A Christmas Parade in New Zealand

By Rosalind Trusty, Serving in New Zealand | Rosalind was born and raised in New Zealand. Today she serves with her Husband Michael (Michael’s from Indiana) to reach New Zealand with the Gospel. They planted a church called Current Church. New Zealand is primarily “Christian,” but few practice their faith and Atheism is rising at an alarming rate. New Zealand is home to 25 unreached people groups and a steady flow of tourists from around the world. Learn more about their ministry here.

The Christmas Parade

On 24 November we cancelled church service and instead asked everyone to participate in the Papamoa Christmas Parade. This year the theme was ‘Kiwiana’ which is a word that means “all things that are specifically Kiwi,” such as certain words and phrases, food, toys, games, etc. created in New Zealand.

The floats were supposed to be decorated for Christmas based on the theme. Some did, and some didn’t. For example, the local politician was in front of us with a bit of cheap tinsel hanging from his taxpayer-funded, self-advertising car.  They handed out 500 blue balloons which were gone in five minutes. Some were quickly grabbed by parents who understood balloons are not the greatest giveaway for distracted children, others popped upon hitting the pavement because it was the hottest day on record,  but most were lost to the air because kids can’t be expected to hold onto balloons during a parade. To make matters worse for the lame politician, he was followed by us, the Current church float, third year in a row winner in the non-profit category, which had a bbq on the back handing out sausages beforehand, and during the parade handed out 5000 pieces of candy, 20lbs of which had been dragged back from America just to hear the excited voices saying, “I think, maybe, is that a … church?  They are giving out the good candy.”

To follow the theme, we had two banners on our float, one on the front using the term Kiwis use for NZ, ‘GodZone.’ And on the back, we had the famous phrase: ‘Sweet As’.  We had pictures of Kiwiana all over the banners.  We had the Southern Cross constellation as the Christmas Star, our three wise men were Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf and our shepherds were typical Kiwi shepherds; straw hats, tank tops, shorts and gumboots holding barbecued sausages. We had a bunch of cute little angels and of course, Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Our girls Bible study group walked alongside handing out candy, along with several of our adults.

Trying to Belong

When I was growing up, I remember the goal of my existence was to be chosen as Mary for the Christmas parade. I knew it would never happen. It only happened to the girls who ‘belonged’ at church, whose families went, who were not awkward, quiet girls who walk in the back door, sit in the back, smile nervously at people and run home afterwards so they don’t get noticed. Then one year, out of the blue, I was chosen.

To this day I remember the elation, the weight of responsibility, the sense of awe that came with being picked. I prepared, I let them do whatever they needed to in order to transform me into the most important girl on earth for one hour. I held baby Jesus on the float as if my life depended on it. I messed up, but that is a story for another day. The result was, I felt I belonged. It was a turning point. Even though I was an outsider, I had been picked for this amazing job and that made me feel I had something to contribute. It made me part of the family of God in a way I had never known. Such a seemingly small event to others became a big part of my spiritual journey.

Mary, the Heathen

This year we asked 12 year old Ataahua to be Mary. Ataahua comes along to church and youth group riding a scooter with her brother and

multiple cousins in tow. Sometimes, I think they are what the missionaries of old would despairingly describe as ‘heathens’. But they are our little heathens, we love them and Ataahua was amazed to be asked to be Mary. She had only heard of Mary once at Sunday school the week before, but she understood enough to know she wanted to be her.

As I drove home from church that day I couldn’t help laughing because it struck me funny at how much smiling there would be in Heaven over our Ataahua playing Mary. None of her cousins could be convinced to be Joseph and marry her, but they were happy to be shepherds because that was totally comfortable for them.  On the day of the parade an 8-year-old boy showed up and we asked him if he wanted to be Joseph. He said, “Who is that?” I explained he was the man who God thought was strong enough and brave enough to take care of his son Jesus while he was young and Mitchell jumped at the chance to be chosen.

The purpose of our float is to put Jesus into his own parade, to bring attention to Christ and let Papamoa know what Christmas is actually about. But this year it seemed to be more to teach the ones on the float what Christmas was about. We had about 18 kids on the float and only 5 of them were familiar with the Christmas story or had read it before. On the surface it seemed odd to have a float representing Christ full of kids who have barely heard of Him, but it is our prayer that this will be part of their spiritual journey, that they would know they belong in the family of God, that their lives can be used by Him in amazing ways if they follow Him, like the real Mary, Joseph and shepherds.