Category Archives: Uncategorized

Meal following at Greenwood Mennonite School.

If anyone has any questions, they can message me, or call me.

This is the picture of Uncle Eli’s family
from the Yoder family reunion last summer


All of their children are on this picture
except their middle daughter, Esther.

I couldn’t resist adding this picture from around 1952:

From left to right:
Esther, David, Aunt Ruth (holding Lucy)
Uncle Eli (holding James) Leona and Joe.
(Philip had not been born yet)

She will be missed!

Ruth Elizabeth (Yoder) Bontrager
July 16, 1918 — March 15, 2009

. . . And this morning, our Aunt Ruth Bontrager
is safely home
to Heaven.

She is the third of David and Savilla Yoder’s children to go. 

What a joyous reunion there is going on up there!

Free at last!!

Free at last.

Praise God Almighty,

She’s FREE at last!

Last night we were to a banquet fundraiser for the Followers of Jesus School.  The fundraiser was held at Shady Maple Smorgasboard in Lancaster.  The school is located in Brooklyn, NY and my precious Daddy was the one who originally had the dream of a Christian school for the inner city church that he was overseeing. 

It was a wonderful time.  I kept thinking about my Daddy and how he would have enjoyed the evening last night.  Not because his name was brought up (and it was, often!) but because he would have been so delighted to see how God has worked in the lives of young people that he loved and dreamed dreams for.  He would have been beaming as the stories of God’s incredible grace extended time and time again in the hour of need, and he would have known that his dream was God-given.  He would have hugged Angel and been enthused that the young man who had often been in his prayers because of his lack of commitment was now chairman of the school board.  He would have chuckled to hear Valerie address the assembly with confidence and poise and he would have been delighted with her two precious children.

And Mama, there without him, felt the things he would have felt, knew that he would have loved the evening the only way that Mark Yoder could have, and her face was so serene and happy.  Even the tears, when the people from the city that she and Daddy loved so much came to hug her, talk to her and to talk about him, where somehow comforting.

I’ve been pondering all day how it is that it feels so right when we are with people who loved Daddy so much.  They speak of their love, and remember things he did and said and even now, over three years later, still wipe their tears.  But they smile, too, and I remember his smiley eyes and how his legacy is one of joy as well as faith.

What a responsibility his family has — to remember his life and to live in a way that brings honor to that life.  But when it comes right down to it, our Daddy was an ordinary man by every account.  An ordinary man with an Extraordinay Love Affair with an Awesome God.  That’s what allowed him to dream.  To have vision and foresight and courage.  It gave him living hope and dying grace.  And if he can see where this vision led, if it matters to him tonight, I think he is humbly grateful, but I don’t think he is surprised.

I posted a new entry — but its timing was wrong because of
some of the things going on in my extended family right now.
  If your read that entry and were offended, I am sorry.  I
will try to post something more upbuilding soon.  And thanks
for the prayers and concern.  They have made the biggest
difference, I know.  My knee is doing really well!

Love you all!

v:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}

Isn’t this beautiful???

It was a gift from the ladies of our church
 on this “Best Day.”

It was delivered today while I was sleeping,
and when I woke up, our
Wonderful Middle Daughter
had put them right into my line of vision.
It was a very affirming and encouraging discovery.

Thank-you, my dear sisters!

It has been a great day, dear friends.
The surgery went smoothly.
and there is much to be grateful for.
The pain level is a bit more than I had hoped,
but that is to be expected, I guess. 
Dr. Spieker said that when they got into the knee
it was in far worse shape than they expected.
Something about the enamal on my bones peeling off. 
“So,” he said to my attentive husband, “I took my trusty
Black & Decker drill and drilled seven holes into the bone.
  We wanted it to bleed, so that it would form a scab
and that will assist in the healing.” 

H-m-m-m- . . .   

That sounds rather stridently invasive
to this lowly lay person.

However, He provided me with a lovely pain medication
(Percocet) and it is being quite effective indeed.  He did tell
me that I shouldn’t put “much weight” on it for several
weeks.  How is a gal of my (ahem!) “social standing” going
to accomplish that???  I do have crutches, and I plan to
follow directions carefully, but I am hopeful that when I see
him on Tuesday for follow-up he will be absolutely astounded
at how well I am doing and lift some of these unhandy
restrictions. 

