What Goes Around

    I was reminded recently of how things go in cycles. By some mysterious cause, things come into style and go out again only to reappear a generation later. Case in point is short skirts. After a delightful stretch of modest long skirts, suddenly hems rose  above the knees and modesty disappeared. But that is not what triggered my thoughts.

    A committee is currently working on translating the Martyrs' Mirror into a more readable English. It is slow and tedious work, not expected to be finished before 2029. It was originally written in the Dutch language and published in the Netherlands. In 1748, it was translated into German by Peter Miller and printed at the Ephrata Cloister for the Mennonites. The first English translation of the book was printed in 1837 in Lancaster.

    In 1780, a reprint of the German edition was made in Germany. Ten years ago, a committee in Germany began translating the German edition into more modern and readable German. When asked what German version they used as a basis in their translating, they said it was the 1748 translation. The new German edition is now complete. It has gone full circle from Europe to Pennsylvania and back to Europe. What goes around comes around.

Let True Freedom Ring

  This weekend the nation is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States of America. There are countless events, ways and means of recognizing the milestone. I am grateful to live in a land that allows us to worship and live according to conscience without fear of persecution. For reasons known only to God, the nation has enjoyed growth and prosperity for two and a half centuries. While I thank God for allowing me to live in this time and place, I can't get caught up in a patriotic spirit that almost worships the founders and veterans who "fought for our freedom."

   The Revolutionary War, also correctly called the War of Rebellion, was fueled by the Welsh and Scotch-Irish. That Welsh were instigators in the American Revolution should not be surprising. Wales fell to the English in 1282 during the reign of King Edward I and never gained independance. Facing persecution and discrimination by the English in their own country, the Welsh immigrated to America in large numbers from the very beginning of the colonies. Their long history of rebellion against the English explains the willingness of the founders of the United States to fight Great Britain. At least a third of the signers of the Declaration of Independence had Welsh ancestry, including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
   The Scotch-Irish also harbored long-standing political and religious animosity against the British and were in sympathy with the Welsh. A Hessian captain wrote in 1778, “Call this war by whatever name you may, only call it not an American rebellion; it is nothing more or less than a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian rebellion.” The Revolutionary War was rooted in a long rebellion that the Welsh and Scotch-Irish people carried across the ocean with them.

   The idea that the United States was founded as a Christian nation is a stretch. Not all of the signers of the Declaration of Independance were professing Christians, including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. The Declaration mentions God and the Creator but does not establish Christianity as the foundation of the nation. The Constitution has no references to God or Christianity. The Treaty of Tripoli in 1797 stated that "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." 

   While Christianity influenced the culture and moral perspectives of many of the Founding Fathers, the United States was not legally established as a Christian nation. The Founders sought to create a nation where individuals could practice their faith freely without government interference—whether that faith was Christian or not. This freedom of religion was drawn from William Penn's 1682 Frame of Government that made Pennsylvania one of the most religiously tolerant places in the world.

    In the 250 years since founding of the United States of America, there has been a downward spiral of Christian faith and practice which is continuing. The concept of freedom of religion is becoming freedom from religion. Churches are closing for lack of attendance. Morality has eroded. Things that were once shameful or unthinkable are considered normal. Government struggles to control lawlessness and proves that it is impossible to produce righteousness by legislation.This weekend the nation is celebrating 250 years of freedom while a large percentage of the population is enslaved by their passions and addictions.       

   The freedom I am celebrating far exceeds anything an earthly nation can offer. My freedom was found in Christ who said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31-32). Freedom from sin and death.is true freedom. It does not come through the military or government, but by one Man who died on a cross and rose again. He offers true freedom to all who will turn to Him. Then He will forgive and heal the land. That is the only hope for a nation that has turned away from God. Let true freedom ring from sea to shining sea!

Favorite Father's Day Memory

   It is 39 years since my father died at the age of sixty-two. The family tree has grown many more branches since then and most of his descendants never knew him. But I can still hear him whistling as he came in the walk after work. We sang a lot as a family and sometimes he played his harmonica. We always asked him to play the train. He could duplicate the sound of a steam train starting out slowly, building up steam until it was chugging along at full speed and blowing its whistle.

   He couldn't read music and didn't know how to use a pitchpipe, but he could sing and led the singing in church for many years.The memory I hear most often from people who knew him is the way he could get children to sing in Summer Bible School. He gave me a love of music.

   People seemed to think Daddy had a lot of money. He did not. We had all we needed but Mom kept the books and I know she struggled to make ends meet. I think the reason people thought Daddy had more money than he did was because he was so generous. When he saw or heard of a need, he would pitch in and help whether he had the money to spare or not. That brings me to my favorite memory of Daddy. I told it before but it is worth repeating.

   When I was about nine years old, my parents struck up a deal with my sister and I to raise a batch of broilers. They would buy the peeps and feed; my sister and I would do the work of raising them. After they were sold our parents would deduct their expenses from the selling price and we could pocket the profit. My sister and I kept our end of the bargain and raised the chickens.

