The November/December issue of FGBC World carried a story about Leo Boyer, of Winona Lake, Indiana (pictured here), and his desire to design and promote a Christmas lawn display which more properly reflected the true spiritual meaning of Christmas.
With a portion of the sale of each display going to support seminary and Bible college student scholarships in the Central African Republic, Leo was able recently to present to Grace Brethren International Missions a check for $350 to be given to Dr. Francis Ngoumape, director of the Grace Brethren schools at Bata, CAR, for use in training African pastors and Bible teachers.
Leo Boyer’s father, Dr. James Boyer, was a longtime Grace College and Seminary faculty member who served as a guest teacher at the African school, and Leo wanted a portion of the sales of the lawn displays to further the ministry in that way.
Leo invites anyone who may have an interest in assisting in either the production or the distribution of the displays for future years to contact him by calling (574) 267-3432.
Richard Barnhart, whose Christmas light display was featured on the front page of the November/December 2005 FGBC World, has posted an automated version of Leo Boyer’s display on his blog.
Here is a portion of Barnhart’s commentary, and the animated GIF of the display may be seen by clicking here:
“A friend from church, an old-timer with Grace College, Leo Boyer, has come up with a design of a yard display (I hesitate to say “decoration”) that has a real message to it. You just can’t buy stuff like this at K-Mart. It’s made from tube lights and has two images.
Assuming your Web browser is working right, you can see it at right changing between the manger and a star to two people worshipping at the foot of the Cross. Pretty neat idea. Also pretty pricey; it has a steel frame that folds in half for storage and it’s not K-mart plastic. But we have seen several around town here.
So far, Leo loses about $50 on each one he sells, but he’s working on finding an established company to market it. For a better idea of the size, take a look at the article and photo from the FGBC World paper.[click “November/December 2005 issue” in archived copies]
Oh, and while you’re there, it also has an article on our display as well, photo from last year. Had some folks from Ohio visiting relatives who saw it in the FGBC World and just had to come by to see it.”