"We're looking for individuals willing to make a joyful noise " reads the email written by a pastor in Baltimore. "...Here are a few more details and a list of songs for our 10th annual Washington Mennonite Chorus on December 15th." Wonder if we're going to sing the song that goes "There is no peace on earth ...For hate is strong and mocks the song, Of peace on earth, good will to men". But the line about anyone "willing to make a joyful noise" is enough for me, and so Sunday evening, … [Read more...] about Christmas Caroling in Washington, D.C.
Baking with Bonnet Novelists
The Facebook post read: Come Bake With Us! Author Chat with Sherry Gore. Ladies Luncheon, Holiday Baking. Door Prizes! Limited Seating. Tickets $45. "It's on a Saturday! Let's go!" I say to Mom. "It'll be a fun thing to do together." Both of us like Sherry's cookbook, Me, Myself, and Pie and her memoir, The Plain Choice. We knew Sherry recently moved to Bird-in-Hand, which is close to us. So we signed up and last Saturday, we drove to the Bird-in-Hand fire hall, where the event was being … [Read more...] about Baking with Bonnet Novelists
Eleven Time Zones and Eleven Years Later
"I went to Bangladesh once," I told my nephew recently after Cordell told me about hearing a man in church speaking about the south Asian country. "You were? I didn't know that." I told Cordell that his uncle Ken and I had gone in 2008 with a rebuilding team to a cyclone-damaged village in southern Bangladesh. Looking back eleven years later, I realized that the most interesting part of the trip was the actual traveling to Mirzganj, Bangladesh and back. During the two weeks at the … [Read more...] about Eleven Time Zones and Eleven Years Later
How Miss Garber Got a Swanky New Front Door
It began with a wave of missing bicycles. When I was growing up, many people in my neighborhood were horse-and-buggy Mennonites who used bikes as transportation. Volunteer firefighters kept their unlocked bicycles by their front doors so they could race to the station when a fire call came. Then their bicycles began disappearing, along with other bikes in the neighborhood. The police were called, but bicycles are easy to steal and hard to trace. There was talk about setting a trap for … [Read more...] about How Miss Garber Got a Swanky New Front Door
Ministry Open House & Unplanned Movie Review
This past weekend I went to two very different public events: an open house at the new building for Blessings of Hope Food Ministry and a church showing of the movie Unplanned. I decided writing about both of them in one blog post would be an interesting juxtaposition. Open House at Blessings of Hope Can you feed thousands of people for only 12 cents per meal? Blessings of Hope Ministry in Leola is doing just that— providing 25,000 meals per day, seven days a week, for less than … [Read more...] about Ministry Open House & Unplanned Movie Review