Winter Happenings

When I was a student in the Little Room at Penn Johns School, our teacher, Miss Birk, would occasionally make us write about what we had done the past weekend and she would then compile our stories into a printed hand-stapled newsletter called “Weekend Happening”. This blogpost is a little like that. Just a few stories about how my winter has been going. Mostly I’ve been extra busy with my new position at work, but I enjoy having some projects going on the side.

Creating a Church Library

A few months ago, several of us formed a committee and started collecting books for a library at church. There’s a lot of start-up work— choosing library software (we went with Tiny Cat), getting bookcases (so far we only have one, but that won’t be enough), and adding, labeling, and putting contact paper on hundreds of books. I love looking for books at thrift stores and it’s fun seeing it all come together, but I’ll be glad when we can start loaning books out!

Teaching English

Every Thursday evening, I’m helping teach English to refugees living in Lancaster City. Our students are from countries like Syria and Afghanistan. My brother Andrew and I teach the class together— he teaches the first forty-five minutes about grammar and sentence structure, and I do the second half, which is more focused on culture.

Last winter, I had joined some friends for an online Arabic class. While I can’t say much more than “shukran” (thank you) and “inshallah” (God willing), it did teach me how just how hard it is to learn a language as an adult, especially one so different from your native tongue. So I have great patience with and respect for our students.

This past Thursday, for a change of pace, I brought along the word game Apples to Apples to play in class. I had sorted through and removed all the difficult words, which meant I had a much slimmer stack of cards. But our students caught onto the idea right away, and we enjoyed some laughter together.

Book Reading

Yes, I read in all seasons. But this year my friend Ada and I have decided to try to read a hundred books in a year— the 100-Book Challenge. (Except Ada is going to read through the Bible four times instead of reading a certain number of books.) I read a lot of nonfiction and memoirs. In order to fulfill the required weekly quota I’ve forced myself to finish some pretty strange books— like Brush Cat, a book about loggers in New England. This week I read the Pianist of Syria and I’m working on Finding Jesus in Israel, both of which were cheap finds at Ollie’s and great reads.

Community Ties

Christmas gatherings. New Year’s Eve. Going out to celebrate my birthday with my mother, sisters, and sister-in-laws. Even as I’m tired of winter and the ever depressing news cycle, I’m thankful for the community and relationships God has given me.

This morning I felt especially grateful. My nephew, Cordell, (son of my sister Joanne and brother-in-law Lamar), was singing with a youth choir at Rawlinsville Mennonite Church, where my brothers Ken and Andrew attend with their families. So I went with my parents to go hear the choir. Unlike the church I normally attend in New Holland, Rawlinsville is a small country church with old wooden benches and a graveyard that has been the final resting place for generations of locals. I know many of the people who attend, I taught Bible school there last summer, and it’s kind like my second church home.

The Eternal Praise Chorale has about forty young members, all dressed up, and they sang beautiful and familiar songs like “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go” and “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel”. Outside the church snow was falling.

When the service was nearly over, one of the pastors, stood up and with tears in his eyes, requested they sing “If Anyone” again. Just last week, there had been two funerals of elderly church members. “They were faithful servants of the Lord,” he explained.

After the service, we went to the basement for a fellowship meal. The food committee served chili, salad, fruit cup, and cookies. “They served the same menu at both funerals and the fellowship meal. But don’t worry, it’s not the same food,” someone laughed.

Upstairs, the choir members had morphed back into ordinary teenagers, some draped over benches, others with heads bent over phones. “Great singing,” I told Cordell. He thanked me and explained they would sing again in Baltimore this evening.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58.