Doubting Thomas-Nurse Hal Among The Amish

by Risner, Fay

  Workers carried in large chests filled with breakable dishes and eating utensils. These chests were used for large crowds at weddings and funeral meals. Several men in the community had the responsibility for storing the chests at their house and renting them out for an occasion.

  The day of the wedding started early. The whole family was up at four o'clock. In fact, they managed to beat Abraham's first crows by a good ten minutes.

  Noah offered, “Emma, I will feed the hens this morning.”

  “Gute, but do not let them out. I do not want chickens under foot. For sure, who knows how Tom Turkey would react to so many strangers being here for hours,” Emma said with a sigh.

  By six, the helpers started arriving. The three hostlers, Emma's former students, stood by the barn to take the buggies. Jimmie Miller, a yellow haired boy, had sprouted up as fast as Daniel. Matthew Stoll, the school trouble maker that Emma grew fond of by the end of her first term, and Mark Yoder, Levi's younger brother were the other two hostlers.

  The boys considered being a hostler a big honor. They drove the buggies out in the hay field and parked them in three rows. The horses were tied to a rope stretched taut between two hay wagons. The hostlers biggest job was to feed and water all those horses at midday.

  The guests didn't leave at the same time. The driver of each buggy had to walk to the hay field and match up his horse to his buggy. Invited English and Mennonite guests parked their cars in a line by the barn.

  By seven, Adam, Emma and their attendants had eaten breakfast and changed into their wedding clothes. They went out to the tent and took their place on a bench near the opening.

  The two male attendants had Adam between them, and Emma sat between her attendants.

  The waiting line of buggies grew long as guests waited for the hostlers to take their buggies. As far as could be seen from both directions on the road, buggies were starting up, moving forward and stopping.

  People walked across the yard to get in the reception line. The bride, groom and their attendants greeted the guests and shook hands with each of them. The women went into the tent to visit, and the men congregated by the house to wait. The children gathered on one side of the house and the teenagers on the other side.

  As Noah and Daniel strolled across the yard, Jimmie Miller called, “Guder mariye.”

  “Guder mariye. You fellows will have your work cut out for you today,” Noah said. “This promises to be a big wedding.”

  “We know it, and we will do our best,” Jimmie assured Noah on his way to the next buggy.

  Finally, it looked like the last of the guests had arrived. The crowd stood around, waiting.

  Noah said to Daniel, “Time we get into the greeting line.

  Promptly at eight thirty, the forgehers (ushers) escorted the ministers into the house to the three chairs that faced the wedding guests and the bridal party chairs. Bishop Elton Bontrager, Minister Luke Yoder and Deacon Enos Yutzy, sat down, waiting to start their three hour wedding service and ceremony.

  The relatives of the bride and groom went inside. Well wishers gathered to the side in groups to wait their turn to be taken in by the ushers.

  People were seated by age and relationship to the bride and groom. The women sat on the left and the men on the right like at Sunday service. Young relatives came in next so the ushers motioned for Daniel and his cousins to come with them.

  Next were the couples recently married or had published their intention in church to marry soon. The couples came in and separated to their respective sections. Cousins and friends concluded the procession of guests.

  This fine morning, the better portion of the district's congregation had made it a point to gather to witness this wedding. John Lapp was a well respected member of the community, and his once English now Amish wife, Nurse Hal, was a valued addition. So many of the guests could tell stories about how she helped them and probably would before the day was over.

  As for the bride and groom, Emma was an excellent teacher. Parents felt lucky to have her teach their children. Adam was a highly liked young man with a prospering furniture business. He sold to both Amish and English customers.

  Two empty benches left at the back were for the helpers to sit on when they had a moment to get away from the kitchen. Other helpers listened in the kitchen as they quietly worked.

  The men left their hats on the shelves in the bench wagons. Removal of hats signified that the house was now a place of worship. The ministers kept their hats on until the first song was over which was according to an old custom.

  Bishop Bontrager stood and announced the opening of the wedding service in German. “Bruders and Schwesterns, we are ready to begin this wedding. William Boxholder, you lead the first hymn.”

  The song leader stood up. “Turn to page 378 in the Ausbund for So will ichs aber heben an, Singen in Gottes Ehr (Singing in God's Honor). Pages rustled as people rifled through their hymn books, locating the song. Once the page was found, the room went silent. William Boxholder deep, clear voice began the song, and the rest joined in.

  The next song leader, Nathan Fisher announced, “Now we will sing Lob Lied.”

  This song took at least fifteen minutes to sing through the sixth verse at a very slow pace. That gave the wedding party time to walk down the aisle. The bishop motioned for an usher to bring in the wedding party.

  The attendants paired off. Levi Yoder took Katie Yost hand. Adam and Emma, holding hands, walked to their chairs. Noah and Jenny Yoder followed. In the seating arrangement as when they greeted the guests, Adam and Emma sat between their two attendants, facing each other.

  On the third line of the song, Bishop Bontrager, Minister Yoder and Deacon Yutzy rose to their feet and walk back down the aisle and outside. They were going to use the porch for their council room.

