Three camels, a flock of Jacob sheep, a donkey and a cast of about 1,000 local people will bring the Christmas story alive at a major nativity procession through the streets of Brecon on Christmas Eve. Organiser, the Revd Anna Bessant (pictured below), outlines how the community has rallied around the Brecon Big ChristmasAs a curate in the Brecon and Epynt Ministry Area, I had often dreamt of doing a live nativity in this place. I missed a recent Churches Together meeting in the town of Brecon but afterwards my Ministry Area Leader, Canon Gill Todd, reported from the meeting saying, "Anna we wish to create a living Nativity….and we want you to organise it!"Jesus’ promise to us is that God is present in our lives. This strange ministry includes a call to Christians to tell and show for others the truth of this promise. My friend and colleague, Canon Rana Khan, encourages me with wisdom which says that, if you are faithful, if your heart is open, and if you make yourself available, then God will use you.A live Nativity presents us with a huge opportunity to release the joy of the Christmas story to the whole community. Many people here haven’t had an experience of church and might not even know the whole nativity story. This is an event we can invite them to, to share the good news of the gospel and to hearten them.So, I began the chatting.The initial, "We must find three camels" conversation quickly became, "We are getting three camels!" Once this was declared everything else began to take shape. It is never easy to fund dreams but keep asking, and it shall be given to you! We kept talking, chatting and asking, and people have supported the idea and been both generous and excited.The writer, Esther De Vaal, says of our gospel tradition, "Never underestimate the power of small groups of friends". I talked to my friends and colleagues, Richard Parry from The New Library, Llantwit Major, Will Beharrell from the Fathom Trust, Heather Dickens from Crafters, Ruth Gibbs from The Muse - they were all delighted to help. Rich’s, promise of cultural and theological facilitation and the many promises of craft workshop and community engagement enabled us to go to The Church in Wales Mission fund to make a formal application for money.A friend offered to make a stable and we have other offers of nativity animals. Perhaps this is a "first" in the history of match funding that Jacob sheep have been match funded for camels!The town council was keen to help after I'd given them a presentation, and they advised me on road closures, tents, and volunteered to help as individuals. The new Baptist minister at Kensington Church, Emma Franks, worked wonders getting funding from the South Wales Baptist Association Home Mission, galvanising her people, and with her friendship we set about chatting the town together. Charlie Searl, from Cat Soup Kitchen, came onboard, excited to make soup and rolls for a 1,000, while local growers and community gardens provided vegetables, including prize squash and a rack of onions! There’s going to be hot chocolate too!One of the few technical hitches was our lateness in securing funding. So, when we approached The Meaningful Chocolate Company for 1,000 angels with Christmas story books they didn’t have enough stock. But their amazing Phil Haley was able to help us via their in-house mission fund and now 500 angels are coming with the much more expensive chocolate ‘Blessing Bars’ to make up the order to 1,000 gifts. There will be Christmas chocolate!The day starts on Christmas Eve at 12.30pm on Uplands field which sits the middle of the housing estates. As people enjoy radical hospitality, dress up, make willow lanterns and stars, a live, living Nativity will gently unfold, brought about by the people of the town.