A Christmas Nativity Drama for All Ages, Based on Two Real Life Experiences

A Christmas Nativity drama for all ages, based on two real life experiences

Written by the Revd Paul Harford, of the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales

Joseph: Hello, let me introduce myself, my name is Joseph.

Thiha: Hello, and let me introduce myself, my name is Thiha.

Joseph: I live in a country called Israel.

Thiha: I live in a country called Bangladesh.

Joseph: I'm a carpenter.

Thiha: I make things with my hands.

Joseph: That table? I made that.

Thiha: These chairs? I made them.

Joseph: So I know a thing or two about putting things together.

Thiha: I know what it means to get things set up and ready.

(offstage) Karnu: Thiha, have you seen the nappies?

Thiha: Yes dear they're in the other room. That's my wife, Karnu. She's been working on something too, putting together something very special. Our first child. Karnu, why don't you come out here and meet these people?

Enter Karnu, carrying a baby.

(offstage) Mary: Joseph, have you seen the swaddling bands?

Joseph: Yes dear, they're out back in the tub. That's my fiancé Mary. She's just put something together that I had nothing to do with, something very special - our first child.

(aside) What are swaddling bands anyway?

Enter Mary.

Karnu: I think they're probably like nappies. Here he is, here's our little boy - Zeya - isn't he adorable?

Mary: Oh he's gorgeous! And this is Jesus, our baby - say 'hello' darling, I'm sure all these people want to meet you. Karnu: Amazing, isn't it, when you get to this point, and you look down into their face and just think "it was all worth it".

Mary: Oh yes, you wouldn't believe it - the night this one was born - it was crazy!

Karnu: Tell me about it, when I think about what we went through...

Thiha: Oh great, here we go again...

Joseph: I know, they just can't help themselves - it's like a new-mum instinct, that desire to share 'the birth story'... like anyone will care how he was born in a hundred years time...

Mary: Quiet dear. (to Karnu) I'd like to hear your story.

Karnu: Well, it all began at home, as it usually does...

Mary: A home birth? That would have been nice - I had mine in a stable!

Thiha: Really?

Joseph: Really!

Thiha: Like, cows and everything?

Joseph: Like cows and everything. And the donkey of course. I liked that donkey.

Karnu: I'm sorry, but it wasn't nice at all.

Joseph looks hurt.

Karnu: No, not the donkey! I'm sure the donkey was perfectly lovely - I meant Zeya's birth. well, it sort of started normally enough, Zeya was born OK, but then there were... complications. I don't remember much, I think I passed out.

Thiha: She did, and it became clear she was in serious danger. I felt totally useless - I mean, I work every day with my hands - fixing things and making them right, but I just... there was nothing I could do...

Joseph: So what happened?

Thiha: I got her out of there - I got her on the cart, and just rode as quick as I could to the nearest hospital.

Joseph: Was it a donkey cart?

Mary: Joseph! What has that got to do with anything?

Joseph: I just wondered, I mean you had to go a long way too, all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem - and we had a donkey.

Mary: Please, just drop the donkey - I really think you're missing the point.

Karnu: Our home is a long way from anywhere you see - I don't know how long it would take on a donkey, but it's a twelve hour walk to our nearest town. 2 Mary: We didn't have anything quite that dramatic, well, not directly. We had shepherds. They just sort of turned up after Jesus was born, and started telling us how angels had appeared to them and told them all about him, and how he was going to be the Saviour of the World.

Thiha: Well I don't know about saving the world, but I do know they saved Karnu. She looked dead by the time we arrived - and our angel met us at the Bollobphur Hospital gate - she was one of the nurses trained by USPG. She was on her way out to go to church, but she took one look at Karnu and turned right around, took us inside and got to work. I felt completely useless again, but she clearly knew what she was doing.

Karnu: It's a bit of a blur to me, the first thing I remember properly is waking up a little while later, and finding myself clean, in a warm comfortable bed, and more importantly alive! All I could manage was a smile of thanks - but I think the nurse knew what I meant.

Thiha: I thank God they were able to save her, that the nurse had been trained so well - I shudder to think there are people in situations like ours that don't make it, because they don't have the same resources. But now we're home, and we're so happy to have little Zeya with us.

Joseph: It's odd though, isn't it, having a new life to look after. Babies are so small and fragile, and it is so sad when they can't be cared for properly, and lives are wasted. It's such a responsibility.

Karnu: Yes it is, because all of them are so full of potential, if they're given the chance of life.

Mary: I wonder what ours will grow up to do? I bet it's something important.

A story about a baby told by Sister Gillian Rose at the USPG-supported Bollobphur Hospital, Bangladesh:

My day began in the labour ward. I had almost reached the hospital gate, on my way to church, when a very sick patient was brought in on an open trailer. She had delivered her third baby easily at home in the small hours, but the afterbirth had not separated and she had lost a lot of blood. She had been brought from a remote village on the border with India, where no services are available.

So my morning’s worship was in the labour ward, where we resuscitated our patient, removed her afterbirth, changed her into clean clothes, and settled her in a warm comfortable bed. Our reward was her smile of thanks. This is a service we are happy to give.

Sister Gillian manages the Bollobhpur Hospital and Nurse Training Institute, which is run by the Church of Bangladesh, with the support of USPG.