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With lines wrapped all the way around to Sonic at one point during the weekend, the First Baptist Church Live Nativity Scene estimated 4,000 people this past weekend.

“It really was a great weekend,” Associate pastor Chad Middlebrooks said. “We had a steady stream of people all weekend.”

People from all over the state and northern Florida trekked to the nativity scene, Middlebrooks said.

“We had people from Mobile, Pensacola, Ft. Rucker, Prattville and Montgomery,” Middlebrooks said. “I think we probably had around 4,000 people go through this weekend. It was really good.”

Though it was a cold weekend, Middlebrooks said the congregation stayed outside to greet people as they drove through.

“The Lord held the rain off,” Middlebrooks said. “We prayed hard as a church and he honored those prayers. It just went really well. We were pretty busy, but people were rolling their windows down thanking us for doing this and asking if they could go through it again. People tried to give us money, but we couldn’t take it. I told them that we were just doing this for the community as a service.”

With the nativity scene being such a big hit, Middlebrooks said they will definitely do it again next year.

“It was just really special,” Middlebrooks said. “We are looking forward to doing it again next year. If anything, we are going to extend it to two weeks next year.”