   I'll never forget the day Mom and Daddy went in the little room where his desk was to go over the account. I waited with mounting excitement to see how much money I had made. I had no idea what to expect but had visions of a lot more than the 5-cent weekly allowance I was used to receiving. At last, my sister and I were called into the office individually to collect our share of the money. When my turn came Daddy explained how they had gone over the accounts and handed me $5 which was my share of the profit. Mom asked if I thought it had been worth it to do all that work. I said "yes" because I knew that was what they wanted me to say but I was actually disappointed. I thought my profit would be a lot more than $5.

   Years later, I learned that the bottom had dropped out of the broiler market that year. Daddy had actually lost money on those chickens. He took the loss himself and simply gave me and my sister each $5--which increased his loss.

   Every Father's Day I remember this favorite story about my father because it so vividly portrays his true character. He took the loss himself and gave me a gift I had not earned. A father like that makes it easy for his children to grasp the concept a God who took the loss Himself to give His children a gift they had not earned and did not deserve.

Put It Down!

 Here is an old fable with a valid point.

   A young Indian brave climbed to the top of the highrst mountain to prove his manhood. Up there he felt like he was standing on the roof of the world.

   Then he heard a small voice, looked down, and saw a snake at his feet. It was saying, "Please! Take me down the mountain with you. It's too cold for me up here. I'll die."

   "No," the brave said. "I know what you are. You are a rattlesnake. You will bite me and kill me."

   "No, I won't. I promise," the snake replied. "If you take me down off this mountain I will not bite you. I'll treat you differently than other people."

    The brave was convinced and took the snake down off the mountain. When he got to the bottom and put the snake down it hissed, coiled, and struck.

   The brave cried out, "You bit me! You promised you wouldn't. Why did you do it?"

   The snake laughed and said as it slithered away, "You knew what I was when you picked me up."

   That is just the way sin works. Something you know you should not be doing may be outright sin or leading you toward sin. You know it is not good for you. Don't think you can carry it around and get away with it. You know what it is and what it will do to you. Put it down!

John and Anna Baer

Ephrata's Early Days

Johannes (or John) Baer and his wife Anna raised their family on a farm south of the community called Ephrata during the mid-1700s.  The Ephrata community began in the early 1730s when Conrad Beissel, a charismatic and visionary minister, led his followers to establish a community in an unsettled area known to the Native Americans as Cocalico.  

Conrad Beissel drew a following not only among the Brethren but also from Mennonites and Lutherans.  He established a settlement anchored by the “Solitary,” celibate people who lived communally and adopted a strict ascetic lifestyle, sleeping little (on hard beds), eating sparingly (one daily meal of vegetables), and dressing in simple white robes.  Because of their outward resemblance to a monastic order, the community eventually became known as the “Ephrata Cloister.”  People attracted to Beissel’s vision moved to Ephrata.  Those who continued to live as families (called “householders”) farmed nearby and attended services in the Cloister chapel.

As time went by, other people moved into the area.  John and Anna Baer were a Mennonite couple (they were married in 1746) who lived and farmed south of the Cloister.  They raised their family on the farm.  John was called to be a preacher by the local Mennonite congregation (which met in homes during this era).

 The Cloister becomes a "Hospital"

After losing the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, General Washington sent wounded and sick soldiers west, away from the battle front.  Some of them arrived in places in Lancaster County, including the Moravian community of Lititz and the Ephrata Cloister.  The Ephrata community was asked – required, actually – to nurse the soldiers back to health.  The Cloister members housed and cared for as many wounded soldiers as they could, but the sheer number of soldiers overwhelmed them.  Others in the community stepped in to help, taking soldiers into their homes to convalesce.  Among those who did this were John and Anna Baer.

This decision was in keeping with their understanding of Jesus’s commands in the Gospels.  The Mennonites, as well as the Cloister members, saw warfare as a direct contradiction of Jesus’s call to love even enemies, and saw the Revolution as a violation of the New Testament command to honor the king.  But they also knew that Jesus called His disciples to demonstrate love by caring for the sick and meeting the needs of those suffering to the best of their ability.  Faced with this clear and obvious need, John and Anna acted despite the risk.

Typhus

The crowded conditions in Ephrata created a setting where contagious diseases could easily spread.  Typhus became epidemic within a matter of months.  Spread by body lice, typhus is a bacterial infection that causes fever and flu-like symptoms, followed by widespread rashes, delirium (as the brain is infected), and coma.  Given the lack of medical knowledge for treatment in the 1700s, the infection was frequently fatal.

Scores of people died of typhus during the winter and spring, soldiers as well as residents of Ephrata.  The soldiers were buried together in one place (located near the Ephrata High School), but the community people were buried in family graveyards.

