The Nethinim

    I am following a one-year Bible reading plan this year and just finished the book of Nehemiah this morning. As I went through Ezra and Nehemiah, the word "Nethinim" kept popping up. Who were the Nethinim?

   A Google search turned up a mixture of opinions on where the Nethinim came from and what they became. I won't try to sort out all of that. What everyone agreed on was that they were temple servants with menial tasks such as carrying water and bringing wood for the sacrifices. They were considered the lowest class of those who served in the temple.

   The job of the Nethinim might be compared to janitorial or trustee work in our churches today. This is the kind of work that often goes unnoticed until no one does it. When we arrive at the church, we expect it to be unlocked, clean, cool in the summer and warm in the winter, the grass mowed or the snow removed from the parking lot. But these things do not happen automatically; someone has to do it. The work of the ministers, teachers, superintendents, etc. is more visible but the maintenance work is just as important for the church to function properly. 

   Temple worship was conducted by a variety of offices such as priests, Levites, singers, and Nethinim. They worked together, each filling their roles, to conducted temple worship. Not everyone is gifted with leadership or public speaking skills. We each need to exercise the gifts God has given us and work together to build the church.

    We naturally like to see our efforts appreciated and receive credit for a job well done. But there is a great blessing for those who humbly stay in the background and serve in menial tasks which are taken for granted. In 1 Samuel 30, David and his 400 men went out to battle and another 200 "stayed by the stuff."  When David and his men returned with the spoils of war, he said those who stayed behind were just as worthy to receive a reward. Their job as stuff guarder was just as important as the warrior on the front lines. 

     Your position in the church does not determine your reward. God rewards faithfulness whether you are the bishop or a Nethinim. Fill your place faithfully and it will not go unnoticed by God.

Doing What I Can

  June is here! It's the month with the most perfect days of the year. Roses are blooming, birds twitter and trill in an all-day concert, skies are blue, the air is perfumed with the smell of drying hay, and strawberries are ripe. 

  There was a time in my life I was too busy to fully enjoy the benefits of June. I had a houseful of children to feed and clothe. We had a huge garden that produced an abundance of peas and strawberries to pick and freeze. And there was two weeks of Summer Bible School. It was a challenge to get everybody there clean and on time. Now that we're empty nesters the garden has shrunk to a small plot, and we have time to smell the roses. I wouldn't have wanted to miss the earlier stage of life but neither do I want to repeat it.

   Although the pace of life has slowed, it does not mean I have nothing to do. As long as my eyes and hands work, I will find something to do. My most recent new idea is to crochet newborn caps for the layette bundles we make at sewing circle. Imagine having time to crochet in the summer! It never happened before. But newborn caps are quick and easy to make. I made sixteen in two weeks. It should be no problem to have forty by the end of August when we will pack the bundles.

    My cap factory was forced to close temporarily last week when I got an emergency call that consumed the week. The Writer's Conference in Virginia was being held June 2-3. Three days before it was to start, I got a call asking if I could fill in for one of the speakers who had to cancel due to a funeral. There was no way I could develop a one-hour workshop in three days. I agreed on the condition that I could repeat a workshop I did before. With their approval, I pulled a workshop out of my files that I had done ten years ago in Pennsylvania. With some revision, it was ready to go. 

    My workshop on story writing for children was on Thursday afternoon. With the state of affairs in my back, I am not able to stand for an hour to speak. They graciously provided a chair that raised up high enough for me to see over the podium so I could sit to speak. 

    After my workshop was over, I could sit back and enjoy the rest of the conference. They had some excellent speakers lined up this year. I always enjoy seeing people I only see there and meeting new people with the same interests. The 400 who attended came from a variety of church groups and were of all ages. It's good to see young people developing writing skills and using them for the Lord. Jesus said He would build His church and nothing will be able to stop it. I'll keep on doing what I can as long as my eyes and hands work but am glad to see the younger generation picking up and going on.

