Of Interest to Me
Last Wed. eve. we had Dr. W. M. from our sister church, Cedar Crest, give the second installment of a two-part series entitled "Choose Life." He recapped some of the first topic, which I missed out on.
In the first topic, he had talked about the danger of blurring the lines between human and animal life. For some, this blurring can result in disrespect for human life--seeing humans as raw material for genetic experimentation, for example. Other people elevate animals to a human level, with a resulting animal rights emphasis or even anthropomorphism.
The doctor recommended that parents resist this line-blurring tendency by avoiding children's books that give animals human characteristics. That application provoked some discussion.
In Part II, Dr. W. M. proceeded to educate us about the mechanisms at work when The Pill is used. Only one of the three mechanisms is of special concern to those who have a “Choose Life” commitment. Apparently, the first two mechanisms (which both act to prevent fertilization) fail 15-25% of the time. The third mechanism is designed to prevent pregnancy by interfering with implantation of a fertilized ovum. It is, in fact, an abortifacient, according to the doctor. He handed out, free of charge, a book on the subject: Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions? by Randy Alcorn.
I found very helpful the doctor’s insight on genetic manipulation on humans. He acknowledged the medical usefulness of gene therapy–essentially replacing defective genes with healthy ones. For him, one way to avoid descent into Nazi-like super-race human engineering is to draw a very hard line at the point of conception. Before conception, gene manipulation is off-limits. Afterward, sometimes it might be a good thing.
The doctor's family is a testimony to the value he places on life. Only three of their eight children are home-made. Some were "made" in China, and others were "made" by African Americans. Some of them have had medical issues and one has a physical handicap. The children and their parents look happy together, and we're glad to have them among us. They did create quite a stir in one of the classrooms last year, however, when five of them enrolled in the fifth grade.
********************
Yesterday I heard one of the best wedding sermons ever–at Sheldon and Louisa’s wedding, with Elmer S. from Texas preaching.
He talked about “image bearing” in Biblical terms and how marriage does that. He also talked about covenants, and a marriage covenant in the context of other Bible covenants. We heard about angels, and imagined their interest and delight when they first saw what God did in creating Adam and then Eve.
Elmer was a young-married man when I first learned to know him when we both lived in Ohio in the 70's.
********************
“Our” Dorcas told me after the wedding yesterday that my niece Hannah told her she would love to be a wedding coordinator. Dorcas thinks there might be a need for such a person in this community. She told me that it would have been very helpful to her to have such a person to work with when she got married nearly two years ago.
We talked about how it could really be helpful for some people to have help in getting their plans from the dream stage to reality. Ideally, in the end, every couple could feel that they got exactly the kind of wedding they wanted, and things came off without too many glitches and with a minimum of stress.
My sister Linda wrote a book on Planning a Christian Wedding after she had helped several of her sisters with wedding planning. I’ve heard from people who have found this book helpful too.
I was with Dorcas when we went to check out the church they had decided to use for their wedding. The secretary at the church wanted to be their wedding coordinator, but it was clear pretty quickly that she didn’t have much idea of how we do weddings, and that option was not appealing, for various reasons. Having some “insider” coordinator who understands some of these things without having to be told would feel very different.
*********************
At the wedding yesterday, I sat beside a sweet-looking young lady at the reception. I learned that she was a Miller who grew up in Costa Rica, but she lives now in OK. Her husband is Sheldon's friend. She spent a number of years teaching school in several Central American countries.
After I introduced myself, she told me she's trying to figure out why my name sounds so familiar. We decided she probably saw it in Keepers at Home magazine, which I used to write for. Later she asked if one of our sons sings with the Anonymous Somebodies. that would be Shane. This lady plays the Mennonite game to perfection.
She knows my sister-in-law, Judy's family, and my brother Lowell too, because of Judy.
********************
Grant and Ryan S. sang the coyote song from "Hank the Cowdog" for old times' sake for Louisa at open mike time. It was a lot more amusing than edifying.
I remembered when they were working on an auto mechanics project at the shop after school one night when they were in high school. When we saw Grant set off from home with a boom box and a "Hank the Cowdog" tape, Shane looked at me and shook his head. "This can't be good," he said. I wonder if they learned and practiced that song that night.