So here I am, sitting on my La-z-boy, updating on Middle
Daughter’s laptop.  Certain Man and the off-springin’s are
being watchful and bossy and most lovingly helpful.

I am incredibly blessed.

Thank-you, Heavenly Father!

Tomorrow is the day that I am to have this troublesome left
knee “cleaned out, smoothed down and made better”
according to the good doctor.  I am eagerly looking forward
to the third part of that proclamation.  Today I feel a bit
overwhelmed — teary, in fact.  There is potato salad to make
for the quiz team concession stand, some bills to pay before
the end of the month, and the nagging, restricting pain that
makes me want to sit on my chair and do nothing.


I don’t really think that would be the best for me, either in
terms of keeping my range of motion as good as it can be, and
my emotional well-being, either.  I am realizing in a new way
how pain isolates people.  It isn’t so much that people stay
away from people in pain as it is that there is this turning
inward, sort of a protective shell that we throw up around us
that almost defies people to step across the boundary. 


I haven’t allowed myself the indulgence of feeling sorry for
myself.  It is a proven fact that it doesn’t make people
attractive!  It’s also a proven fact that positive thinking
helps alleviate pain.  I’ve been trying hard to put flesh to the
theory, and for the most part it has been good.  This
morning, it is just taking alot more effort than some times. 
It’s a good time to put into practice some of the principles
that I have proclaimed to live by.  This is one that is on my
fridge that is especially pertinent this morning:

“When cheerfulness is kept up against all
odds, it is the finest form of courage.”

So I am going to go and attempt, with the help of Almighty
God, to exhibit the finest form of courage.

I talked to my cousin today.  She and I are a week apart in age.
Our Daddies were twins.  I am so at peace in her presence, and
when we talk on the phone, her voice wraps itself around my heart
and it is so good.

Last summer, we had a family reunion. 
Her Dad, my Uncle Luke, was not feeling well, and when
everything was said and done, only she and her husband
were able to be there from their family.  When it came time
to take family pictures, we wanted her and her husband to be
with our family.  There were lots of people missing from our
family, too, so this was the sum total of the families of the
twins of David and Savilla (Bender) Yoder
who were available for pictures that day.

Her Daddy is growing weaker.  As a family, we pray and write
and, whenever possible, visit.  Cousins have come from all over
to savor the essence that is our Uncle Luke.  He delights in
every visit.  Rallies to relate, and draws energy from the love
that has been pouring in, and strength from the prayers.

“Make it a good day,” he would always end his missives to the
Yoder Family e-mail group.  He has been unable to write for
over a month, now.  But over and over again, his words are found
at the end of our messages to each other.  And we are so
encouraged by the stories coming out of a Michigan Nursing Home.
Stories of dealing with the everyday things that life is made of —
surrender, praise, joy —  but always the leering face of Lou Gehrig. 

Our hearts strain for words of hope from the family that so
tenderly care for him with a commitment that causes all of us
to ache with hope that someday, for us, there will be a family
that cares like they do.  We pray for strength, we pray for patience.
We pray for the everlasting arms to carry them through these days.
We pray that our Heavenly Father will have mercy and that the
overriding presence in the attractive little suite will be that of peace.

This case of ALS has been insiduous.
It has tromped and smashed and snatched and cursed.
And it has tried to destroy the very Faith that is the lifeline.
I am so thankful for a Faith that can be in the middle of all
that is tromped and smashed and snatched and cursed —
and still hold steady. 
I am so thankful that it resides, not only in that brave, brave heart
of a most beloved uncle, but also in the hands and hearts of his family.

Today I heard the tears, felt the uncertainties and pain.
And sorrow wrenched somewhere in my gut with a familiar, nauseating twist.
It is not at all the way they (or we) would have chosen for things to go.
But things are the way they are, and the platitudes that get thrown around
at a time like this are made real by times like these. 
And Truth is  sometimes defined through experiencing the
inexplicable mystery of Faith. 

No, I cannot explain it.
 
I only know that it is where my restless heart can find a place of quiet.

Valentines Day has always been special
for Certain Man and Me.
We had our first date on
Valentines day, back in 1971. 

After we were married,
he began to make sure to bring home
flowers for special occasions.

We were poor,
So he bought carnations. 
It was what he could afford.

I would rather have carnations
than anything else,
and that is what he still brings me.

This is this year’s bouquet.

After almost a week, it still looks great!

Thank-you, Sweetheart!!!