"Green Wood"

While you ponder your needs I will talk about green wood. Yesterday Sierra went along with me to work in the afternoon. When we walked past the wood pile she said I don't see any green wood. This was in response to something I told Rachel the other day concerning the wood I was burning. I told her it was really green but was working really well. So, Sierra wondered where the green wood was. I had to explain to her that green wood had nothing to do with color and everything to do with moisture.

Needs Part II

I do not know if this will narrow the topic down or not. Should we tell people we have needs or hope they ask. I do not share my needs unless I am sure the other person wants to know what my needs are. Of course, if the person really wants to know they will ask. Is it proper to share our needs/struggles in a church setting? I believe part of my hesitation is fear of rejection. If people really knew who I am they would have nothing to do with me.... Is accountability a part of meeting needs? What is a need?

Needs

This morning our Sunday School class was discussing needs in the church. How do we meet needs in the church? Not just our church but your church, any church. How does your church meet needs? Can a church meet all the needs in the church? Should your church be able to meet all the needs? If parents cannot figure out how to meet needs in the family will the church have the ability to meet eachothers needs?

Heat

What type of heat do you the reader use? There are many kinds of heat people can choose from. Options include heat pumps, indoor wood stoves, gas/propane, oil furnace, radiator/water, and outdoor wood furnaces. When we built our house we put in a Wood Master outdoor wood furnace. Several years later I installed a huge Global Hydronics outdoor wood furnace at the farm. The one at my house heats the house and my hot water. We have lived in our house for roughly eight years and I have never hooked my hot water heater up. The stove at the barn is heating the floor in the milking parlor and the hot water. It is also heating the farm house and is set up to heat the water in the house as well. If you have a source of wood these are, in my opinion, the only way to heat your house. It is so nice to stand in front of a register when my feet are cold and have warm air flowing through my duct system. So again I ask, what kind of heat do you use?

Schedule Change

I have changed our milking schedule, just in case you were dying to know. We are in the process of switching to twice a day milking. We will be milking tonight at 6:00 and tomorrow morning at 7:30 and then Sat. night at 8:30. Cows are animals of consistency so I hate to make to many changes. At this current moment they are rather uncomfortable. They are used to be milked at 5:30, 1:30, and 9:30. Right now they haven't been milked since 5:30 this morning.
One other interesting bit of information for you. The other day I got this certified letter in the mail. This letter said that my cyroscope was not what it should have been. Now I must confess I had no idea what my cyroscope was. I made an informative phone call and discovered this test means that I had water in my milk. Alas, this is true. On the day the ran this test I had forgotten to take the pipe out of the tank and pumped the rinse cycle water into the tank. This allowed me to unintentionally ship an extra 200lbs of milk. People do not like to pay for water in the milk. The penalty for this offence? If I get caught one more time in the next two years they say they will not allow me to ship grade A milk. This would be terrible. Hopefully I don't have another memory lapse.....

Jackson Zehr

Jackson six months old

 

"Good Night, My Son"

My Grandfather and Grandmother wrote a book on Uncle Howard's life. While I was growing up Howard had a very big influence in my life. I received this book earlier this evening and I am looking forward to reading it. Howard was a diabetic most of his life, I believe he was 13 when he was diagnosed. He had a kidney transplant in spring of 2000 and due to some complications passed away. This book was compiled so his youngest child would know what kind of man his father was. How many of you have a book in your home about someone in your immediate or extended family? Would you find a book like this helpful in discovering who you are?

Milk Part II

Where milk really and truly comes from.
Thought you would enjoy a picture of my reality.

 

Milk

Since I am in the dairy industry I thought I would find out how many of my readers actually drink milk. The most important question would be Do you drink milk? The secondary question would be What kind of milk do you drink? Are you a strawberry flavored milk person? Do you only consume milk when it is mixed in your scrambled eggs or some other dish? Do you stear clear of dairy products in general? If this is the case..... to shame.......