Louisa was ahead of them in school, and watched over them with a motherly air.
**********************
I like a lot of things about our weddings. The singing is always marvelous. I like being able to meet the couple. It’s nice to meet their parents too–before or after the service. I like printed wedding programs. I like people introducing themselves at open mike. I haven’t seen it recently, but I remember that I liked receptions where the family of the couple was introduced. Flowers and other pretty things help make it a pleasant atmosphere, and good food is part of the festivities. I guess I’ve never been at a wedding that I didn’t like.
*********************
In the middle of August, my sister Lois and I will be attending and speaking at “Obsess,” a retreat/camp for girls 13-16 at the Calvary Bible School campus in Arkansas. This is the second year for the event. Others will also speak and lead group activities and provide supervision.
Apparently the original impetus for the event came from girls in this age group who had read the book Do Hard Things by Bret and Alex Harris (Greg Harris’ twin sons, Josh Harris’ brothers). The book counters the notion that youth is a time for rebellion, selfishness, and unproductivity. The girls who read the book appealed for help in being able to “do hard things,” and so others in church planned the retreat to help meet this need. It is a project of one of the Beachy churches in Harrison, Arkansas.
It looks like a bunch of girls from here plan to attend with us, and Lois tells me that people from a number of other states are coming too.
I’m praying for a good retreat and good weather. There’s no air conditioning in this place.
*********************
We’ve had more than an inch of rain this weekend. It was very welcome–just right for finishing up corn, growing soybeans and milo, and re-growing the freshly harvested hay. And gardens and lawns and landscapes, of course. They were looking pretty thirsty in the hundred-degree weather we’ve been having.
The still, hot, humid days at the beginning of last week were hard on feedlot cattle in Kansas where more than 2,000 perished because of the heat. In the most danger were those nearly ready for market, especially if they had black hides. (I’ve wondered before if hide color doesn’t make a difference.) Attempts to cool them by water mist were only marginally effective, since that added to the humidity in the air. Rendering plants were overwhelmed and mass burials on site were necessary.
What cattle really need in weather like this is grass underfoot, shade and a breeze.
At the end of the week we had blessed wind again, and it felt better, but the plants looked worse.
**********************
At market yesterday someone told Hiromi about his tomatoes: “You’re right. Mountain Glory tastes better than other tomatoes, but Fabulous tastes even better than Mountain Glory.” Even our “seconds” are selling well–at a lower price, of course. We have some problems with cracking, which was not the case earlier. Pam, from the extension service, says a lot of people are having this problem ever since the copious rains of the July 4 weekend. And grasshoppers are finding and feeding on some of the tomatoes. Hiromi keeps putting out Nolo Bait for them, and it disappears, so we’re hoping that this bacterial grasshopper disease we’re introducing is having some benefit.
Hiromi sold all but one of the ready-made bouquets I prepared and sent along to market. I’m about to get a complex about this flower selling business. The last two Saturdays he’s done this, more flowers have sold than when I’ve accompanied him, and made bouquets there all morning. Humph.
**********************
Today is our 29th wedding anniversary.
**********************
My memory finally jogged into consciousness the variety name of the apples I’ve been gathering under one tree at the Trail West place: William’s Pride. It’s very disease-resistant, and reportedly good-tasting. My problem is that I can’t tell if it’s ready to pick. Part of each apple is very red, and other parts are still very green. They don’t quite taste ripe to me, but I read online that over-ripe apples of this variety turn mealy quickly, so I’m wary about waiting too long. Why are so many falling though, if they’re not ripe? I’ve gathered several bushels of windfalls under this semi-dwarf tree.
They come off the tree with a whitish film on them. It’s apparently a natural waxy coating that results in a sparkling polish when it’s rubbed with a cloth–or a skirt.
I think the Mollies Delicious tree is the one that is infected with Cedar Apple rust. We probably should replace this tree unless we decide to do a regular regimen of spraying for the disease.
I’m still waiting for the recall mechanism to kick in for the variety name of the third tree that’s producing nice big, nearly ripe apples.
The peach trees are overburdened with fruit. I’m afraid both of those trees need to be replaced, with a lot of attention given early on to developing strong branch structures. Fruit thinning would have been a good thing this year too.
