Upper Allen Township fire department members enjoyed dinner and discussion at Messiah Village

On October 18, 2011 Messiah Village honored the volunteers of the Upper Allen Fire Department for their service to the community and specifically to the residents of Messiah Village. At a dinner catered by Messiah Village’s chefs and staff, over 20 fire department members received the accolades that too often are not expressed to these neighbors of ours who train constantly and respond at a moment’s notice to protect lives and property in this area.  Words of gratitude were conveyed to the firefighters by Carl Ginder, VP, on behalf of the residents and administration of Messiah Village.  After a tour of the soon-to-be-opened new addition fire personnel had valuable suggestions for ensuring that they would be able to efficiently handle an emergency in that area.  They suggested coming back on their regular training night to make sure that proper interconnections are in place.  They also requested electronic files so that they can see floor plans on the computers they carry in the fire apparatus.

Ginder acknowledged the personal commitment of the volunteers who put themselves in harm’s way when necessary to save someone else from danger.  It doesn’t matter if they have just sat down for a meal, settled down to sleep or were planning to watch the big game.  If the beeper goes off they go on.  Nationwide 100 firefighters die in the line of duty each year.  Acts of heroism like the firefighter who recently caught a child dropped from the third floor window of a burning building in Boston abound in the news.

In one sense these individuals are average, ordinary citizens.  They are our next door neighbors.  In another sense there is nothing average or ordinary about them since there are so few of them and the volunteer ranks have grown smaller over the years.  Volunteer fire departments in many areas are hurting for personnel.  What was expressed many years ago is still too true:

When fire is cried and danger is nigh,
“God and the firemen” is the people’s cry;
But when ’tis out and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the firemen slighted.
~Author unknown, from The Fireman’s Journal, 18 Oct 1879

We need to make sure that we acknowledge the noble and vital function of our volunteer firefighters.

Messiah Village residents and staff also train and conduct drills so that they can be prepared for an emergency.  Upwards of 30 drills are conducted each year in the various residential and care areas of Messiah Village.  That training paid off early in June when a tornado warning was issued by the National Weather Service and a tornado was sighted nearby.  Upon being notified to seek shelter in their homes, residents knew where to go to be safe until the storm passed by.  They were grateful for the training they had received in a previous drill.  Planning ahead can save lives and provides peace of mind.

- Post by Carl Ginder

I was born and raised on a farm in Lancaster County, PA with many aunts, uncles, cousins and extended family members nearby. It seemed natural to link one family to another in what is now called ”the Mennonite Game”. It goes like this – upon meeting someone for the first time he asks “now let’s see, was your mothers first cousin on your uncle Abe’s side a Hostetter”? Those connections are made possible because some families have stayed where their ancestors first settled after coming to America. My Ginder forefather came from Germany in 1749, received a land grant from William Penn’s son and part of that original tract is still owned by a Ginder. This isn’t unusual here or in many other areas of the country.

When you grow up without exposure to other cultures you tend to believe that people everywhere think and act like you do. Since I didn’t go to college right after high school my first experience with different cultures came when my wife and I spent two years as church volunteers at a children’s home in New York State. We naively thought that they would be so happy to have us there because we have so much to offer them as a young Mennonite couple. They were welcoming to us but we quickly discovered that the cultures they represented had much to offer and enrich us. We worked with people from all the continents except Antarctica. We enjoyed sampling new foods and learning about their life experiences some of which were exciting and dangerous.
One of the things I discovered over the years is the similarities of cultures. While there are the obvious differences, the constant is the cohesion that results from families supporting one another and developing traditions that transcend time linking past to present. Let me give two recent examples.

Last November we visited my daughter and her family in Israel. Her husband is a Bedouin Arab and they live on the northern edge of the Negev Desert. Bedouins have lived in this area for thousands of years. Because theirs is a nomadic culture their history is mostly oral. Their society has a strong framework organized around extended families and tribes consisting of a number of families. We spent a few days with them in the Sinai and everywhere we went our son in law met “cousins” from his tribe. They formed an instant bond as they played the Arab version of the Mennonite game figuring out how they shared relatives. They understood each other because of shared values and culture. They sang the same songs together and laughed at the same jokes even though they had not met before.

In July I spent four days at the Quileute Indian Reservation in La Push, Washington. I was impressed again with the similarities we all share even though the cultural expressions are quite different. When I was growing up most of my extended family members were farmers so naturally conversations and activities revolved around farming. In the Quileute Nation everyone was a fisherman so canoe building, fishing and preserving the catch was the central activity. I spoke at length with a tribal elder who lamented that the old ways are being ignored by the young people who watch TV, don’t want to learn the tribal language and want to go somewhere else and try something different. I’ve heard that before from my own culture.
So how can we preserve the best parts of a culture while adjusting to the inevitable changes that put pressure on that culture? Affordable transportation started it and created the mobile society. The electronic revolution exacerbated it with instant communication to any part of the globe.

Will we become the melting pot with one homogenous culture or will we be a three-bean salad with different cultures living side by side but retaining their individual identities? There is so much to learn from and appreciate about other cultures. It’s amazing how much alike we really are when you look beyond the obvious differences.

