Revise the Calendar

Today is unique. It is February 29. As if February wasn't long enough already! What we want is March 1st, not February 29.

I heard recently that the United States adjusted the calendar in the 1750's. Before that they didn't have February 29 and they added 11 days when they changed the calendar so they could get back to where it should be.

I think it is time to revise the calendar again. My suggestion is to have 13 months that all have 28 days. That way if the first of the month is on a Monday the first would be on a Monday all year long. It would be so easy to remember what day of the week a certain day is going to be this year.

Now 13 months of 28 days is only 364 days. So, we could have a New Years Day at the end of the year. Every four years we would have an extra holiday, just to keep us on schedule.

Of course, we would need a name for the 13th month. I would suggest that we call it Edithober.

What do you think?

Firewood Work Crew

Today the firewood work crew was at our place to cut and stack our firewood for next winter. This is a wonderful gift to me. The five men who came from Northern Indiana cut and stacked our eight cords of firewood in one day. They were actually finished by about 1:00 PM.

If I would have had to do this firewood by myself it would have taken me many Saturdays to get it done. With having a group of men it goes so much faster. This firewood should be enough to get us through the winter of 2008 - 2009.

This is the empty spot where our firewood pile had been.

This is our woodshed all stacked full of firewood.

Dryden Food Bank

Last evening I went to Dryden for the annual meeting for the Dryden Food Bank. They asked me if I would have a message for the group. I agreed to go and share with the group there.

The meeting was held at the food bank building. They have a very nice building now. There is even room for expansion. They have room now to do some of the things like cooking classes and Bible studies, that we wanted to do for a long time already. They purchased this building and moved into it in February of 2007. The town has just exempted them from property taxes which is a wonderful gift. We had been talking about buying a building for the last five years or more. God brought the money gradually together to do that.

I was on the food bank board for about ten years. My first introduction to the food bank was a meeting I had with Peter and Vicki Burgstahler. They were operating the food bank without any help. It was all very informal and unorganized. I helped them to get incorporated and registered as a charity. As part of that process we formed a board of directors.

When we went on sabbatical in 2000 I helped a new board form. We had several pastors from Dryden that agreed to serve on the board. When I came back from sabbatical in 2001, they invited me to join the board again.

The food bank is a great ministry. They receive food from the grocery stores in Dryden and pass it on to families that are living in poverty. Over the past ten years they have averaged about 75 to 100 families a week that are receiving food. Most of this food would have been taken to the landfill if the food bank hadn't taken it.

Last year the food bank distributed about $200,000 worth of food. This was all done on a minimal budget of about $65,000. They also provide spiritual friendship and encouragement to those who want it. There has been one person who has received Christ as their Saviour this year already.

After I spoke last evening they gave out some awards. I was surprised when I was given the board award for 2007. They gave me a very nice picture in appreciation for the years I spent on the board, and the things I did for them.

On the way home I thought about the food bank and realized that God had given me the opportunity to be useful for his kingdom. There are moments when God brings an opportunity our way. The food bank was one of those for me. God used the skills and abilities he had given me to help take the food bank from where was, to where it is today.

When I looked at the building they have now, the staff that are working there, the community involvement and support, and the ministry that is happening out of that place, I felt very blessed to have been part of making it happen.

This is the picture they gave me as an award from the food bank. I was very, very blessed!

Back Home

We arrived back home this evening about 6:00. It is good to be back home. There was a little new snow while we were gone but not too much. It shouldn't be too hard to clear the driveway tomorrow.

It actually isn't very cold either. It was about 30 degrees F. when we got here. It is forecast to go down close to zero tonight. This is way better than it was when we left.

On Our Way Home

We finished teaching at Minister's Week at SMBI today. Early this afternoon we left for Sioux Lookout. We are back in Ohio tonight. Hopefully, tomorrow we can get back at least to Northern Wisconsin.

The minister's week went well. It was good to see a lot of our friends there. We had a lot of people associated with IGo there. Val Yoder, Collier Berkshire, Duff Browne, and Raymond Burkholder were all there. IGo board members Jim Weaver, Lester Weiler and I were there as well.

We were able to visit with Wayne and Edna Schrock too. We spent an evening with them.

Here are Edith and Edna with matching dresses that were made in Thailand.

Here is the desert table at the sweetheart banquet at Hartville Conservative Mennonite Church. There were seven different kinds of cheesecake. It was wonderful!

This is the sweetheart banquet at Hartville. We enjoyed the evening and our stay with Eugene and Ruth Sommers.

SMBI Minister's Week

We had a good time in Hartville, OH. We attended the sweetheart banquet there on Friday evening and then did a marriage emphasis weekend on Saturday and Sunday at the church. We had a great time with Eugene and Ruth Sommers and their family.

