May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13 seems a particularly appropriate Christmas prayer
and greeting for 2021.
Passing of a
Generation
Candy’s Dad, Charles
Miller, passed from this life into Christ’s presence in September. Though he
had been living near us in Wisconsin for 3 years, he was buried with his wife,
Roma, - Candy’s Mom - in Ft. Snelling National Cemetery in Minnesota. At 94 he
had outlived many family and friends, but a good group of friends and neighbors
came to the memorial service to remember his life of faith, prayer, faith
sharing, and his lifetime of service with Wooddale Church and N. C. Little
Hospice and more.
Rising Generations
Leanne and Jon live in
Schwenksville, Pennsylvania where he is an automated building controls
engineering supervisor for Siemens. Leanne has been a kindergarten teacher who
is looking for the next step on her path. Hannah is in her second year of
teaching high school Spanish in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Isaac is a senior
at Grove City College in Pennsylvania with only student teaching to finish his
degree in music education.
We share a duplex with
Rachel and David in Milwaukee. David teaches at Dottke High School, a project
based learning model. Rachel ended her role as an aid for special needs
students and does some nannying for infants and is contributing a lot to
Candy’s care. Sam is a Resident Assistant in the dorm at Goshen College,
Indiana, where he is a sophomore. Elizabeth is a high school freshman,
Erik continues as the
Director of Music with the Dallas School of Rock. He provides music for worship
in the Central Dog Park at what is now Central Commons as Central Christian
Church. I served them as pastor 2000-2011, and they concluded their service
after 158 years as a congregation.
Hope in Our Generation
For many years, I
(Norm) have taught and aspired to live into being encountered by God in the
spaces between realities that seem paradoxical and even contradictory. In this
year of relentless pandemic, unprecedented political upheaval, social turmoil,
growing environmental crises, and more, we are all hungry for hope. Thus
pleading with the God of hope to fill us with abounding hope seems more urgent than ever.
This year Candy and I
have been pondering hope in our unsettled spaces. This is only an overview so
as not to bogged down in excessive detail.
Candy’s Dad had a
stroke in March and broke his hip in May, after which he needed to move to a
facility with a higher level of care. He began to receive hospice care in
August and left us in September. We engaged in daily presence on this home stretch
of his life.
We had four
generations together in Minnesota for his memorial (except our grandsons Isaac
and Sam were not able to get away). Good family together experiences went along
with warm gratitude and memories of “Grandpa Charlie.” In a rather freak
accident the morning before his service, as Candy was showering at the hotel,
the glass door shattered, and she was cut badly enough to need to be taken by
ambulance to the ER to get stitched up. The service was delayed three hours,
but Candy was back on deck, if somewhat shaken.
In October Candy
slipped and lost her balance in our dining room. She broke her right hip. After
a whole day in the ER and another whole day of waiting, she had surgery
followed by a few weeks of rehab. The day she was to be discharged, we were
informed she had tested positive for Covid-19, so we had two weeks of
quarantine at home. She never had
any symptoms, and all of us in the house tested negative. Though awkward, we
are thankful for the vaccinations that almost certainly protected us from
anything worse. Without a doubt, the stress, surgical trauma and anesthesia
have accelerated Candy’s Alzheimer’s, to which we are adjusting along with her
decreased mobility.
While Candy was in
rehab, I had a routine dermatology appointment. They found a spot on my neck
that they hadn’t seen six months earlier. Biopsy showed a skin cancer that
needed surgical removal. After removing two chunks a day apart, they stitched
me up on the fourth day. Prognosis is good, but vigilance is essential.
While we welcome any
prayers on our behalf, we don’t want any of you to sadly bemoan our plight. I
can’t count how many times Candy has said as we worked on these things, “But we
sure have a lot to be thankful for.” Indeed! Family is at the top of the list.
Sharing the duplex with Rachel, David, and Elizabeth (Sam away at college) has
been essential for daily tasks, and encouragement from Pennsylvania and Texas
has been wonderful. Friends of Milwaukee Mennonite and Meadowbrook Churches
have been immensely helpful. Thanks to Candy’s Dad, we were able to replace our
1999 Chevy Blazer with a 2017 Toyota Seneca, which is much easier for Candy to
get in and out of. With the help of a contractor friend and Elizabeth, David
built a ramp at the back of the house, with a new back door as well (and made a
number of safety changes in the house).
We are certainly
thankful for these practical things on our 2021 journey, and we take them as
small signs of the much larger hope that Romans 15:13 invokes. We are learning
to grow in hope without expecting that “everything will turn out alright.” In
Romans 4:18 Paul wrote that “hoping against hope [Abraham] believed.” And
Hebrews 11:39 observes that “all these, though they were commended for their
faith, did not receive what was promised.” Yes, we have the hope of
resurrection to eternal life. Thanks be to God for Jesus’ birth, life, death,
and resurrection! But until then, we nourish hope in the ambiguous spaces of
each day.
Love and Peace,
Norm and Candy
