Precious Moments Chapel charms visitors

CARTHAGE, Mo. -- Marti Mosemiller has awakened to the Precious Moments message.

It's not the kind of conversion that will have her lining shelves in her Greenwood, Ind., home with the kitschy, porcelain bisque figurines that carry a religious message.

But Mosemiller -- who admits to an aversion to things that collect dust -- won't be poking fun as she passes billboards along southwest Missouri highways urging tourists to stop at the Precious Moments Chapel Center in Carthage.

"I've come through here probably three times on the way to family reunions and other things, and I've seen all the billboards and made all the jokes about 'Does anyone want to stop at the Precious Moments Chapel?"' Mosemiller said. "I didn't understand the inspirational message until now."

Like many others, Mosemiller's epiphany occurred when she walked through a set of hand-carved wooden doors and into artist Sam Butcher's masterpiece.

The Precious Moments Chapel is Butcher's tribute to his Christian faith.

"When the Lord led me to this rolling land in the heart of the Ozarks, I knew this was where He intended me to begin my labors to build the Chapel," Butcher writes in his "A Keepsake Memory Book" about the chapel. The artist was working from his part-time home in the Philippines and was unavailable for an interview.

Butcher was inspired to build his chapel by a 1983 trip to the Sistine Chapel in Rome. It includes 52 Biblical murals that cover more than 5,000 square feet.

Inspirational scenery

The most ambitious was the sanctuary ceiling, 30 feet overhead and covering 1,408 square feet. Butcher spent more than 500 hours, often laying on his back on scaffolding, painting rosy-faced cherubs floating amid fluffy clouds.

Butcher considered quitting more than once, said Lynn Onstot, spokeswoman for the center. He found strength in prayer, but he later left one of the angels unfinished as a personal reminder that "we are all unfinished work in the eyes of God," Onstot said.

The 62-year-old artist's quirky sense of humor also is apparent throughout the chapel. The back wall depicts the Seven Days of Creation. On Day One, when God said, "Let there be light," Butcher shows three angels shining their flashlights into the darkness. The Lord also created the heavens -- and an angelic basketball team, the Shooting Stars -- on Day Four, according to Butcher.

The Chapel is the cornerstone of a pastel painted, non-denominational oasis nestled in the Jasper County foothills. Some 400,000 visitors each year venture off U.S. 71 to Butcher's property on the aptly named Chapel Road.

Chapel tours are free. All-day passes, ranging from $10 for adults to $3 for children, allow tourists to visit the other attractions.

They include Wedding Island, which features a renovated 1890's Victorian mansion and a church that was donated by a small Methodist congregation, as well as a Bride's House and Waterfall Garden. More than 100 couples have rented the island.

There's also the Art Museum, which once served as Butcher's home and contains some of his earliest paintings, as well as the 21 figurines from his first collection. The Fountain of Angels is a 500-seat amphitheater that features a mix of inspirational music, lights, flowing waters and more than 250 bronze figures.

Milions of collectors

Butcher's angelic children is the central theme across all the attractions, appearing in paintings, sculptures and stained glass windows.

"It's completely unexpected," said Barbara Abels of Fishers, Ind. "Everything is so tastefully done."

Abels and friend Ann Brown were part of a bus tour that had a main destination of Branson. Brown, an assistant school principal in Fishers, did buy a figurine for her boss, who collects Precious Moments.

An estimated half-million collectors worldwide seek out his unique artwork manufactured by Enesco Corp.