   

   

    

   

Pomp and Circumstance

  Spring is here and the strains of Pomp and Circumstance are ringing across the country as the 2022 crop of graduates march in to commencement at their schools. It's a tune that stirs the heart of a parent (or grandparent) to tears of joy as their child appears in the line. I'm willing to hazard a guess that it may be the graduate's favorite tune. (It reminds me of what presidential candidate John Kennedy said when asked about his favorite song: "I like the ring of Hail to the Chief.")

  Yesterday we watched two grandchildren walk in on Pomp and Circumstance at the first annual commencement of Sattler College in Boston. Sattler College opened in 2018. The class of 2022 was the first to receive degrees from the school. The name of the college is derived from Michael Sattler who drafted the Schleitheim Confession of Faith in 1527 shortly before he was martyred for his Anabaptist faith. One of the songs he wrote was sung in the program of the first commencement of Sattler College. Also included was a song based on the words of Menno Simmons, "True evangelical faith cannot lie sleeping." Both songs were tributes to two outstanding leaders of the Anabaptist faith.

   We were not at Sattler College in person yesterday, but thanks to technology, were able to watch the entire exercises via livestream. Dylan entered the school the year it was founded. His class experienced many firsts, including virtual classes during a pandemic. The four years melted away in spite of the obstacles while he completed all the requirements to receive a bachelor's degree in business. He has already been hired and will stay in Boston to begin his career.

   

    Sattler College also offers a one-year course in Biblical and Religious Studies. Arianna enrolled for the 2020-21 year. The year was complicated by Covid but she persevered and earned a certificate. Unfortunately, due to Covid concerns, no graduation was held for the Bible students in 2021. They were included in this year's ceremonies. Arianna has gone back home to Ohio and we are waiting to see where her path will lead in the future. Her year at Sattler was a growing experience.

    The class of 2022 assembled on the Boston Commons after the ceremonies. The students on the left with white certificates are the Bible graduates. Those on the right with dark blue diplomas earned bachelor's degrees.

   Congratulations to all these students for the hard work and diligence it took to earn their degrees.

   Dylan's twin brother, Durrell, was there to share in the joy of reaching this milestone in his life.

May you have enough happiness to keep you sweet, 

Enough trials to keep you strong, 

Enough sorrow to keep you human, 

Enough hope to keep you happy, 

Enough failure to keep you humble, 

Enough success to keep you eager, 

Enough friends to give you comfort, 

Enough faith and courage to banish sadness, 

Enough wealth to meet your needs,

And enough determination to make each day 

a more wonderful day than the one before.

(Irish blessing)

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7)

Tulip Parade

I had a hard time growing tulips in my spring bulbs flower bed. Something kept eating the tulip bulbs. A few sickly-looking flowers survived the winter, but the rest disappeared. The tulips that once bloomed across the front of the house were definitely showing signs of age and struggling to produce flowers. Something had to be done. 

Last fall I bought about 80 tulip bulbs to start over. First, I bought some plastic boxes with lids to plant tulips in the spring bulbs bed. The boxes are supposed to keep rodents out but have holes big enough to let a stem come up. We filled two of these boxes with bulbs and buried them in the bed.

The rest of the bulbs were planted in a long row in front of the house. There was nothing more to do but wait and wonder all winter if our efforts would be successful. Spring is here and we have tulips! They are marching in formation across the front of the house.

 

          The red and white tulips steal the show of the bulbs that were planted in the               baskets.

 

 

 

1564 Passau Hymns

    Last evening we had the privilege of seeing a German hymnbook printed in 1564. It is preserved in the Mennonite Historical Library in Goshen, Indiana, and was carefully brought to Lancaster County by Joe Springer, curator of MHL, to be displayed in several meetings. 

    The Mennonite Historical Library was founded largely by the efforts of Harold S. Bender. In 1928, while on a trip to Pennsylvania, he discovered a book printed in 1564 which contained what is known as the Passau hymns. These are hymns which were sung by Anabaptists jailed in 1535 in the Passau castle near the border of Germany and Austria. 