We arrived safely at SMBI on Monday. Edith and I are both teaching here, so it is quite a full schedule. We each have two classes a day. Each class period is a little over an hour long. I think it is going well. We are seeing a lot of people that we don't get to see very often.

We will be here until noon on Friday. Then we head back to Sioux Lookout. We should be home by Sunday evening.

Indiana

We drove through a lot of snow in Central Wisconsin today. We were going about 40 mph for about 100 miles. After that it got a little better. By the time we got to the Illinois border it had stopped snowing.

We are probably about six hours from Hartville. We should be there by the middle of the afternoon if all goes well tomorrow.

Superior, Wisconsin

We left Sioux Lookout this afternoon after school and drove to Superior, Wisconsin. It is snowing and the forecast is for 4 to 6 inches of snow overnight. We hope to be able to drive to the east side of Chicago tomorrow.

We are on our way to Hartville, Ohio. I am scheduled to speak at the sweetheart banquet there on Friday evening. Then we are doing a marriage emphasis weekend at Hartville Conservative Church on Saturday and Sunday.

We are looking forward to spending the weekend with Eugene and Ruth Sommers. They are always so encouraging and a real blessing to be with.

Anyway, if you think of us Thursday as we are traveling, pray for our safety.

Sweetheart Banquets

This is the season for sweetheart banquets. Last evening we attended the sweetheart banquet at Camp of the Woods. I gave a 20 minute message as part of the evening. We had an enjoyable time. They did a good job of having some games and interaction with the couples at each table.

One of the things was for each table to choose the funniest story from the couples at their table. The winner at our table was a couple from Fort Severn. The husband had grown up in Peawanuk but his family would visit Fort Severn. When they were about eight years old they were playing together at Fort Severn at her grandmother's house. They were not supposed to go up inside the porch roof. He suggested that they go up there to play. She agreed. He went up first and then before she went up she heard her grandmother coming. She kicked down the ladder. When her grandmother asked who was up there she said she didn't know. She left him up there crying until he finally jumped down. After that she didn't see him for a few years. Apparently, it didn't leave too negative an impression, because they eventually got married.

Friday evening we will be at the Sweetheart Banquet in Hartville, Ohio. We are looking forward to being with the couples there too. Next week we will be at SMBI for the Minister's week.

It would be nice if it would be a warm week down there. Last night when we went to Camp of the Woods the wind chill was minus 44. This morning it is minus 42. I'm ok with cold weather, for the most part, but anything under minus 30 it simply overdone in my opinion.

Anabaptist Wealth

North American Anabaptists are among the wealthiest people of the world. The World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) released the results of a study of global household wealth which gave the following facts regarding the distribution of world wealth:

“The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of global household wealth according to a path-breaking study released today by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER).

The most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken also reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. In contrast, the bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth.

The research finds that assets of $2,200 per adult placed a household in the top half of the world wealth distribution in the year 2000. To be among the richest 10% of adults in the world required $61,000 in assets, and more than $500,000 was needed to belong to the richest 1%, a group which — with 37 million members worldwide — is far from an exclusive club.

Although North America has only 6% of the world adult population, it accounts for 34% of household wealth. Europe and high income Asia-Pacific countries also own disproportionate amounts of wealth.”

Using the results of this study, we can assume that most North American Mennonite households are in the top 10% of the world’s wealthy, and some would be in the top 1%. How did we as Anabaptist people go from being persecuted refugees, and pilgrims and strangers on the earth, to being in the top 10% of the world’s most wealthy people? Maybe a more important question is, what has this change done to our theology, life style, our communities, and our view of ourselves? But the paramount question is what does God, our heavenly father, have to say about our wealth, how it should be used, and what effect it could have on us as a people?

I am wondering how you would answer the questions I ask about how our wealth changes our theology, life style, communities, and our view of ourselves.

Farewell Dinner and Moose

We have been seeing moose on the road between our place and town over the weekend. On Saturday morning we saw three moose, all together in one group. Sunday morning we saw one moose near the same spot. There was also a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree above him.

This morning when I was taking the children to school we saw two moose on the road. I wasn't sure how close we could get to them before they would run into the bush, so I took my first picture from pretty far away. They actually stayed on the road until we got quite close to them.

On Sunday we had a fellowship meal at the church as a farewell dinner for John and Rachel Yoder and their family. They have been here in Sioux Lookout for the past six months working with the church in the area of youth ministry. We have grown to love and appreciate them very much during their time here.

My pictures kind of got posted in reverse order here but anyway, here they are:

Here is the one moose after he walked off the road and stood watching us from the bush.

Here are the two moose deciding which side of the road they were going to take as we got closer. One actually went off on either side.

Here is my first picture from way down the road. OK, I know it is far away, but those two little black things are moose, trust me.

Here is the food table at the farewell dinner. John and Rachel are at the far end of the table just beginning to get their food.