********************
I stopped in at Willard and Sharon’s house the other day. When she showed me around I had flashbacks of having been in that building more than 50 years ago as a five-year old, visiting my sister’s first-grade class. It was a one-room school then, and it has been made into a home. The entrance from the garage into the house is virtually unchanged, except that it opened earlier into the outdoors–not a garage.
They still have a boys and girls bathroom, with a tub and sink now installed in a separate room outside one of them. On the second floor (This area was originally the upper part of the first floor.), the upper part of the original very tall first-floor windows are still visible on the south side. I remember those tall windows. I also remember the kitchen in the basement, when it was a school. Barbara Nisly was the cook. The kitchen cabinets from there were later installed in the kitchen of the house where our family lived till I was 14–the house on this place that was eventually replaced by our present home. Only a small part of the original oak flooring has been uncovered and restored–something Willard and Sharon hope to do more of. Completely finishing out the second story, adding a wrap-around porch, doing landscaping, and planting a garden are all part of their dreams for the place as soon as time and money allow.
I love seeing this become a home for Willard and Sharon’s family. It’s only a mile and a quarter from our place, easily visible from our front door.
*********************
I’ve been reading Shaunti Feldhahn’s books this past week, on gender-specific issues. Grant recommended them to me. The Male Factor is written for women in the workplace, and For Women Only and the companion volume For Men Only are for interpersonal relationships in the home. I’ve ordered the ones on parenting and teenagers through interlibrary loan.
I haven’t read For Men Only. I’m still trying to figure out how to get Hiromi to read it. His reading of choice right now is Rome and the Mediterranean by Livy. It’s ancient history.
*********************
Ernest S. from Oklahoma spoke today in our church on church leadership models from Scripture. This is part of a series of sermons and topics planned in advance of a double ordination we anticipate for August 22.
Essentially, Ernest sees in Scripture that congregations had bishops (plural), and deacons. Bishops had an elder's role, a shepherd's role, and an overseer's role. All leaders are servants, with slightly different associations in place for each of the different terms that are used in Scripture. If my memory serves me correctly, he associated three "D" words with each "bishop" term: Elder-dignity, Shepherd-diligence, and Overseer-duty. The "servant" word is where the term ministers comes from. While he has no big quibbles with a three-office ministerial team that are typical in Beachy churches, ("Minister" is the third, in addition to bishop and deacon.), they have chosen in their congregation to have a leadership team organized slightly different from ours. He especially likes the idea of a resident bishop in every congregation.
Ernest also traced a bit of the church history that eventually developed into a leadership hierarchy that is still in evidence in various groups, but perhaps most clearly so in the Roman Catholic church.
As I understand it, our leadership team has discussed the possibility of having the team leader (who we refer to as the bishop) serve for a specified term rather than for a lifetime. Also, the elected committee of people who assist the deacon is something Ernest's church has, and, as of this month, we do too.
Ernest has served in three offices: deacon, minister, and bishop--none of those in the Oregon Mennonite congregation where he grew up, and now, not in the group where he was ordained, and not in a Beachy church. So he looks at our ways of doing and we look at his, and we learn from each other. But most of all, we try to learn from Scripture.
For some time, our ministers regularly traveled to Oklahoma to preach in Ernest's church. Now that they have a leadership team in place there, this happens less frequently.
*********************
This week Keith and Miriam's baby is expected to arrive by C-section if testing shows the baby's lungs to be sufficiently developed by then. The baby will need surgery very soon after birth to close an open spine, so we are praying for all of them especially now.
*********************
On Sunday evening, a group of people handed out brochures introducing Hands of Christ ministries--our church's fledgling local ministry. At least six followup contacts resulted. Josh reported that he was met with goodwill and cordiality in the contacts he made on Sunday.
Interfaith Housing will be able to serve as something of an umbrella organization for us. I'm fuzzy on some of the details, but I believe insurance coverage and non-profit status are part of this collaboration.
Earlier this year, when CASP (Conservative Anabaptist Service Program) had a several-months-long project in Hutchinson under the auspices of Interfaith Housing, a good foundation was laid for further working together. Their organization really appreciated the home renovations that volunteers from various states accomplished.
