My how Messiah Village has grown! As I was scrolling through some old photos I came across this aerial shot of Messiah Village from 1950. It seems so small compared to what we have now. Think of all the great innovative and technological advances we have made over the years.

When I was younger one of my favorite things to do with my grandmother was look through old photos. Each photo carried a special memory that she would share with me. What are some of your favorite memories of Messiah Village?

On Wednesday May 12th. a small group of us, led by  Chrylann Fons, headed out for a day I won’t soon forget.

We left about 8:15 AM and headed to Hanover, driven by the ever great Elsie.  Not only does she drive us anywhere, she makes every attempt to help anyone she can and keep us happy and comfortable. Our first destination was the Little Red Schoolhouse for breakfast. This is a truly fascinating place. It really is an old schoolhouse turned into a charming little restaurant open only for breakfast. To be able to take in all the interesting things going on there would take quite a bit of time.

There were antique enamel pots, coffee pots and dippers of every size and shape and color. Other old kitchen implements were also scattered around the place. The food was old fashioned (home) cooking and very good. The service was a little slow due to the fact that there were only three or four women running it and they did everything.  So Chrylann stepped up and helped pour coffee and water.  This is so typical of everyone helping even when it’s not your job.

Our actual destination was St. Matthew Lutheran Church, home of the 9th. largest pipe organ in the world.  It is right in downtown Hanover and is beautiful and very well kept up.

The man who spoke to us was the director of music in the church for 30 years. Looked like he must have been about twelve when started. You can tell he really loves the church, his job, the organ and music of all kinds. He played a lot of little parts of things to show us the features of the magnificent organ. He did play about four songs all the way through and I could have just listened all day. He also explained a lot of the history about the church and organ. Both a quite old with some updates from time to time. The organ is currently under some updating but was still wonderful.

Above the alter is the most beautiful stained glass window  I have ever seen. It is a Tiffany and the colors were amazing. That is an understatement. It was a truly wonderful trip and I hope we go again. We  were invited to come at Christmas time for a Concert and it is well worth the trip. Hope we go and lots of you join us.

The below pictures are from various Pathways classes offered so far this Spring term:

Mr. Shenk is a professor at Messiah College. He led this Pathways group on a trail highlighting various plants along the way.

This picture was taken during our course on renewable energy.

These ladies are part of the Tabitha’s knitting group. Students from Messiah College join them once a month.

Croquet Your Way’s Steve Fluder teaches residents the rules of the game.

This week’s democratic organizational principle is —- Accountability. This is what WorldBlu says about it — “Democratic organizations point fingers, not in a blaming way but in a liberating way. They are crystal clear about who is accountable to whom and for what.” One way that I think we have built in accountability is for each team to establish “standards” to which they hold themselves accountable and are included in our annual performance evaluations.

The Connections campaign spaghetti dinner raised $1,200 and lots of fun! Here’s a shot of our youngest patron…what do you think?