Sunday Lunch

What is your typical Sunday lunch meal?

Flip Of A Coin

I wonder how many of you make decisions by flipping a coin. If you need to make a big decision do you flip a coin? Sounds to simple and, well, flippant. I believe their is a definite place for flipping a quarter. If you are trying to decide which job to take or which girl to ask, I say flip a coin. Let's say you decide heads you will ask Sally and tails you will ask Jane. Now, you flip the coin and call HEADS but it lands TAILS!!! Your spirit groans because in all reality you want to ask Sally. This means that the flipping of a coin can be a very helpful tool in making decisions. This theory will work for other aspects of life as well. How many of you have flipped a coin?

Potty Trained

Aleya is now officially potty trained. She had begun crawling up on the changing table because she could not stand wearing a wet diaper. Rachel had started training her sometime ago but we were away from home so much we decided to wait. So two weeks ago Rachel started again and in one week she was trained. I realize their is a large school of thought on when you should train children. I have come to the conclusion that if you are willing to wait until the child is ready the child and the mother will be living a less stressful life. What is your opinion? Should we be training our six month old boys? If I am not mistaken some people try to get this accomplished. I believe it is silly. What do you think?

News Paper

Last night I heard Lester Rouluf, or is it Roll Off, said news papers are of the devil. They are not necessary. He said people think they need to stay up with the news but that if we would read the Bible we could stay ahead of the news. Now I personally think this is a rather harsh stance and yet yesterday in the Lynchburg paper they had a rather indecent picture right smack on the front page. Most news stories really are not very worthwhile either. Does the paper really serve a legitimate purpose or is it another thing to read? Oh, by the way, I did cancel our paper subscription.....
Except for Sundays, of course, I need that nice sports section and the six pages of color comics......

Instruments

I told you I would give you my own opinion so here it is. I took piano lessons for years and I am glad I did. It is very nice to be able to sit at the piano and pound out a song every now and then. I can use my skimpy piano skills to learn difficult vocal pieces also. I do not have a problem with learning to play an instrument.
After taking lessons for quite a long time I discovered an intense longing to learn how to sing properly. When I was 16 or so I was taking piano and voice at the same time from the same teacher. While I was thus occupied a thought crossed my mind. Why am I spending time, energy, and funds on piano when I will never be able to use my skill in a Mennonite service? I decided to drop the piano lessons and focus on vocal training. I realize now that I could have gotten a teaching certificate if I would have stuck with it long enough.
In conclusion I don't have a problem with learning to play an instrument. I do have a problem with the philosophy that says it is okay to have a professional fiddler teach you the fiddle but it is wrong to have a professional singer teach you to sing.

Zehr Clan

L-R Back Row
Laureen. Katie, Korwin, Jon Alan, Rachel, Aleya, Glen, Casey, Ben, Juanita, JoAnna
L-R Front Row
Megan, Marcus, Sierra, Grandma, Jackson, Grandpa, Jayden, Hannah

Survey

I am wondering.....
This may be a very touchy issue....
I don't think it should be but I believe I can understand how it could be.
So, if you don't want to answer that is fine.
Mainly because you won't if you don't want to and I won't know why because I don't know you.
Make sense? I didn't think so....
Anyway, how many of you are adopted or have foster parents? How many of you have adopted or have fostered children?

Perfection Part III

Thanks to Creatora for her thoughts. The preacher, I forget who, said that the difference between perfection and being blameless is in confession. No one is perfect. We all sin. Living blamelessly is asking God to forgive us. Do you agree with this? I like it on the surface but it sure sounds simple. Is Christianity simple? I say yes it is. God expects things of us and these things are fairly clearly stated in scripture. Things like loving your neighbor as your self. When we get right down to it this is really hard to do.
Okay enough rambling......
What do you think?

