Christmas Adventure takes St. Joseph residents to North Pole

By Kendra Simpson

First Lutheran church found a way to bring St. Joseph residents to the North Pole while helping provide shelter for those in need.

The church’s “Christmas Adventure” takes its guests all the way to the top of the world to play some hot cocoa corn-hole, discover if they’ve been naughty or nice and even meet the big guy himself, Santa Clause.

It’s all in hopes of offering a unique experience to the community while donating 100% of the proceeds to Community Missions’ cold weather shelters.

”We wanted to support community missions and the winter shelter because after it closed last year, we had many come here to church and, they had to close early, so it was still cold,” Pastor Sami Pfalzgraf said. “We wanted to try and keep the winter shelter open. Our goal was a month. But we were hoping for a week so that, they could just have a little bit more warmth for one more extra week.”

When all was said and done, the adventure took over six months to prepare and over 100 volunteers. One of those volunteers said being able to lead the children through the adventure was fun in itself.

“I get to see them first and they don’t want to leave,” she said. “Then they get to see the elevator and they don’t want to leave. And then they get to come back (to the game area) and they don’t want to leave…It really enjoyable to see their little faces and to see their enjoyment and to know that I was part of that.”

The church plans to reopen the adventure next year to provide St. Joseph with the festive experience and help community missions even further.