Updates

Arlyn and Dwight were ordained tonight. It was the first time either of them were among the ministerial candidates here. That is understandable because neither of them lived here at first after they were married. They both moved here with families in tow. Lowell has been among the candidates several times--three times perhaps--I've lost track. He was gone during several of our ordinations.

Dwight and Karen have six children between eleven and three. Arlyn and Brenda have four children between the ages of seven and one. Their two daughters are five year old twins.

Lowell, Dwight, and Arlyn are all the heads of homeschooling families. In other ways, each of these men and their spouse have made very good choices for their family.

Lowell and his family spent five years together in Nicaragua. Arlyn and his family spent at least that many years in New York City. Arlyn was there before his marriage too. Dwight served at Faith Mission Home. He met Karen when they both taught school in Tennessee after that.

Lowell travels regularly to India to help conduct seminars for pastors. He was asked recently to join another ministry that conducts similar events elsewhere in Asia. He has also been a teacher at Calvary Bible School. He serves on the deacon committee in our church and he assists with our church-based lending/borrowing organization. Right now he is a Sunday School superintendent. It's likely that ordination would have curtailed some of these other involvements. At any rate, it feels good to view his not being ordained tonight as further direction for where he is to serve--not denial of his fitness for service.

I marvel at how the uncertainty before an ordination evaporates immediately afterward. I've never heard second-guessing the rightness of the outcome after the ordination service is over. That is the effect, I believe, of much prayer preceding the event, and the resultant drawing together of hearts open to the will and direction of God. Afterward, there is genuine gratitude for how God has revealed His plan. As time goes on, the rightness of the plan is confirmed repeatedly.

I don't doubt that there are other good ways to find church leaders, but I, for one, am not on a mission to replace the system we have now. The combination of church vote and use of the lot seem good to me. I especially value having people whose life we know serve as our leaders.
Overall, there is much rest in this way of doing.

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About ten years ago I was present at Hesston College when David Kline met with a small group of faculty members and assorted other guests over lunch. He was there as a Staley lecturer--rather untypical stuff for an Amish bishop. (His writings as a naturalist and organic farmer have propelled him into the limelight outside Amish circles, and he has been quoted and is claimed as a friend of the likes of Wendell Berry, Gene Logsdon, and Barbara Kingsolver.) One Hesston faculty member asked David what pieces of Amish tradition or faith practice could be incorporated into Mennonite settings.

David zeroed in on the use of the lot for ordination and suggested that Mennonite congregations would find it a blessing to use the practice--in some small way at least. He mentioned some of the things that are very clear in the mind of members of our church right now--the drawing together of the church body, the blessing of sensing the Lord's direction, the solidness of choosing leaders from among our own number. Everyone there who followed this pattern of ordination in their own church gave assent to what David was saying, and the rest of the group seemed receptive.

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Dwight's parents and a number of his siblings were here for the ordination, having traveled from Ohio, Arkansas, and Colorado. I was very happy for a chance to meet them again. Dwight and his siblings attended the school where I taught in Ohio between 1971 and 1978, and a number of them were my students. It's such a pleasure to see how God is using that bright and busy young family of those years in various capacities in His service now.

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Someone told me in the weeks leading up to the voting and ordination "I look at the wife almost as much as the husband when I consider who to vote for." By that sentiment, which I share, Judy, Brenda, and Karen all got a vote of confidence too in the process of this ordination.

I think it's very sad to think that perhaps some capable men can not realistically be considered for leadership positions because their wife does not seem like a suitable companion for a minister. It's true, of course, that not all men need to be a minister, and not all women need to be a minster's wife, but if a little more care in how one lives life, and a little more support of one's husband's ministry--whatever it is--could open doors for service that are closed because of a wife's questionable choices or practices, it would be a good thing for a wife to make the necessary changes. What is there to lose by such care and support? Much could be gained.

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Arlyn and Dwight have both been classroom teachers.

Dwight makes his living as a dairyman and produce farmer.

Arlyn is a travel agent. This livelihood seemed at one point like a detour, after an on-the-job injury to his back during a construction job derailed his work with his father in the business of doing basements and other types of building. He's a diligent home gardener as well.

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Last night I trekked back to the fencerows along the pasture to check on the ripeness of the wild plums growing there. It was an arduous trek through way too many tall weeds, and punctuated twice with shocks from the electric fence, which Hiromi had told me wouldn't be hot because he had unplugged the fencer--the one around the sheep pen. "I think Lowell is running his fence off this one," he assured me. "He said the other fencer got zapped by lightening."

But Lowell had another fencer hooked up to the pasture fence, just as I suspected would be the case. However, I thought maybe Hiromi was right after I used my wire basket twice to lower the fence enough to step over without incident. (These must have been disconnected from the pasture fence.) The third time I felt a mild shock, so the next time I had to cross the fence I crawled under it, but my hands-and-knees profile wasn't low enough and the middle of my back got soundly zapped. I was not impressed. I had buried my nose in ragweed and planted my bare knees on prickly weed stems and probably made contact with chiggers for nothing.

It was getting dark as I scoured the bushes for ripe red plums. In a short time I got probably a gallon and a half. A lot of unripe ones remain. The ripe fruit is incredibly fragrant and tasty, but the skins are rather tough and astringent. I walked home with the nearly-full moon overhead, and the day having cooled off nicely. I walked gratefully through the hay field and around by the road--no electric fences by that route.

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Hiromi is talking to his brother in Japan via Skype. I understood "Mr. Mom" but not much else.

Hiromi is fond of playing up the domestic skills he's perfecting since his retirement. He's a tomato canning pro by now. I was a bit offended the other night when I started to help get lids on jars, and he told me rather shortly, "Don't bother." Topsy-turvy roles come with hazards.

Mostly, Hiromi is typically ever-so-focused on the task at hand, and doesn't like disturbances while he's carrying them out. I think having someone to work with is great all by itself, and I gladly adapt my plans to include any willing helper. Can you tell he grew up as the youngest in a family of three and I grew up second oldest in a family of twelve?

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Yesterday at market Hiromi sold tomatoes to a family from Denmark who moved here in the employ of Siemens, the wind generator manufacturer soon to be in operation in Hutchinson. Today that man and his family were featured in the Hutchinson News. Summer heat is one of their major adjustments. They come from a place where the temps rarely rise above the 70's. He grew up on a farm, and has family roots in Germany. Siemens is a German company, but the wind generator company they have now was originally a Danish company. The man at the market has worked for the same company under both owners.

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The first day of school on Friday went off without major hitches although we realized we weren't quite ready for typing class when no one could log onto the computers since we hadn't created accounts for them yet on the network. We're ready now.

I like my headquarters back in the typing room where I started out eight years ago. I think I'll feel a little more connected with everyone than I did last year with my out-of-the-way desk in the library. That was nice too, though, in some ways.

The big freshman class is bringing lots of energy into the place, and I think a fun year is shaping up.