By Emma Maple | FāVS News Reporter
The Spokane Valley Adventist Church wants to show Spokane what Easter is all about with its free outdoor drama that guides viewers through the story of Jesus.
Journey to the Cross, a 45-minute event with 11 scenes focused on the last week of Christ’s ministry, will be open Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“Through this experience we want the community to have a better understanding of what Easter is all about, and convey the hope that the Easter story has for all our lives,” Casey Harms, director of the Journey to the Cross, said. “God loves all of us more deeply and fully than we could ever comprehend.”
The event is free to attend. Tours start every 10 minutes.
Groups are guided through the experience with a dedicated set of actors who play the disciples and Jesus, Harms said. At the end, each group goes through a short debrief.
Around 280 volunteer actors and 100 support staff come together to make the event happen, Harms said.
The cast is larger this year, so the event can accommodate more groups, according to Harms.
Although many of the actors are Seventh-day Adventists, Harms said there are at least four different Christian denominations represented in the cast.
“We see this as an opportunity for a lot of different Christian individuals to come together for the same common goal,” Harms said.
While the actors have a lot of fun performing, Harms said there’s a deeper takeaway for many of them: the chance to really experience the story themselves.
“A lot of actors feel that this is an important part of their own spiritual experience, as they like physically reliving some of these stories,” Harms said. “That goes far beyond just reading about something.”
The Spokane Valley Adventist Church works to make sure the event is accessible to people of different abilities, and a golf cart is available if people can’t walk independently.
The church upgraded the final scene this year to ensure it’s easy to see from the golf cart, Harms said.
There is also an option to hear the story in Russian, with Slavic cast members, according to Harms.
Last year, around 3,000 people got to experience the Journey to the Cross. This year, Harms said, the church is hoping for even more.
The event is funded through donations collected mainly from the congregants, and Harms said it costs about $20,000 to put on.
Many of the outdoor sets used in the event are from when it began in 2008 and need to be renovated over the next several years, Harms said, so costs will likely increase.
Over the 17 years the Spokane Valley Adventist Church has held the event, Harms said there are always small tweaks that are made.
But, he said, “the underlying story is the same.”
FāVS News uses professional journalists and thoughtful commentary to explore faith, values and ethics. Support journalism like this by making a tax-deductible donation. FāVS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. © FāVS News. All rights reserved. Reproduction permitted only to authorized media partners or with written permission.
