In 2016 Baker & Sons Safari Co commissioned the carving of 50 Christmas Nativities, handmade with African Rosewood and Ebony features. Tanzanians are among the best wood carvers on the continent, and this 13-piece nativity set is distinct in its beauty and quality; how it was made, from what materials, by whom and where and the message it has carried. These sets have traveled a great distance and will reside in dramatically different surroundings from where they were formed. A herald and heirloom from the old world to the new.

In light of the seasonal EastARM Winter Fundraiser, Baker & Sons have gifted these Nativity Sets to the mission, to be used to close our finances for 2018 looking forward to the new year.

For a special Christmas donation of $500 or greater to the EastARM Winter Fundraiser, we will mail a package containing a Nativity Set to the address you provide us, to arrive in time for Christmas (one nativity per family). Your full donation will be included in your 2018 charitable givings. The Nativity – hand carved from Tanzania – is our gift to you.

The Ebony tree grows wild in the country of Tanzania. It is a gnarled, thorny tree that almost resembles a bush, not attractive by outward appearances. Yet the dense heartwood harvested from the Ebony tree is valued throughout the world for its dark, rich, ornamental caliber. With the faces and hands of the Shepherds, Wiseman, Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus carved intentionally out of Ebony, this handmade Nativity from Tanzania is unmistakably African.

The tree from which the Nativity was fashion has similar characteristics to the Christmas child for which it was made.

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  Isaiah 53:1-6