*********************
Kansas Brotherhood Financial has not yet been successful in getting 501C3 (I think that's right.) status. They plan an appeal of the recent denial for designation as a non-profit organization, which would offer significant tax advantages.
In the first topic, he had talked about the danger of blurring the lines between human and animal life. For some, this blurring can result in disrespect for human life--seeing humans as raw material for genetic experimentation, for example. Other people elevate animals to a human level, with a resulting animal rights emphasis or even anthropomorphism.
The doctor recommended that parents resist this line-blurring tendency by avoiding children's books that give animals human characteristics. That application provoked some discussion.
In Part II, Dr. W. M. proceeded to educate us about the mechanisms at work when The Pill is used. Only one of the three mechanisms is of special concern to those who have a “Choose Life” commitment. Apparently, the first two mechanisms (which both act to prevent fertilization) fail 15-25% of the time. The third mechanism is designed to prevent pregnancy by interfering with implantation of a fertilized ovum. It is, in fact, an abortifacient, according to the doctor. He handed out, free of charge, a book on the subject: Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions? by Randy Alcorn.
I found very helpful the doctor’s insight on genetic manipulation on humans. He acknowledged the medical usefulness of gene therapy–essentially replacing defective genes with healthy ones. For him, one way to avoid descent into Nazi-like super-race human engineering is to draw a very hard line at the point of conception. Before conception, gene manipulation is off-limits. Afterward, sometimes it might be a good thing.
The doctor's family is a testimony to the value he places on life. Only three of their eight children are home-made. Some were "made" in China, and others were "made" by African Americans. Some of them have had medical issues and one has a physical handicap. The children and their parents look happy together, and we're glad to have them among us. They did create quite a stir in one of the classrooms last year, however, when five of them enrolled in the fifth grade.
********************
Yesterday I heard one of the best wedding sermons ever–at Sheldon and Louisa’s wedding, with Elmer S. from Texas preaching.
He talked about “image bearing” in Biblical terms and how marriage does that. He also talked about covenants, and a marriage covenant in the context of other Bible covenants. We heard about angels, and imagined their interest and delight when they first saw what God did in creating Adam and then Eve.
Elmer was a young-married man when I first learned to know him when we both lived in Ohio in the 70's.
********************
“Our” Dorcas told me after the wedding yesterday that my niece Hannah told her she would love to be a wedding coordinator. Dorcas thinks there might be a need for such a person in this community. She told me that it would have been very helpful to her to have such a person to work with when she got married nearly two years ago.
We talked about how it could really be helpful for some people to have help in getting their plans from the dream stage to reality. Ideally, in the end, every couple could feel that they got exactly the kind of wedding they wanted, and things came off without too many glitches and with a minimum of stress.
My sister Linda wrote a book on Planning a Christian Wedding after she had helped several of her sisters with wedding planning. I’ve heard from people who have found this book helpful too.
I was with Dorcas when we went to check out the church they had decided to use for their wedding. The secretary at the church wanted to be their wedding coordinator, but it was clear pretty quickly that she didn’t have much idea of how we do weddings, and that option was not appealing, for various reasons. Having some “insider” coordinator who understands some of these things without having to be told would feel very different.
*********************
At the wedding yesterday, I sat beside a sweet-looking young lady at the reception. I learned that she was a Miller who grew up in Costa Rica, but she lives now in OK. Her husband is Sheldon's friend. She spent a number of years teaching school in several Central American countries.
After I introduced myself, she told me she's trying to figure out why my name sounds so familiar. We decided she probably saw it in Keepers at Home magazine, which I used to write for. Later she asked if one of our sons sings with the Anonymous Somebodies. that would be Shane. This lady plays the Mennonite game to perfection.
She knows my sister-in-law, Judy's family, and my brother Lowell too, because of Judy.
********************
Grant and Ryan S. sang the coyote song from "Hank the Cowdog" for old times' sake for Louisa at open mike time. It was a lot more amusing than edifying.
I remembered when they were working on an auto mechanics project at the shop after school one night when they were in high school. When we saw Grant set off from home with a boom box and a "Hank the Cowdog" tape, Shane looked at me and shook his head. "This can't be good," he said. I wonder if they learned and practiced that song that night.
Louisa was ahead of them in school, and watched over them with a motherly air.