  Adam took Emma by the elbow, gave her a twitchy smile and helped her stand. They followed the ministers. On the north end of the porch, Adam and Emma sat on one bench provide for them, and the ministers on the one facing them.

  The singers began the hymn's next chorus. Nathan's clear tenor voice projected the words, and the guests joined in. Emma wondered at the countless times she'd sang that song very slow- Oh Father God, we praise Thee. The long verses lasted close to five minutes each.

  Emma looked at Adam and at the ministers somber faces. Now wasn’t the time to concentrate on that song or any other thought. She sat at this moment with Adam in front of the ministers for a very serious reason. This was part of their wedding ceremony.

  Bishop Bontrager cleared his throat and counseled in a very serious tone. “You are taking a serious step this day to become man and wife, Adam Keim and Emma Lapp. I take it you have thought about this for some time.”

  The couple nodded agreement.

  Luke Yoder, minister and friend, turned his attention on Emma. His friendly, easy going demeanor was gone, replaced with a solemn expression. His clear blue eyes seemed to probe deeply into her soul. “It has been told to you that no divorce is allowed. Once you marry Adam Keim it will be for life. Do you agree to this commitment for the rest of your life, Emma Lapp?”

  “Jah, I do,” Emma answered quietly.

  “Do you agree to this commitment for the rest of your life, Adam Keim?” The bishop asked.

  Adam nodded.

  Deacon Yutzy asked Emma, “Have you remained pure for this marriage union?”

  “Jah.”

  “Adam, have you remained pure?”

  Adam nodded.

  The Bishop looked from Adam to Emma and back to Adam. “Are you ready and willing to marry this woman today?”

  “I am,” Adam wrote on his notepad.

  The bishop focused on Emma. “Are you ready and willing to marry this man this day?”

  “I am,” she replied.

  The bishop bowed his head and blessed the couple with a prayer. “May God be the center of your marriage and bless you both with many happy years together. Amen.”

  Preache
r Yoder and Deacon Yutzy echoed, “Amen.”

  The ministers stood up.

  “Gute. Go back inside. We will be in shortly to get the service started,” Luke said, shaking hands with Adam and Emma.

  After the couple's dismissal, the ministers had to decide among themselves who would take the different parts of the wedding service. While they did that, Adam and Emma walked back down the aisle to their seats.

  The Lob Lied song's sixth chorus was the ministers cue their time was up. They entered the house and took their places. Bishop Bontrager sat down in the middle chair between Luke Yoder and Enos Yutzy, and they joined in the singing.

  After the song was over, Preacher Luke Yoder stood, tall and straight, to give his sermon. He looked around the gathering. “I greet all you in the name of Jesus Christ. I want to talk today about how God created Eve as a companion to Adam. Wives should learn from Eve's mistakes and not yield to temptation as she did. We find the responsibility of parenthood shown with the example of Cain and Abel. There are consequences of the sons of God taking daughters of men. I remind you that the bible shows us the fact that Noah and his sons only had one wife each.” To end his sermon, Preacher Yoder bowed his head. “Let us have a silent prayer. All will kneel.”

  The congregation stood up and turned around. They knelt and leaned over their benches. When the prayer was over, the congregation stood, but they didn’t turn around.

  Deacon Enos Yutzy stood up with a bible in his hands and moved forward. “I will read scripture from Matthew 19.” He opened the bible at a marker. “The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, 'Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?'

  And he answered and said unto them, 'Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,' and said, 'For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.'

  They say unto him, 'Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?'

  He saith unto them, 'Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.' And I say unto you, 'Whosoever shall put away his wife for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery, and who so marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.'

  His disciples say unto him, 'If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.'

  But he said unto them, 'All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.”

  Deacon Yutzy closed his bible and sat down. Then the guests turned around and sat down.

  Bishop Bontrager stood up to give the main sermon. “Men, if you have wasted the years until now, there is no time to lose. Start cultivating a personal walk with Jesus Christ. Spend time regularly studying the scriptures and learning from them how God wants you to live your life and discharge your responsibilities to your wives.

  Begin consulting Him about everything. If you are involved in an unhappy marital situation, the damage can be repaired, but the place to begin is with this matter of daily involvement with the person of Jesus Christ. Other efforts will fail until our hearts are right with Him, and we are growing in His likeness.

  In the bible, we find Ruth and Boaz were both ready for marriage. So we turn from their spiritual preparation to their sterling courtship. Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem. The problem facing them was how to find enough food to eat. God had made a gracious provision in the Mosaic Law for folks in their predicament. Farmers were not permitted to reap the corners of their grain fields nor gather the gleanings. They left them for the poor, for foreigners, for widows and orphans.

