The time has come....

Well, and as my title suggests, the time has come, finally I have a minute to sit down and write about the splitting of HC and of LR. Which is easier said than done, As some of you may already know, I am at our new place, and I'll be honest, I didn't want to move, but you know, they say man gets used to everything, and I am here now, and I love it, I love my new house, the kitchen the church and yes, even my new job, kindergarten teacher! :-) Which is actually quite fun and interesting plus challenging, I just need more patience...

So...on July 22 which was on a Sunday, I woke up at 7:15 a.m. breakfast was at 7:30, so at breakfast I go in and sit down, and glance over at Mary who is not looking so good, so I asked her what was up with her and she said she didn't sleep a wink, awake all night worrying about the split which will happen today, and I went, "slept like a baby, what will happen will happen!" And she shook her head and wondered how I could be so calm about it. Well my reasoning is just that, what will happen will happen, no use losing sleep over something you can't prevent.

At 9:00 a.m. we all went to church, for some reason the girls were thinking about the song: "Als Lot und Abraham shieden" (As Lot and Abraham parted) which is a song usually sung when a colony splits, but the night before uncle Joseph had called over and told the ladies that the song "Jetzt ist die zeit beikommen" will be sung at church the next morning, which when we had all settled down his strong clear voice recited the first line and I opened my mouth to sing, and that's when it hit me. I looked around and saw all my friends and neighbours whom from today on may not be my neighbours and people whom I live with, and I started weeping, I couldn't sing, and every line our minister said and we sang only made me and quite a number of others to cry more. For those of you who are familiar with this song, (it can be found in "Die Lieder der Hutterischen Brueder" please take the time to read it. This song was written by Joseph Hauser,  when he with wife and children and with 73 souls,journeyed to Prussia, to establish community with the Mennonites there. in 1605. In every stanza he admonished the ones staying behind and those who were going with him, to lean on God and never to forget Him, some of the lines of this song are heart wrenching, the parting from familiar faces and place to an unknown future, in Prussia, (for those who have the chronicle of the Hutterian Brethern this sad story can be found on pages 561 - 565  I say sad mainly because it was an unsuccessful journey, and later they moved back to Moravia.) 

When we had done with the singing, he did a bit of a reading, did the prayer and then the text which was Psalm 121, a beautiful lehr, assuring us that no matter where we go in this world, God is with us. 

                                       Psalm 121
1. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
3. he will not suffer thy foot ot be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep,
5.The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul.
8. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

This is an amazing and beautiful promise from our God. verses 5 to 8 are especially beautiful!


When church was out we all went home, the midday meal was quite, unusually so, after dinner we went to roll pie crust for Saskatoon berry pie, picked raspberries, and canned apricots, and thinking at the time and still do, I was so glad we were doing something, it would have totally driven us insane sitting at home and wondering what was going on in Stibble (the meeting) where the men were, they went at 1:30 p.m. and at 2:45 p.m. we were in the canning house when someone yelled in the door "the men are coming!" and everybody just disappeared, everybody that is, except aunt Rachel, Mary, Melissa and me. I was literally shaking, and kept saying over and over again: "I don't want to know what has happened!" But after a few minutes I mustered the courage, (yes, courage, because I finally figured out I was scared! scared of the verdict, weird I know, esp. coming from someone who so nonchalantly said, "what will happened will happen") so when i did go out first person I met was Abby, so I asked her "where are you" and she said "I am staying" and I went "hallelujah!" and she said "you're moving" I actually thought she was lying and said so, and she said "I'm serious, your family and uncle Dave's are moving to Lost River, with Johnvetter and Mike (our boss) well, not quite believing her I ran over to my brother Jonathan's where he told me "yes it was true" 