**********************
I like a lot of things about our weddings. The singing is always marvelous. I like being able to meet the couple. It’s nice to meet their parents too–before or after the service. I like printed wedding programs. I like people introducing themselves at open mike. I haven’t seen it recently, but I remember that I liked receptions where the family of the couple was introduced. Flowers and other pretty things help make it a pleasant atmosphere, and good food is part of the festivities. I guess I’ve never been at a wedding that I didn’t like.
*********************
In the middle of August, my sister Lois and I will be attending and speaking at “Obsess,” a retreat/camp for girls 13-16 at the Calvary Bible School campus in Arkansas. This is the second year for the event. Others will also speak and lead group activities and provide supervision.
Apparently the original impetus for the event came from girls in this age group who had read the book Do Hard Things by Bret and Alex Harris (Greg Harris’ twin sons, Josh Harris’ brothers). The book counters the notion that youth is a time for rebellion, selfishness, and unproductivity. The girls who read the book appealed for help in being able to “do hard things,” and so others in church planned the retreat to help meet this need. It is a project of one of the Beachy churches in Harrison, Arkansas.
It looks like a bunch of girls from here plan to attend with us, and Lois tells me that people from a number of other states are coming too.
I’m praying for a good retreat and good weather. There’s no air conditioning in this place.
*********************
We’ve had more than an inch of rain this weekend. It was very welcome–just right for finishing up corn, growing soybeans and milo, and re-growing the freshly harvested hay. And gardens and lawns and landscapes, of course. They were looking pretty thirsty in the hundred-degree weather we’ve been having.
The still, hot, humid days at the beginning of last week were hard on feedlot cattle in Kansas where more than 2,000 perished because of the heat. In the most danger were those nearly ready for market, especially if they had black hides. (I’ve wondered before if hide color doesn’t make a difference.) Attempts to cool them by water mist were only marginally effective, since that added to the humidity in the air. Rendering plants were overwhelmed and mass burials on site were necessary.
What cattle really need in weather like this is grass underfoot, shade and a breeze.
At the end of the week we had blessed wind again, and it felt better, but the plants looked worse.
**********************
At market yesterday someone told Hiromi about his tomatoes: “You’re right. Mountain Glory tastes better than other tomatoes, but Fabulous tastes even better than Mountain Glory.” Even our “seconds” are selling well–at a lower price, of course. We have some problems with cracking, which was not the case earlier. Pam, from the extension service, says a lot of people are having this problem ever since the copious rains of the July 4 weekend. And grasshoppers are finding and feeding on some of the tomatoes. Hiromi keeps putting out Nolo Bait for them, and it disappears, so we’re hoping that this bacterial grasshopper disease we’re introducing is having some benefit.
Hiromi sold all but one of the ready-made bouquets I prepared and sent along to market. I’m about to get a complex about this flower selling business. The last two Saturdays he’s done this, more flowers have sold than when I’ve accompanied him, and made bouquets there all morning. Humph.
**********************
Today is our 29th wedding anniversary.
**********************
My memory finally jogged into consciousness the variety name of the apples I’ve been gathering under one tree at the Trail West place: William’s Pride. It’s very disease-resistant, and reportedly good-tasting. My problem is that I can’t tell if it’s ready to pick. Part of each apple is very red, and other parts are still very green. They don’t quite taste ripe to me, but I read online that over-ripe apples of this variety turn mealy quickly, so I’m wary about waiting too long. Why are so many falling though, if they’re not ripe? I’ve gathered several bushels of windfalls under this semi-dwarf tree.
They come off the tree with a whitish film on them. It’s apparently a natural waxy coating that results in a sparkling polish when it’s rubbed with a cloth–or a skirt.
I think the Mollies Delicious tree is the one that is infected with Cedar Apple rust. We probably should replace this tree unless we decide to do a regular regimen of spraying for the disease.
I’m still waiting for the recall mechanism to kick in for the variety name of the third tree that’s producing nice big, nearly ripe apples.
The peach trees are overburdened with fruit. I’m afraid both of those trees need to be replaced, with a lot of attention given early on to developing strong branch structures. Fruit thinning would have been a good thing this year too.