Death Comes to the Baer Family

John and Anna certainly recognized the risk of infection when they agreed to care for sick and wounded soldiers.  But they saw the soldiers’ needs as more important than their own.  Typhus did in fact come into their home in the early months of 1778.  Both John and Anna contracted the disease.  Anna died on March 20, at the age of forty-nine.  John died on April 15, at the age of fifty-five.  Between their deaths, their youngest daughter Elizabeth also died.  She was six or seven years old.

In keeping with the custom of the time, the Baers were buried on their farm in an area with the graves of several of their children who had died in childhood.  (Anna bore thirteen children between 1746 and 1771.)

Later Developments

Over time, their graves were forgotten, as well as the story of their sacrifice.  During the late 1800s, an effort began in Ephrata to recognize the soldiers who died there in 1778.  This led to greater awareness of how the Ephrata community had cared for these soldiers.  In 1980, the farmer living on the farm plowed up the headstones of John and Anna Baer.  The headstones eventually made their way to the museum of the Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley.  Further investigation ended when developers bought the farm and built the Winchester Meadows mobile home community and the Ephrata Kmart in the early 1980s.

 (gravestone photos by Romaine Stauffer)

The Painting and the Plaque

In 2021, Good’s Store purchased the property after the Kmart store was closed.  The following year, Good’s Store relocated their Ephrata store to the former Kmart building, sharing the building with a new Dutch-Way Farm Market grocery store.

The Muddy Creek Farm Library and Museum, a local Mennonite historical organization established by Amos Hoover, approached the owners of Good’s Store with the idea of commemorating John and Anna Baer, since the store stands on the farm where they once lived.  After gaining approval from Good’s Store, Muddy Creek Farm Library commissioned a painting and a plaque to be displayed above the door leading into the store.

The painting, based on a photograph taken in the mid-20th century, shows the farmhouse, barn, and several other buildings, with a field in the foreground.  In the field are three gravestones, for Anna, Elizabeth, and John Baer.  (The photograph did not show any gravestones.)  The plaque beside the painting very briefly recounts their story.

In Commemoration

John and Anna Baer accepted the dangers associated with the typhus epidemic to take care of sick soldiers.  Their decision led to their own infections, which cost them their lives.  Their sacrifice, a response to a clear and present need in the community as well as a demonstration of their Christian beliefs, is well worth remembering. 

When you enter our Ephrata Good’s Store, look up at the painting, remember the story of John and Anna Baer, and be inspired to care for those with needs in your life today, even if it may cost you.

by Dan Zimmerman

Retoring Floral Law and Order

    Spring was a teaser this year, dancing in and out and throwing punches. Two days of ninty-degree weather in the last half of April were followed by a frost and a low of 29 that froze the blossoms of the fruit crops. This is the second year in a row that the peaches froze. Fruit will be expensive this year but those who will feel it most are the people who depend on the orchards for their living.

     April and the danger of frost is behind us. May has been cool so far but things are lush and green. Farmers are busy planting corn and families are planting gardens. Last year my garden shrank to one raised bed. Four cabbages and two tomato plants are growing in it. I will plant a few green beans in it soon. That's it.

    Without a large garden to tend, I have more time for yard work. last year I started working on improving the appearance of the place a little at a time. Today I cleaned up a flower bed behind the house that has been overgrown for years. It is home to a mixture of bulbs and perennials so there is always something blooming in it. The Snowdrops begin the show in late January and are followed by daffodils, hyacinth, lily of the valley, Bachelor Buttons, Blackeye Susan, and other things.

    The problem with some of these things is that they never learned to behave. They sneak long roots underground, pop up wherever they please, and illegal immigrants trail out across the border. The whole thing had grown into a mixture instead of tidy groups. Today I restored law and order. It was a shame to pull out flowers that are blooming but they were evicted to give breathing room for the rightful tenants of each space. It's no Longwood Garden, but it looks much better and is ready for mulch.

Lily of the valley in the foreground, blue flowers are Bachelor Buttons. Blackeye Susan between them are not blooming yet.

Spurge Power

   I don't do this often but today I am going to promote a product that beats all others.

   Years ago I planted wild violets along the edge of the front walk. They were supposed to stay there and be a nice tidy edge. Over the years they spread everywhere. They popped up in flower beds and in the lawn and spread and spread and spread as if they owned the place. Roundup might kill them but it would also kill the grass. Normal weed killers did not faze them.

   Last year some stretches of the lawn were purple with violets and they crowded out the grass. Digging them out was impossible. Then I saw a gardening article that promised a herbicide called Spurge would kill violets without harming the grass. It was expensive but I was desparate and ordered a bottle. I sprayed the violets and they slowly began to disappear. 

   I was anxious to see if the violets appeared again this spring. The strip along the front walk is blooming joyfully but the patches of the lawn that were purple last year are green this year. It worked!

   If you have a problem with violets in your lawn, you can get a bottle of Spurge in a hardware store or through Amazon. It's worth every penny.