So when the shock was over, and when I say shock, I mean that I never figured that I would move, I was so sure I was going to stay, I went home and then we started calling relatives to come and help. Mother started packing in our storage room, into the big black boxes that we use in the garden. Because we had been so sure of not moving, we hadn't put away any boxes, which we had to collect from others who were not going to use them. And that night was a sleepless night. no matter how I thought it through, I couldn't see myself moving. But reality comes with the dawn, excitement was high the next morning, finding a ride back to LR to start to clean the walls so we could get that final coat of paint on. And that afternoon I got four angels (I called them) from ClearS colony, those girls were worth their weight in gold, painting the walls, cleaning the windows, floors and moving in, (I have to give credit to my sister, and aunts and cousins that were packing our belongings at home) Thursday night was the first night I spent at LR, It finally seemed real by then. Looking back it seems like a dream now, how we made it through the first week, I don't know, there wasn't just the moving in, there was also the garden work at home that had to be done. The word busy, just doesn't describe it.

Some Hutterite once said that the splitting of a colony is one of the biggest changes and challenges a Hutterite can experience, at the time when I read this I thought that was bunk, but I have to say that he certainly knew what he was talking about. Talk about emotions! From laughing to crying all in a split second!

The people that came to help, that first week we still ate in the little shop that had served as a kitchen for 6 years, there was not enough room for everybody, thankfully it was beautiful outside, which was where a lot of us ate. The amount  of food this all needed! I think at one point someone said there were over 150 people there! (and that's al ot, considering there were as many at home at HC)

The first week after we had moved here, everynight we had a thunderstorm, I have to mention this, the view from my house is just awesome! from both the south bay window and the north, at HC if I wanted a good vantage point to watch a lightning storm I had to go away from the houses to see it, here at LR, I can stand anywhere's in my house and see it all! No trees to hinder my view. (although I do miss my trees...) and the view from my window, I can see for miles!

We officially moved into our new kitchen 2 weeks after we split, we spent almost all day cleaning the kitchen, but what an awesome feeling to sit down in our new chairs in the dining room, to cook in the sparkling new kitchen, the bakehouse....and the kindergarten...

I mention the kindergarten because it involves me. The first week we had been here, the minister Johnvetter told me and two others that we would be taking turns taking care of the preschoolers, ages 3 to 5, this means every third day, they (all seven) of those children come over to the kindergarten school where I have breakfast waiting for them, after I have done the dishes, the children recite prayers and songs. I also have a few action songs, which seem to be the highlight of the reciting part. Then they have play time, depending on the weather, if nice outside, we go to the playground, if not, there are toys, and coloring books and puzzles to work at. at 10:30 a.m. we have lunch, and until 11:45 free time to play and then we get ready for a nap. until 2:30, after which we have a snack and at 3:00 they are sent home to their mothers. I must say this is a challenging job, but the rewards are great, the children have me on my toes, but there is always a laugh to be shared, a book to be read, a song to be sang, I just need a little more patience sometimes, as one of them informed me, he wasn't coming anymore if I got loud again! :-)

For those of you that know me you might think that I am too young to be in the kindergarten! :-) well here we have a missing generation of women, generally when a woman turns 50, she no longer has a cookweek and no longer works in the garden, and that's when she gets the job of kindergarten, until the age of 60. There is almost 30 years between the last lady that turned 60 and the three of us that are now kindergarten teachers. 

It has been an incredible busy month, we still go home to HC whenever there is garden work to be done, as here at LR we don't have a garden yet, but we will have one next year. plus there is alot to be done yet here also, the laundry room is cleaned, and the new wash machines are working, but as the natural gas line hasn't reached the colony yet, our dryers and some of the kitchen equipment isn't working yet. That means trucking the drying clothes up to the old wash house where there is one electric dryer, we are hoping by next month the gasline will be here and up and working. The new english school still has a few odds and ends to be finished with, but with harvest on us, it will have to wait for a rainy day, we still need to clean it and the desks, maybe this week or the next, soon, as school will start in a week or so...

So this is my story, as much as I didn't want to move, here I am and liking it! God truly is good and with us no matter where we are, He has and continues to bless us daily.  As the song goes: "There's a roof up above me, I've a good place to sleep, there's food on my table and shoes on my feet, You gave me Your love, Lord, and a fine family, Thankyou Lord, for Your blessings on me!"   Yes thank you Lord, for all that has been and for all that will be, Blessed be the name of the Lord.