    When they were released in 1544, one or more of the Passau prisoners carried with them the texts of fifty-three songs they sang in the prison. Some are identified as being written by a certain person while imprisoned. These were spread to various Anabaptist communities and then printed in a small book in 1564. This book was not called the Asubund, but was included in the first hymnbook titled Ausbund in 1583. The Ausbund is still used by the Amish in their worship services and sung in German.

   The book Harold Bender discovered was a Sammelband, a collection of printed booklets combined into a book with one binding.  Sammelbands vary in content and are not exactly alike. Usually, the owner of the book took his collection of materials to a bookbinder and had them bound into one volume. This Sammelband contained other small booklets of hymns and a prayer. Harold Bender recognized the Passau hymns near the back of the book. He did not have enough money with him to buy the book so the bookseller divided the book (which was falling apart) and sold him the Passau hymns for ten dollars. Later, he was able to buy the second half of the book.

    In 2015, Jeff Peachy painstakingly restored the book. He took it completely apart, cleaned every page, and repaired the broken leather spine. After languishing in the rare book room of the MHL for nearly ninety years, the 458-year-old book is now restored and on a short tour in Lancaster County. It is the only existing 1564 edition in the world.

    

   

A Quick Turn

    Our path of life took a quick turn this week. Of course, we know life is a terminal condition and life is only one breath away from death.  But that is easy to ignore, and we go on assuming death is somewhere off in the distant future. We got a reality check this week.

    Leroy occasionally said he had a burning in his chest. The pain was right down the center, so we assumed it was heartburn and it always went away. On Wednesday evening we went to prayer meeting. After we got home, he went to bed but could not sleep because of the pain in his chest. Then he started sweating and was nauseous. I put those things together and was sure he is having a heart attack.

   I called Gene (the son who lives closest to us) at 10 pm and he came over. He soon called the ambulance and Leroy was taken to the hospital where tests confirmed he had a heart attack. He was rushed to the Cath Lab and had three stents put in. One artery was 100% closed and there were partial blockages in other arteries. If we hadn't gone for help, things could have gotten worse quickly and the story would have a sad ending.

   He was in the hospital all day Thursday and came home Friday afternoon with some additional meds, doctor appointments, and diet restrictions. Because he is diabetic, he already was on a no-sugar diet, but he was not very faithful in it. He was also on a no-salt diet because of high blood pressure. Now he is also on a no-fat diet because of high cholesterol. 

   This means a big change in what he can eat and how I must cook. For starters, he can no longer eat chips every day or have scrapple or bacon with his eggs at breakfast. The foods he can eat are quite limited. What is good for one condition is bad for the other. We'll have to find our way through this.

   I remember when his dad came home from the hospital with the same diet restrictions. He was a good bit younger when that happened, and he lived to be 80. Leroy is two years short of that, so if he follows his diet he could live awhile yet. At least I hope so. I need him.

   

Observations on Ukraine

 I'm not a political analyst, but I have made some observations as the war in Ukraine grinds on.

1. The suffering and destruction of war which is caused by selfishness and greed is catastrophic. I cannot understand how people can deliberately kill their neighbors and inflict such cruelty on innocent civilians.

2. Ukraine is the underdog in this war but their unity is amazing as they fight Goliath.

3.  In addition to leaders of 141 nations supporting Ukraine and condemning Russia, one company after another is cutting ties to Russia and refusing to do business with them. I have never seen global unity on any issue on such a scale.

4. The way the countries surrounding Ukraine are receiving millions of refugees is astounding. In other crisis situations, refugees were housed in camps until they could find places to go. This time there are no refugee camps because people are taking the refugees into their homes and finding places for them to stay.

5. While some Americans who were serving in missions in Ukraine returned home, others chose to stay and help those in need as they flee. Their courage is commendable.

6. We don't know what the outcome of this war will be or whether it will explode into World War III. If it does, it will reach our shores and be unlike any war the world has ever seen. Will this be the fulfillment of the prophecy of the fall of Babylon described in Revelation 18? 

7. One thing I do know is that God is in control and He is able to bring good out of evil. He is already doing that in many ways. My heart goes out to all those affected by this war and I pray it will end soon.