********************
I stopped in at Willard and Sharon’s house the other day. When she showed me around I had flashbacks of having been in that building more than 50 years ago as a five-year old, visiting my sister’s first-grade class. It was a one-room school then, and it has been made into a home. The entrance from the garage into the house is virtually unchanged, except that it opened earlier into the outdoors–not a garage.
They still have a boys and girls bathroom, with a tub and sink now installed in a separate room outside one of them. On the second floor (This area was originally the upper part of the first floor.), the upper part of the original very tall first-floor windows are still visible on the south side. I remember those tall windows. I also remember the kitchen in the basement, when it was a school. Barbara Nisly was the cook. The kitchen cabinets from there were later installed in the kitchen of the house where our family lived till I was 14–the house on this place that was eventually replaced by our present home. Only a small part of the original oak flooring has been uncovered and restored–something Willard and Sharon hope to do more of. Completely finishing out the second story, adding a wrap-around porch, doing landscaping, and planting a garden are all part of their dreams for the place as soon as time and money allow.
I love seeing this become a home for Willard and Sharon’s family. It’s only a mile and a quarter from our place, easily visible from our front door.
*********************
I’ve been reading Shaunti Feldhahn’s books this past week, on gender-specific issues. Grant recommended them to me. The Male Factor is written for women in the workplace, and For Women Only and the companion volume For Men Only are for interpersonal relationships in the home. I’ve ordered the ones on parenting and teenagers through interlibrary loan.
I haven’t read For Men Only. I’m still trying to figure out how to get Hiromi to read it. His reading of choice right now is Rome and the Mediterranean by Livy. It’s ancient history.
*********************
Ernest S. from Oklahoma spoke today in our church on church leadership models from Scripture. This is part of a series of sermons and topics planned in advance of a double ordination we anticipate for August 22.
Essentially, Ernest sees in Scripture that congregations had bishops (plural), and deacons. Bishops had an elder's role, a shepherd's role, and an overseer's role. All leaders are servants, with slightly different associations in place for each of the different terms that are used in Scripture. If my memory serves me correctly, he associated three "D" words with each "bishop" term: Elder-dignity, Shepherd-diligence, and Overseer-duty. The "servant" word is where the term ministers comes from. While he has no big quibbles with a three-office ministerial team that are typical in Beachy churches, ("Minister" is the third, in addition to bishop and deacon.), they have chosen in their congregation to have a leadership team organized slightly different from ours. He especially likes the idea of a resident bishop in every congregation.
Ernest also traced a bit of the church history that eventually developed into a leadership hierarchy that is still in evidence in various groups, but perhaps most clearly so in the Roman Catholic church.
As I understand it, our leadership team has discussed the possibility of having the team leader (who we refer to as the bishop) serve for a specified term rather than for a lifetime. Also, the elected committee of people who assist the deacon is something Ernest's church has, and, as of this month, we do too.
Ernest has served in three offices: deacon, minister, and bishop--none of those in the Oregon Mennonite congregation where he grew up, and now, not in the group where he was ordained, and not in a Beachy church. So he looks at our ways of doing and we look at his, and we learn from each other. But most of all, we try to learn from Scripture.
For some time, our ministers regularly traveled to Oklahoma to preach in Ernest's church. Now that they have a leadership team in place there, this happens less frequently.
*********************
This week Keith and Miriam's baby is expected to arrive by C-section if testing shows the baby's lungs to be sufficiently developed by then. The baby will need surgery very soon after birth to close an open spine, so we are praying for all of them especially now.
*********************
On Sunday evening, a group of people handed out brochures introducing Hands of Christ ministries--our church's fledgling local ministry. At least six followup contacts resulted. Josh reported that he was met with goodwill and cordiality in the contacts he made on Sunday.
Interfaith Housing will be able to serve as something of an umbrella organization for us. I'm fuzzy on some of the details, but I believe insurance coverage and non-profit status are part of this collaboration.
Earlier this year, when CASP (Conservative Anabaptist Service Program) had a several-months-long project in Hutchinson under the auspices of Interfaith Housing, a good foundation was laid for further working together. Their organization really appreciated the home renovations that volunteers from various states accomplished.
*********************
Kansas Brotherhood Financial has not yet been successful in getting 501C3 (I think that's right.) status. They plan an appeal of the recent denial for designation as a non-profit organization, which would offer significant tax advantages.
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