POCATELLO — Jeral Williams has showed off his good-natured camels in school classrooms and inside of the Shilo Inn’s banquet room, and he’s featured them in parades and live nativity scenes throughout the region.

On Wednesday starting at 6 p.m., The Ucon rancher’s three Mongolian Bactrian camels will make a guest appearance outside of Grace Lutheran Church in Pocatello. They’ll be the main attraction in a live nativity scene also featuring a few sheep and a donkey, as well as actors dressed as characters from the Magi story.

Grace Lutheran at 1350 Baldy Ave. plans to host 20-minute public performances at 6, 6:45 and 7:30 p.m. Pastor Jonathan Dinger explained guests will be directed to parking spaces in the church parking lot, where they’ll tune in to a special radio station playing accompanying music and dialogue from a pair of narrators, telling the story of the first Christmas. Each show will have room for about 150 vehicles, he said. Angels will be stationed on the rooftop.

“Obviously this year is a bizarre year, and people have canceled and canceled,” Dinger said, referring to the coronavirus pandemic. “That’s kind of broken our heart. Some of those things are big traditions — things people have done year after year.”

For those who are unable to attend in person, the nativity scene will be livestreamed on the Grace Lutheran YouTube channel. Dinger said it’s the first time his church has organized a live nativity, and he anticipates it will become an annual holiday tradition.

“We have made it our mantra: We’re not canceling anything. You’ve just got to rethink it,” Dinger said. “We’re constantly trying to offer some things in different ways.”

Williams’ ranch is a popular destination for tour groups. In addition to the camels and 200 cow-calf pairs of cattle, he also keeps peacocks and 17 bison. Nine of his bison have white fur.

Williams said one of his bison — a 4-year-old — has been halter broken and likes to jump into the bed of his pickup, along with his dog.

He sells his bison both for hamburger and meat and to hunting ranches. He acquired the first camel from a retiring rancher from Dubois, Wyoming, just for fun. He started bringing the camel to business open houses, parades and live nativity scenes. Given the fact that there were Three Wise Men in the Biblical Magi story, Williams chose to add two more camels to his herd.

“They’re very loving,” Williams said.

His breed of Mongolian camels are acclimated to snowy, mountainous areas, making them well suited to East Idaho’s climate. They’re not picky eaters and are happy to munch on alfalfa, grass and even weeds.

Williams said he’ll charge a small fee for businesses who request his camels but only asked that Grace Lutheran give him a McDonald’s hamburger. Dinger, however, has a family from his congregation assigned to make sure Williams is treated to something a bit more extravagant.

This year, Williams said many of the holiday events that normally feature his camels have been canceled due to COVID-19. The ones that have gone forward have adopted the drive-in movie-style approach, using special radio broadcasts for music and dialogue. He’s brought camels to St. Anthony and Rexburg, and on Thursday, his camels participated in 12 nativity performances at the Idaho Falls Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple.

“They figure they had close to 500 cars,” Williams said.

He’s also mulling a request to help with a live nativity in Cokeville, Wyoming.

Grace Lutheran will set up its nativity on Sunday. Dinger said the nativity scene will be constructed on a flat-bed trailer. He said participants in the nativity will all be wearing masks due to COVID-19, and members of the public will be safe inside of their cars.