Sunday Wrapup

Tonight Hiromi and I went for a walk. When we turned toward home again after having walked away from it for precisely16 minutes, I gasped at how rainy/deep blue the western sky had become. "Oh that's amazing!" I said. (I obviously haven't learned my lesson with using that word in Hiromi's hearing.) "It's so beautiful--the blue and the green, and the calm and the cool." I can't imagine more perfect weather than we had today. It was sunny, with a high of about 70, and almost no wind. The wide fields are very green, and the wide sky smiles over it all.

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Others on Facebook commented on our wonderful communion service. I agree.

I had one random thought (that is, one that I'm prepared to reveal): When the apostle Paul said that "as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come," I wonder if he was referring only to doing these things at a communion service. Is it possible that every act of mindful eating and drinking is somehow a testimony to the creative, redeeming, renewing, sustaining work of God? Viewing it this way puts it on par with the shema in Deut. 6 by linking thoughts of God to the most everyday activities, thus insuring that we live in a constant awareness of His presence.

Thinking about these things at communion is a blessing, certainly, but there's so much to be experienced in the presence of God at other times also.

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In the office-turned-dressing-room at church during our footwashing service, Irene, Twila, and I talked briefly about what is involved for some of the older ladies at church to participate in the communion service. Some need help walking, and I'm sure they need help also with managing their shoes and stockings. I wonder if they're steady enough on their feet to bend over to wash another's feet. Lydia has to be pushed through the line to get her "cup" and bread, and Fannie needs to have it specially delivered. But this time is really special for them and they're willing to be inconvenienced to participate, and others are willing to be inconvenienced to make it possible for them to do so.

Edna and most of her family were absent from communion today. We missed them, but it's a comfort to know that Edna will soon be able to "drink [the cup] new in the kingdom of heaven." It brings perspective to this activity as a commemorative act--one that not only looks back to Jesus' example, but looks ahead to a future of fellowship and joy with Jesus in heaven.

Irene told us that she is so blessed by the old people in our church. Judy, who is more and more tottery, clings tightly to Perry's crutch when they walk together. It's not often that you see two people using one crutch at the same time. Barbara and Alvin lean on each other, both wobbly enough that you know that if one falls, they surely both will. Menno, who has spent all his life working very hard, and getting everything done with a lot of vigor, is content now to sit and hold Edna's hand, no doubt treasuring these final days. These people have grown old faithful to each other and to God, and they are beautiful--wrinkled and wobbly and bent and near to heaven as they are.

Recently I saw a video clip of the communion service we had the day my niece Megan was born sixteen years ago. I babysat her brother Christopher during the service. In that service the people who are feeble now were still walking smartly. The wobbly ones--Henry Mary and Lydia Stoltzfus--have died since then. Little toddler Alicia had pigtails, and made eyes at the camera. Shane, who was about seven, sat with his young-looking Dad and looked soberly at the camera, till his face cracked into a smile and he had to look away.

The footage was filmed by a crew from NHK--the Japanese equivalent of BBC or NBC. They did a show on the Amish of this community, and sent us some of the takeout scenes afterward, along with a copy of the show that was broadcast.

Sixteen years from now I'll be 73. Oh my.

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We brought Joel and Hilda home from the airport last night, arriving here around midnight. Their trip went smoothly from start to finish. They flew the Emirates airline from Dhaka to New York, and have glowing words for that carrier. No good words however for the Bangladeshi airline they flew back and forth to Nepal. Two of their three airplanes were grounded, so Joel and Hilda and many others had their exit delayed by a day. The airline put them up in a hotel overnight. What looked like blood spatters on the wall was in fact beetlenut juice spittle, Joel's Bangladeshi coworkers told him when he showed them pictures.

Last night Joel and Hilda's luggage lagged behind, and was still in Chicago when we left the Wichita airport. It was to be delivered today, probably while they were here for Sunday dinner. We also invited Hilda's dad, since her mother is in Hawaii, helping her sister celebrate her 60th birthday. It was a shame that we didn't do this while she was home, but it made good sense to do it now too, while Joel and Hilda's stories were still fresh.

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We are in the homestretch for this school year. This week will be our final week. I'm praying for Jacob, a senior who is probably not as close to panic as some of the rest of us are. He still has a bunch to do in the next four days. He's been cranking out a lot of work recently.

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Hiromi reports that his tomato plants now are 24 inches across and 16 inches tall. They're thriving inside the plastic-sheathed cages he made for them.

We've had lettuce and radishes from the garden. Dwights have rhubarb, asparagus, lettuce, green onions, and spinach in their farm produce market.

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Yesterday I brought home a bag of cotton bur compost in my minivan. Why does that stuff smell so much like the barnyard variety of uncomposted organic matter? Sheesh.

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Our tenants are moving out the middle of this month. We're not poised to move back into the house immediately, but we'll probably make plans to do so before long. My head is full of dreams for the garden, the landscape, and the kitchen. Hiromi's head is full of plans for not spending a lot of money for anything, unless it's something that he recognizes as a necessity, of course--a gas-fired kiln, for example.

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Lowells have moved into their shell of a house. They're hoping the plumbing "moves in" soon as well. They're one step closer since the county has approved plans to install a lagoon.

Twila reported that they joked recently with Lowells that people had better not leave their house unoccupied too long or Lowells will move in--a reference to the fact that they've stayed in three different vacant homes while their own house was under construction, and other people were on vacation, etc. They moved out of Joel's house hours before they returned from Bangladesh.

Hannah cheerfully refers to their circumstances as "an adventure." Now that's a healthy attitude.

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Marian must have washed the dining room windows on Friday. I've been marveling all weekend at how clean they are.

She also cleaned the dressing room. It's wonderful to have a household helper who has a knack for seeing what needs doing and following through to make it happen, even when I'm absent most of the time and clueless when I'm present.