couldn’t keep him in line.
“Nah, he’s just too stub-
born, and we had too many
animals,” she said.
The Magi and
the bad guy
David Ballard, as nar-
rator, read, “From the east
came scholars and philos-
ophers searching for this
promised Messiah. We
refer to them as Magi. They
Snow:
Continued from Page A1
one-day snowfall amount
recorded in Joseph in at least
128 years, per data from the
NWS.
Only one other day,
according to NWS data,
has seen more snowfall in
Joseph. That was on Jan.
21, 1894, when a whop-
ping 16 inches of snow was
recorded.
Fourteen inches of snow
also fell on March 12, 1906.
It also is the wettest
December day on record in
Joseph, with the 14 inches
of snow translating to 1.04
inches of precipitation.
The previous snowfall
record on Dec. 14 was more
than 100 years ago, when 8
inches of snow fell on Dec.
14, 1915, according to NWS
data. Only one other Decem-
ber day in Joseph has seen at
least 10 inches of snowfall,
when 10 inches came down
on Dec. 22, 2002.
The last time at least 10
inches of snow fell in Joseph
was more than a decade ago,
when 12 inches came down
on Jan. 28, 2008.
While it would likely
take another large dumping
of snow, December 2021
is also within striking dis-
tance of being the snow-
iest on record in Joseph.
NWS data as of Monday,
Dec. 20, had 20.3 inches of
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Aaron Murdock shovels snow to clear the alley he and others
use as a driveway in Joseph after it was plowed closed
following the heavy snowfall during the wee hours of Tuesday,
Dec. 14, 2021.
snow recorded in the town
this month. The record for
December is 32 inches
more than a century ago in
December 1916. The month
belonged to a large class of
men of noble birth who were
prized for their learning.”
Some scholars believe
they studied the religions
of the people their country
had conquered to have a bet-
ter understanding of them
— or to spy on them. They
also were astrologers who
were impressed with star
that showed up in line with
an Old Testament proph-
ecy from the book of Num-
bers: “A star will come out
of Jacob ... a scepter will rise
out of Israel.” This set them
on the road traveling to fi nd
the newborn prince.
“We traveled a long time,”
said Magus Phil McGregor
of Joseph. “We’re follow-
ing the star. We’ve studied
for years and years … and
we saw it over this town and
that’s why we’re asking all
the townspeople ‘Have you
seen Him?’ We’re asking
anyone who might know.”
But before they got to
Bethlehem, they stopped in
Jerusalem and visited with
Herod, who styled him-
self king of the Jews. The
Roman-Jewish
historian
Flavius Josephus wrote that
Herod wasn’t really a Jew,
but a descendant of Esau —
an Edomite — who had con-
verted to Judaism.
James Hambleton, of
Enterprise, recognized he
was playing the heavy in the
play, whose plan was to have
the newborn King of the
Jews killed.
“Speaking from the
Bible’s perspective, I guess I
don’t want Him to be there,”
Hambleton said. “But, hon-
estly, for real, I’m glad He’s
making it through my orders
to fi nd Him and my secret
plan to destroy Him is not
going to happen.”
So the Magi, portrayed by
McGregor, Bob Hipple and
Scott Schmidt, brought their
gifts to the baby Jesus. The
Bible tells us they brought
gold for a king, frankincense
for the high priest and myrrh,
an embalming spice looking
forward to his death on the
cross.
“We have come to wor-
ship this prophesied Mes-
siah,” the Magi said. “May
you have the blessing and
perfection and help as you
raise this Child.”
Ballard,
the
narra-
tor, concluded the perfor-
mance with: “The scene you
have before you is one that
reveals the incredible pic-
ture of God’s blessing, a
God who wants to save us,
a God who wants to be with
His people. Humble, lov-
ing and self-sacrifi cing is
the picture of the baby Jesus
in a stable lying in a man-
ger. Will you, too, come and
worship the King of Kings
and Lord of Lords?”
to 1893, though the web-
site does not have snowfall
data for the town from about
1955 to 1995.
While near-record snow
fell in Joseph, other areas of
the county, even if heavily
impacted, did not reach the
snowfall level Joseph did.
Readings taken just south of
Flora showed 5 inches there
on Dec. 14, while 4 inches fell
just south of Lostine and 2.7
inches fell in Wallowa. Over
two days, from Dec. 13-14,
a total of 15.5 fell in Joseph,
11.5 in Flora, 5.5 in Lostine
and 4.9 in Wallowa, accord-
ing to maps.cocorahs.org.
is already well above the
30-year snowfall average of
8.2 inches.
Joseph snowfall records
kept by the NWS date back
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