Perfection Part II

Hmmm, not much reponse on that issue. What to do now? Do you not understand the question? Is it poorly asked? You don't care? Oh well..... (sigh)

Sierra

Sierra
Packed and ready to go to Grandma Kauffman's without her parents for two weeks.
She was very excited.....

Perfection

Is their a difference between blameless and perfect? How can one walk blameless in God's sight and not be perfect? God told Abraham to walk blameless....

Instruments

Is there a place for musical instruments? Is there a place for instruments in our church services? If we cannot use them in our services should we be allowed to use/have them in our homes? Should we spend money and time learning how to play an instrument that we will not use in a worship service?
After you make lots of comments I will post my opinion. Maybe your comments will change my opinion.

Decisions

How do you decide whether or not you should attend a funreal? When the person who died was not a close friend but was someone you knew? You knew the family 15 years ago but were not real close to the children. You know them and yet you don't really.... Does it make any difference how many people will be at the funreal? I don't know what to do.....
Does it make any difference if your parents are going? Does that eliminate some of the should go feelings?
How do you decide what to say to the family? How do you comfort them?

Heavy Heart

My heart is heavy this morning because of two things. The first is the death of Krystal Yoder. I knew Val and Krystal semi well while we were at SMBI. I wonder how their hearts and emotions are this morning. True, Krystal has been sick for some time, but I do not believe anyone was expecting this to happen.
The second is in relation to the mission in Guatamala. To give you the details on this I will post Brian's email.

Dear people,

First, let's keep the facts straight. It's interesting how one hard fact can morph and expand and multiply and divide until it becomes a host of reports far from the original truth. A phone threat can become a kidnapping, a kidnapping can turn into two or three, and soon there were shots fired, and before you know it, one measly phone call turns into a funeral next Friday and all the missionaries are coming home. (And please don't take that last sentence and say "the email said so!")

So let's be sticklers for the truth. If this is announced or discussed in your church tomorrow, you already know the facts straight from the source. There were two phone calls, no more, no less, and nothing else. Tony is out of Guatemala City and in a remote area. The mission is taking extra precautions, but is by no means closing shop.

Since my last report at noon, there were another couple of incidents that added to the pressure, but were unrelated to the threat.

This afternoon, I was trying to get some studying done (extraordinarily difficult) when I got a phone call about Jerlin Lopez, a young married man in our congregation. Jerlin was in an accident, and could I please go check it out? I hurried to the pickup, glanced nervously up and down the street, and drove to the mission. Lowell Yoder went with me, and we stopped to pick up Urbano, the body-shop man. We found Jerlin unhurt, but very shaken. "Why does this happen to me?" he asked.

He had reason to ask. He cut his hand in a miter saw on Monday, and this is his second traffic accident in four weeks. Today he rear-ended a stopped bus, and pretty well totalled his pickup. No one was hurt. He finally came to an settlement agreement with the bus driver, and his newly-painted, mangled pickup was towed away.

I called him this evening. His wife Corina answered the phone, crying. I told her that thousands of people in the States are praying for this extortion threat, and that I would mention their accident in the next update. Surely some of the strength of those prayers will be turned toward them. They're hurting tonight. Why is God allowing all of this?

As I was standing at the accident site, my phone rang. It was Janelle. "There are two men knocking at the front door, and I don't recognize them through the peephole. Do I open?" "No," I advised. "Let them think no one is home!" I called one of the fellows at the mission and asked him to drive down and check on things.

As I stood there, something dawned on me. Whoever made the second phone call must think that my number is the mission number, because he asked for Tony. That means that maybe he doesn't know as much as he lets on. And if he lifted my number out of the phone book... Suddenly it dawned on me that my address is beside the listing for Mennonite Air Missions. So if they come looking, they'd logically come to my place first. It was a silent drive home.

When I got to the mission, Starla informed me that the "unknown men" were actually a man from church and his brother, who wanted to talk to me. It was a relief to know that, but it was hard to shake off my reasonings about the phone book.

