Wanda English Burnett, Editor

“It gets better. There’s more to the story.”

Those reassuring words were whispered a few years ago by David Shivers, pastor of the Hopewell Baptist Church, to his young daughter as they watched the reenactment of the Easter story.

“The crucifixion part isn’t the end,” he noted as he invites the entire community to come to a pageant that speaks volumes with few words spoken. “The Sound of the Nails”, a nearly silent drama, will depict events leading up to the crucifixion of Christ, that tells the centuries old story Christian communities celebrate every Easter will begin this Sunday, March 16 at the Hopewell Baptist Church at 9:00 a.m.

“We want people to actually feel it,” Pastor Shivers told The Versailles Republican. He feels it’s an experience that should be a personal one- a time to stop the busy lifestyle many pursue and reflect on an event that changed the course of the world forever.
Feeling as strongly as he does about the Easter story, the pastor has inspired many in the congregation to participate in the “real life” journey played out at the Hopewell Baptist Church located near Holton, according to Barry Lauber, chairman of the pageant committee. While the committee, of about a dozen, are instrumental in the planning, the monumental task is carried out by more than 100 with everyone who comes becoming a part of the crowd as they walk the last steps with Jesus before he is crucified. Last Sunday a group gathered at the family life center where the transformation began. This year marking the sixth for the event, the pageant has grown considerably. There are more characters and the costumes more elaborate. Iva Fern Hipskind has spent countless hours, as well as others, making the costumes more authentic. “She’ll be up at 4 or 5 in the morning working on them,” noted her daughter, Irish Stockard, who also is involved with the pageant.

Here’s how it begins. On Palm Sunday the family life center at the church will be transformed into a Jewish market place in Jerusalem as Biblical characters come to life with live animals and music of the time period enhancing the setting. It will feel anything but 21st century. The setting will transport those attending to the day Jesus was paraded through the city of Jerusalem. Just as Biblical history records - and Pastor Shivers says the entire pageant is strictly based on the Bible - a donkey will come down the center aisle of the family life center or city market place, bearing a person with the persona of Jesus. Hundreds of palm leaves will be waived and a celebration of that triumphant entry will be held.

How things can change in such a short time. Just a few days later on Good Friday, March 21, an outdoor drama will unfold again at the Hopewell church beginning at 6:15 p.m. This time the mood is not joyous, but somber.

First, Pontius Pilate’s palatial cathedral will be simulated inside the family life center where a trial will be held. Those who have seen the pageant say it is “very real”. Of course, the story goes that the people ask for a common criminal, Barabbus, to be released and Jesus is sentenced to die. “It is an intense scene...the silence is deafening,” Lauber noted with Shivers agreeing there are no words to describe it.

The dramatic scene continues outside with Roman soldiers with spears leading Jesus. This year an “authentic” Roman chariot has been added.

Pastor Shivers remembered a year when the outdoor sound effects included thunder and lightning and it wasn’t from the expertise of Jerry Gilpin, who does this for the church. “It was dark - sort of how I imagined that day,” the pastor reflected.

As the procession travels about 400 yards to the three crosses, it is a silent march. Here’s where everyone attending becomes part of the drama. Young and old, rich and poor, healthy and disabled, good and bad, all are equal at the foot of the cross. You will hear the hoof beats of horses, silent cries of followers, and the nails as they are pounded into the hands of Jesus.

While the scene sounds like something from a horror story, the words of Pastor Shivers to a child are remembered: “It gets better. There’s more to the story.”

You’re invited to be a part of any of the events leading up to and including Easter Sunday at the Hopewell Baptist Church, according to Pastor Shivers. On Easter Sunday, March 23, a sunrise service will begin at 7:00 a.m. followed by breakfast and a worship celebration will culminate a fantastic ending to the Good Friday drama, with the service beginning at 9 a.m. in the church’s family life center, where “there’s more to the story.”

The stage was nearly ready... WANDA ENGLISH BURNETT PHOTO Pictured from left are Irish Stockard, Lorie Taylor and Tim Mills, were putting the finishing touches on one of the stages set at the Hopewell Baptist Church where the family life center has been transformed into a Jewish market place for the up coming pageant, "The Sound of the Nails." It will begin on Sunday, March 16, and continue on Good Friday, March 21 and culminate Easter Sunday.