Here are my younger sisters sitting in front of my brother's Steve's house in PA. You can see our mother sitting in the background watching all of our goings on. (Can you guess us?)I try to stay in touch with my family communicating with them several times a year. Family are important to me and staying in contact helps to know what's going on with them. With all the modern gadgets now, its rather easy to stay in touch.
My Amish family . . . well now that's another story. Mail and if they call me is the only way to stay in touch. Since this is a new year and another set of birthdays coming up. Two of my older sisters have a birthday coming up along with my oldest brother in law.
I was just remembering my strict upbringing and thinking about ministry. My dad was called by God to be a minister. The Amish select their ministers by "casting lots". They take the eligible men and seat them in order on a bench at their church service and place a piece of paper in the song book. They pass out the song books and the man with the paper is their next minister. My dad heard God calling his name and he received the book with the paper. When he became a bishop, they used the same system. My dad heard God call his name again.
My memory of dad becoming a bishop was this. I was told to wear my cap when I went out to play. I hated this on my head and would take it off as soon as I went outside. So then I started getting spanked and after awhile I must have seen that fighting this was totally useless.
Our family also starting having prayer time together in the mornings. This was hard because the prayers came from a German prayer book. They weren't all that long but sort of annoying at first. Not that we had much of a choice in the matter!
I love my family and I am looking forward to the day when we will live closer to them.