When I got home, Janelle and I put into action an idea that we'd been thinking about since noon. Why don't we just pack up and go to San Lucas for the night? The mission rents a house out there, and it's currently empty. We grabbed some food, packed some bedding, and by 5:00, were heading out of our deserted, rutted, dirt street.

When we drove into the gates at the house in San Lucas, we felt like a weight had partially fallen from us. This grassy, wooded area is a far cry from our walled-in, factory-enclosed fort in the city. Here there would be no anonymous phone calls, and at least for one or two nights, we could be away from some of the pressure. Granted, there are still people at Mission Headquarters, but we're only a phone call and fifteen minutes away.

If you need a prayer request on top of the rest, I guess I'll put myself in as an option. I feel a little tired and emotionally spent tonight, and flashes of irritation or emotion are nearer the surface than they should be. Plus, I'm up to preach tomorrow morning, and am still not exactly sure where I'm going with a message. Many people will come tomorrow, many people with many special needs. There is an instruction class of ten to prepare for and teach. Pray for the grace to continue to give when all we feel like doing is crawling into a hole.

Janelle is sitting by the fire, reading me excerpts from Psalm 37, and with those promises, we will rest.

Until later,

Brian Yoder

Survey

How often do you check out the links on my blog?
1. Often (once a week)
2. Occasionally (once a month)
3. Seldom (every six months)
4. Rarely (once a year)
5. Never (never)

Birth Order

I was thinking the other day about the birth order in my family. I have not studied birth order tendencies very much but I do know that second born children tend to react to life differently then first born children. Rachel and I are both second born children. She is the second girl and I am the second boy. Now here is the birth order of my children.
Sierra is the first born daughter. This sounds very simple.
Aleya is our second daughter. However, she is a first born child in her birth family.
Jayden is our first son and third child. However, he is the first born son and second child in his birth family.
Jackson is our second son and fourth child. However, he is the third child and second son in his birth family. How does this work? Sounds very complicated to me. Are these traits based more on environment then anything else?

Church

Is it possible to have church to often? Can their be to many church related activities? Is every church related activity a good activity? How do you decide when to participate in these activities?

David's Delight

While milking the other night, a preacher on the radio was talking about how David put his delight in the Law. He made an interesting point. At the time David wrote the psalm how many books of the Bible had been written? Answer, five. The interesting thing to me was David had Five depressing books to read yet he delighted in them. I have fifty-six books to delight in and have trouble. I have the whole story. I can see part of the big picture. If you only read the first five books wouldn't you tend to be bored and depressed? I think I would be.....

Employee Search

I am now searching for someone to fill some rather big shoes. My hired man will be leaving the end of Feb. He has been great to work with and has done an excellent job. So, I need someone just like him. Willing to work, mechanically inclined, enjoys cows, and good with equipment. If anyone is interested let me know.......
Well, maybe not just like him..... (chuckle)

Sitting Tall

The difference in the two boys is amazing. Jayden is not as stiff as Jackson.
By the way, should we shorten their names? You know, nick names.... Like Jay and Jack???

 

BANG!!! Went the New Year

I was on milking duty last evening and got in the house about 11:10. I usually have devotions before going to bed (the house is nice and quiet). Well, I finished my devotions and was eating my snack and reading The Spirit Of the Disciplines when the lights went out. I was sitting at the kitchen table in total darkness. I looked out the window towards the farm. I saw the dusk to dawn lights were on. While my brain processed this information I saw the lights wink at me and then go dark. It is a very strange feeling to have the world be completely dark except for the light God provides in the night sky. I decided to check on the girls and began to stumble towards their bedroom. I did manage to stay in the upright position but their were a few perilous moments. The current came back on sometime in the night. I heard our printer resetting itself and this allowed me to peacefully go back to sleep. What is your worst or best lack of current story?

Davy Crocket???

Wait; I think these are Davy's younger brothers.
L-R Korwin & Marcus