The Story of Eight Days of Hope   words by: Nic Stoltzfus   ____________________ “…so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” – Luke 10:29b – Steve Tybor looked out his window at the magnolia trees swaying in the wind. It was windier than a normal hot August breeze—this was hurricane wind. Fortunately for Steve, he lived in northern Mississippi in the town of Tupelo 300 miles north of the Gulf Coast, where tornadoes were more of a risk than hurricanes. But down in New Orleans and coastal Mississippi? They were experiencing the storm of the century. Steve turned back to the TV, whe ..read more

words by: Marcus A. Yoder   ___________ Part Two of Three ___________   Art is often viewed as personal, and beauty is found only in the “eye of the beholder.” While there are elements of truth to that, art often conveys much more than that. Art often allows the person engaging with it to experience the world of the artist. That is the case of two unique pieces of art found in the middle of the Holmes County Amish community. Both pieces of work were done by a German-Canadian artist named Heinz Gaugal.  The first piece is an oil on canvas painting that is ten feet high and 265 ..read more

words by: Merissa A. Alink Recently, I was searching online for a Cream Cheese Danish Recipe and everything that kept coming up was basically a cream cheese mixture folded into a container of crescent rolls. That’s not at all what I had in mind! I wanted a delicious, homemade danish that was soft and fluffy and didn’t taste like a dinner roll. With that in mind, I set out to create my own delicious danish totally from scratch. Using an old Mennonite recipe as inspiration, I came up with this Cream Cheese Danish braid. If you’re wanting the real deal, not some convenient version, then you wil ..read more

The Secret No One Wants to Hear   words by: Elaine Tomski   God’s gift of loving intimacy is given to one man and one woman within the marriage bond. Any sex act outside of that union is not God’s plan and not in our best interest. However, human traffickers have a different plan; a destructive, abusive, deceptive one. Actual human beings are being bought and sold in a business generating 150-billion-dollars per year. The business is human trafficking, and two-thirds of its profits come from sexual exploitation. Men, women, and children are forced against their will and God’s will to ..read more

words by: Marcus A. Yoder   Appointments happen at many times over the course of a day, a week, or a lifetime. Some are scheduled and planned; others are those “chance” appointments that can change a lifetime with their outcome. Sometimes those appointments affect much more than just the person or people involved because our lives often connect with greater groups of people. Such is the case of one such “chance” lunch meeting in the 1960s when an artist from Ontario, Canada, traveling to Columbus, Ohio, decided to stop for lunch in a small, sleepy town named Berlin.  The artist, He ..read more

words by: Kevin Bille   Hey, what’s the good word! Coachable. Being coachable means being open to asking for and receiving feedback, looking inward at how you can move forward, and being interested in growth. You don’t take things personally or as a criticism, instead you see it as an opportunity. Some of the most successful people I’ve been around share this trait. It is something I’ve always appreciated and tried to model over the years. There were consistent qualities and patterns that stuck out to me about these people. They are always open to learning something they don’t already k ..read more

a quick word from: Marlin Miller I learned recently how many families have to say goodbye to a baby prematurely due to miscarriage or stillbirth. I knew the percentage was high, but I was shocked! One in four! For every four babies who are born, one is lost. I struggle for the words to convey my concern for all the Dads that find themselves in this spot. You have to be strong for your wife and yet you must grieve the loss on your own. Please don’t misunderstand me, it’s not that I don’t care about the Moms, but the reality is when people learn of a loss, they invariably gravitate to the woma ..read more

words by: Merissa A. Alink The other day I realized I had run out of window cleaner. The sun was shining brightly and highlighted all the rain spots and fingerprints. Not wanting to go to the store, I did some quick research and tried several formulas. The following is the recipe I found works the best and really does leave a clean, streak-free finish. What You Need:  •  1 Cup water •  1/4 Cup rubbing alcohol •  3 T. vinegar What You Need (Alcohol Free):  •  1 Cup water •  1/2 Cup rubbing alcohol •  A few drops of essential oil, pieces of orange peel ..read more

words by: Marcus A. Yoder   One of the more tragic events in the early Anabaptist movement is what happened in the German city of Münster in 1534-1535. Bernhard Rothmann (1495-1535) was a talented author who began to preach a strong evangelical doctrine in the early 1530s. By 1533, he was preaching and writing of the need for a believer’s baptism and other Anabaptist ideals. Around the same time, a charismatic young Dutch Anabaptist leader named Jan Van Leyden (John of Leyden) visited Münster and began to teach that the city was to become the “New Jerusalem,” and that Anabaptists should ..read more

The Secret No One Wants to Talk About   words by: Elaine Tomski   “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.” –  Luke 4:18  – 40,000,000. Forty million people are slaves, and we are not even aware. According to International Justice Mission (IJM), “there are more children, women, and men trapped in slavery than ever before in human history. People are beaten, raped, and starved for the profit of others arou ..read more