In the sixth year in the reign of Obama, legislation passed that all U.S. citizens be counted in the county where their ancestors had settled. This unusual census was when Kasich was governor of Ohio and Jordan was fourth district representative.

Jose from Lebanon, Ohio, with his young housekeeper, Maria, who was nine-month’s pregnant with someone else’s child, and who Jose had intended to marry, drove to Bluffton in Jose’s 1996 Mercury Cougar. This was because Jose was a great-great-great-grandson of Swiss immigrant, Jesse Zurflugh, in Richland Township.

They arrived in Bluffton late in the evening of Dec. 24, nearly out of gas, food and money, when most of the residents were in Christmas Eve church services. They couldn’t find the address of Jose’s relative, but learned that a cousin working the third shift in a Beaverdam truck plaza might be of assistance.

When they arrived in Beaverdam they found the town had shut down because a snowstorm was moving in from the East.

So, the headed further east on the Lincoln Highway. Their Cougar ran out of gas just this side of New Stark.

They left the car stranded on the side of the road and found their way to a barn where the Merino brothers, sheep farmers, had holed up for the night and were in a serious poker game. For various offenses, the brothers were wanted by the State Highway Patrol and had warrants for their arrest in Indiana and Michigan.

Just as Jose thought things couldn’t get any worse, Maria started having labor pains. The Merino brothers had never encounter anything quite like this, and were very amazed. You might say they were in fear. Fortunately, their older sister, Angela, living in the farmhouse was a nurse’s aide, and was experienced in assisting with births.

Just then a delivery van, owned by Wise-King Delivery Service of East Palestine, Ohio, (near Orient, Ohio), became stuck behind where the Cougar was parked, out of gas, along the Lincoln Highway.

Snow had covered some of the words on the sign reading “New Stark.” In their minds the van occupants thought they were in a town named “Star.”

The van driver and his two friends, who were on their way to Global Unity Movement conference in Goshen, Indiana, where they had fully intended to be enlightened. After banging on the barn door, the Merino brothers invited them in, thinking they might be bad poker players.

Shortly before the van occupants - Rex King, Jack Wise and Conner Konig  - arrived, Maria, with the help of the nurse’s aide, gave birth to a boy. The boy was placed in a feeding trough of a couple Whitshire horned sheep that were also housed in the barn.

Out of courtesy of the hospitality of the Merino brothers, the three Wise-King Delivery employees opened the van and removed some of their freight. They gave gifts to the baby.

These gifts included embalming fluid that they were to deliver to a funeral home, some incense they were taking to their conference and some Golden Oldies CDs from the ‘70s.

Maria was very moved by these gifts from total strangers.

When the storm let up, the three in the van decided to return home instead of continuing to Goshen. They returned on the back roads because they didn’t want the authorities to know they had spent the night with the Merino brothers. The Wise-King van guys were never heard of again.

Jose had a funny feeling about the entire episode. After calling his brother in the furniture store where he worked, he discovered the State Patrol was on the lookout for him on some trumped up charge.

So, Jose, Marie and the babe headed to Cairo, Ohio, and lived there undercover for several years, until it was safe to move back to Lebanon.

The Merino brothers, moved by the entire evening’s events, changed their ways, cleaned up their lives and became models citizens.

For the rest of their lives, they told this story to all who would listen. This story affect many people and the good sheperds became ever connected to the story they told about the once-in-a-lifetime event they experienced long ago in their barn on Dec. 24.

We hope this story brings a modern meaning to your own Christmas observance.

It is in that spirit that The Icon wishes all its viewers a thoughtful Christmas season.