I had a friend. I say “had” because we moved away. If we still lived close I know we would still be close friends. I know if I was ever in Walhounding, Ohio there would be a place at Bobby and Marie Yoder’s table. There would be a generous portion and lively conversation for me and all my family at the Yoder household.
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Green Mountain Farm
This is the kind of book I would like to write someday. Delightful. Delightful. Merrick has ties to Sir Wilfred Grenfell…. what a story. Elliott Merrick’s wife Kate Austen worked in Labrador in Grenfell’s mission. He then wrote the story of her experience in NORTHERN NURSE…. According to Elizabeth Elliot in the preface to the Journals of Jim Elliot, Grenfell inspired a whole generation of missionary adventurers.
Impossible to Ignore
Our first-born is an especially diligent young man. Even when he was just a lad you could count on him to attack a job and bring it to completion. One summer afternoon I asked him to vacuum out the van. He eagerly ran, got the vacuum and an extension chord and went to work. He did a great job, but that was not the end of the story.
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A Gentle Place to Fall
One year in apple-blossom and flowering Dogwood time I glanced out the window to see my neighbor Dave conducting a sacred rite of passage. He was teaching his little girl to ride her bike without training wheels. I got a lump in my throat at the sweetness of the memory of teaching my three older daughters to ride their bikes. I only have one left to teach, after that it will be my grand daughters by God’s good grace.
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Big Brother License
I preached in Higgins Lake at my little brother’s church yesterday morning. The evening service cancelled because of heavy snow and I spent all day driving back home. (The life of an itinerant preacher is not always all that romantic). Here is what I said when I got in my little brother’s pulpit for the first time:
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The Hand on My Shoulder
When I was about twelve my Dad and Grandfather and I joined some men from the church to do a church service at the county jail. It was a tough place to conduct a service. Dad and Grandpa gave their testimonies and preached. Others sang and testified. They had to do so thorough a small hole in a huge metal door.
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