  Almost any way you look at it, Naomi and Ruth were qualified. They were poor widows, and Ruth was a foreigner. Since Naomi was getting a little too old to work in the fields, Ruth asked if she might go find the field of some kind man who would allow her to glean it. Naomi gave her permission. So Ruth departed and gleaned in the field after the reapers. She happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

  The work was not easy—stooping and bending all day long as Ruth gathered the grain into her long, flowing cloak. The burden got heavier with each stalk she gleaned. The sun beat down on her back in that semi-tropical climate. A few of the bigoted hometown folks taunted her because of her foreign accent. Some of the men tried to put their hands on her. Every impulse in Ruth’s body urged her to flee to the purple mountains of Moab which she could see in the distance. That was her home; that was where she belonged. But with quiet courage, simple modesty, and total unselfishness, she labored on.

  We fully expect Boaz to notice her, and he did. “Whose young woman is this?” He asked his servant who was in charge of the reapers. “She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab,” he replied.

  Boaz lost no time in doing some nice things for Ruth. He invited her to stay in his fields and glean as much as she wanted. He said she was to drink freely from the water pitchers provided for his own workers.

  Nowhere does it say that Ruth was a beautiful woman like Sarah, Rebekah, or Rachel. We do not know whether she was or not, but we do know she had an inner beauty, a meek and quiet spirit, an unpretentious humility that made her one of the loveliest women in scripture.

  She bowed low before Boaz in genuine gratitude and said, “Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” Her humility was evident again when she said, “You have comforted me and indeed have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants.”

  There was nothing put on about Ruth. She was real. And her genuine humility, her meek and quiet spirit is one of the most valuable assets a woman can have. Peter says it is of great value in God’s sight. It is a good trait for Christian women to ask God to help them develop.

  Emma Lapp reminds me of Ruth. Not because of a quiet spirit,” the bishop said and winked at Emma. That caused many in the congregation that knew Emma to snicker. The bishop continued, “But because Emma possesses humility, grace and courage of women much older than she is.

  Boaz became more interested in lovely Ruth as the day went on. At mealtime, he invited her to join him and his reapers for lunch. He made sure she was served all she wanted to eat. When she finished eating and got up to return to work, Boaz said to his servants, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not insult her. Also, you shall purposely pull out for her some grain from the bundles and leave it that she may glean easier, and do not rebuke her. So Ruth continued to glean until evening. When she beat out what she'd gleaned, she had nearly a bushel of barley.

  Boaz was a kind man, thoughtful, considerate, and gentle. These are Christ-like traits. These are good traits for Christian men to ask God to help them develop. Like Boaz, I see these traits already in Adam Keim.

  Well, it was time to make a move to show a couple would like to marry. In that culture, it was the woman's move to make. Naomi told Ruth exactly how to make her move on Boaz. Ruth listened carefully and carried out her instructions precisely. Boaz slept on the threshing floor that night to protect his grain from thieves. After he went to sleep; Ruth tiptoed in, uncovered his feet, and laid down. By this act she was requesting Boaz to become her goel.

  Needless to say, Boaz was somewhat startled when he rolled over in the middle of that dark night and realized there was a woman lying at his feet. Unable to see Ruth well enough to recognize her, he asked, “Who are you?”

  She answered, “I am Ruth your maid. So spread your covering over your maid.”

  Spreading his cloak over her signified his willingness to become her protector and provider. His response was immediate: “May you be blessed of the Lord. You have shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether poor or rich. Now do not fear. I will do for you
whatever you ask. For all my people in the city know you are a woman of excellence.”

  In the secluded darkness of the threshing room, Boaz could have gratified his human desires, but he was a godly, moral, self-disciplined, Spirit-controlled man. He kept his hands off Ruth, and she slept at his feet until morning.

  Furthermore, Ruth had the reputation of being a woman of excellence. She was able to claim God’s grace and strength to hold herself in check until marriage.

  Boaz and Ruth both knew God’s greatest blessing in marriage required purity before marriage. Carelessness in this area would bring guilt, loss of self-respect, and suspicion. And it could leave scars on their souls that would make their adjustment to each other in marriage most difficult.

  Boaz and Ruth did it God’s way. We are not surprised to see their successful marriage. Their marriage was richly blessed by God.

  Now that Ruth had her husband, she could have resented her former mother-in-law as an intruder. But when a person is filled with the love of God, his or her heart is big enough to engulf more than just one special person, or even a special few. She tenderly and unselfishly reaches out to meet the needs of others as well. It is striking to observe how God’s love in Ruth’s life overcame all obstacles—poverty, racial prejudice, age disparity, physical temptations and taking care of her mother-in-law.

  I see in Adam Keim and Emma Lapp all the wonderful qualities of Boaz and Ruth. They will be a blessing to themselves, their children and their extended family.

  It is never too soon to learn these lessons of love. We can begin teaching them to our children very early in their lives. The training ground for love is the home. A loving relationship with parents and brothers and sisters will prepare them to love their mates and their mates’ parents as they should as it did for Adam and Emma.

  Children will not know how to love when they marry unless they show love to those with whom they live right now. But it all begins with our love for the Lord. When we have experienced the love of God, we will express it in our family relationships—parents, bruders, schwesterns, husbands, wives, children, and in-laws.