He has spent most of the 21st century living in Southeast Asia, where in 2006 he opened a boutique resort with the first year-round Christmas shop in the Philippines, and its own, smaller, Precious Moments Chapel.Yu Kaiyi restores a scanned copy of an old photograph of Peking Opera master Zhou Xinfang. Sam's personal tombstone stands outside the chapel, engraved, in part:Īlthough Sam Butcher is still alive, you're unlikely to see him at Precious Moments Park. Huge, leather-bound ledgers are filled with handwritten messages from visitors to dead friends and relatives. Their portraits are provided as a reference if you want to go back into the chapel to find them. Other rooms display pictures of dead people, mostly children, who have been turned into Precious Moments caricatures. Above his empty bed, on puffy clouds, baby angels hold signs reading, "Welcome Home, Philip." Philip was 27 when he died, but nowhere in the room is he shown as an adult. One wall is filled with a painting of Philip's bedroom. In a pew-filled back room, still part of the tour, there is a tribute to Sam's son, Philip, who died in a car crash. "This is so sad," said one, a cheerleader. Young people in our group were invited to sit next to the mural and "imagine yourself" as part of it. Sam Butcher, like George Lucas, has gone back over time and altered his original masterpiece, adding Precious Moments versions of his mother, military personnel, and others who have died. He is the only adult depicted in the entire chapel. In the center of the mural is a ministering Christ. Others in Hallelujah Square romp and frolic with adorable animals. Several baby angels hold signs reading, "Welcome To Your Heavenly Home." The sign with "Welcome" is held upside down, as cute children will sometimes do. It depicts a dead child arriving in heaven. The wall behind the altar is filled with Sam's crowning work, Hallelujah Square. No babies cry ("They never do," said our guide). Many people, our guide said, have had religious experiences in this chapel based on collectible figurines. Two baby angels with flashlights portray the biblical passage, "And God said, 'Let there be light.'" Several baby angels, including two black angels, play basketball with the Earth. Our group gazed at the Precious Moments paintings, covering nearly every interior surface of the chapel, "over 5,000 square feet of fine art," said our guide. Butcher?" - the Butchers are divorced and she lives out of state - and, "What color is his dog?") (The guide told us that the two most asked questions on Precious Moments tours are, "Where's Mrs. Butcher," said our guide, "would deliberately tear most of the major seams in his clothing, leaving room enough to freely climb." The guide tells the story behind Sam's labors: how he spent more than 500 hours on his back atop a 35-foot-high scaffold painting 75 baby angels on the ceiling. Groups stroll a cement pathway lined with waist-high baby angel statues, many of them dedicated to dead children. Walking tours of the chapel leave the mini-mall every hour (Visiting the Precious Moments Chapel is a breeze compared to the Sistine Chapel). But what remains is still free, and its centerpiece is still the Precious Moments Chapel. In 2007 most of the park's ancillary attractions were closed. The sands of time (and changes in public taste) eventually slowed the juggernaut that was Precious Moments. With money pouring in from his collectibles empire, he surrounded his chapel with acres of parklike land, a Precious Moments museum, a convention center, a performing "Fountain of Angels" that featured live musical acts, a "Wedding Island" where visitors could get married, and a mini-mall of Precious Moments gift shops. Sam spent four years painting the chapel, then opened it to the public. Its interior has been painted by Butcher with biblical murals and frescoes - not Michelangelo masterpieces, but cartoon art populated with bulb-headed Precious Moments children. The spot turned out to be just outside of Carthage, Missouri, and the masterpiece - inspired by the Sistine Chapel in Rome - is the Precious Moments Chapel.
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