- Post by Carl Ginder

June 19 is a special day in our family.  It was Father’s day but also the day three of us have wedding anniversaries.  For my niece it was their 12th, for my wife and me, 46 years and it was my parents’ 68th.  There are several other anniversaries in June too.  It was a time to bask in congratulatory emails and Facebook posts but also a time to reflect.  I was intrigued by the claims of many of my Facebook friends that they have the “best” father in the world.  Wait a minute.  Hadn’t my children just made that proclamation about me?  How could both be right?  Is there a “best”  father or “best” marriage in the world?

We love competition.  We cheer for the home team.  We read “Casey at the Bat” and understand clearly what losing and winning are all about.  We like to match wits while watching “Jeopardy” or “Pathways Challenge”.  We need champions.  They become our role models – our leaders until another one comes along and unseats them. Beauty contests proliferate.  We invent contests just to watch people strive.  How else do you explain “The Biggest Loser”, “The Weakest Link” and some show that dares contestants to eat animal body parts not meant for consumption. We even play the numbers game in our churches as in “my congregation is bigger than yours”.  The exception to this is someone who loses epically like Eddie the Eagle, the British ski jumper who never quite got the hang of it.  He was immortalized and cheered by the fans at the Calgary Olympics for sliding off the end of the jump rather than soaring down the slope. While recognizing that achievement is a sign of health, I wonder if we don’t overdo it sometimes.  The incessant drive to win and be the best unfortunately leads some to illegal or immoral behavior resulting in doping scandals in sports and disgraced leaders who fall from favor in other arenas.

Let’s hear it for the servant leader.  Let’s honor the person who discovers how to bring out the best in others and who takes pride in developing a child, an employee, a coworker or who becomes a mentor to someone.  There are many examples of a teacher who inspired their students but they themselves never won a best teacher award.  This is the way that there can be multiple fathers who are the best in the world.  By understanding their child and helping them develop their individual gifts they become the best father for that child.  As a father my reward is seeing each of my children become people of worth and integrity.  To see them loving and encouraging their own children to do their best and respect others doubles the reward.  The legacy of the servant leader isn’t a plaque on the wall or the acclaim of others, although they may receive that.  Instead, they find joy in knowing that what they value lives on.

The Messiah Village mission statement says “We are a ministry that responsibly enhances the lives of older adults with Christ-like love”.  There’s our example.  Christ loves us and wants the best for us.  To emulate Him is to be the best whether or not we are recognized by others.

- Post By Carl Ginder

The ducks are back in the courtyard. It’s an annual springtime occurrence. It seems that they know it’s a fairly safe place surrounded as it is by walls that keep out all but airborne predators. The problem is that it is the destiny of ducks to live on the water and water is not found naturally in the courtyard.

Ducks on a wall

Smart ducks! – they found a safe place.

Stupid ducks! – it’s a prison where the little ones will starve to death if someone doesn’t intervene.

Baby Ducks

Help comes in two choices. Someone provides food and water until all of them can fly over the wall. Or, they accept being rounded up and taken out of the courtyard and placed on the pond where they need to end up sooner or later anyway. The first option sounds hassle free except that it creates a quagmire and stench by mid summer. We reject that solution. The second option – being caught and handled by large two-legged creatures carrying nets and cardboard boxes - is rejected by the ducks. Can’t they understand that it is for their own good?

Do I act like those ducks sometimes?  Do I trade fulfilling the destiny for which I was created for safety and security and thereby live in a prison of my own making?  God has a purpose for me.  Do I have the courage to trust Him to use me to make it happen?  I’m reminded of Harry Fosdick’s hymn, “God of Grace and God of Glory” and this one partial verse:

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the living of these days,
For the living of these days.

If it seems like a stretch to find deep meaning in considering why ducks hatch in our courtyard perhaps it stems from two other events that also happened in April.  At 2:00am one late April morning I was awakened by a call from my son telling me that he and his wife were in the hospital awaiting the birth of their first child.  Two hours later I got another call saying that a young, extended family member passed away suddenly.  Another two hours passed and I got the call that our granddaughter was born and mother and child were fine.  Then I had to go tell my mother the good news about the arrival or her great-granddaughter and the sad news about the death of another family member.

The juxtaposition of those two events – a life ends, a life begins – on the same morning I’m afraid made for a not too productive day.  Competing emotions of joy and sadness chased each other through my mind that day as I tried to make sense of it all.  Then came a practical question of how to express my grief to my sister and comfort her while also telling her the joyful news of the safe arrival of my granddaughter.  Do I mute both emotions in some sort of cosmic balancing act or do I try to fully convey my message of grief and support and then turn around and share my elation at the birth?  I tried the latter approach since it felt like the most sincere expression.  In the end my sister was very understanding and comforted that we came to visit and happy for us and her nephew and family.

I still have questions without obvious answers.  I also have faith that no matter what happens God is there.  I long to live what is written in Ecclesiastes 12:13:

Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.

God doesn’t owe me an explanation.  If I follow Him I will be doing what I was created to do and that’s where I’ll find contentment.

- Post by Carl Ginder

All this talk about which cities should get the leftover space shuttles to use as tourist attractions got me to thinking.  We might have a claim on one of them.  The fact that New York City beat out Houston for one of them tells me it would be an uphill battle though.  We have our own SPACE Program here at Messiah Village.  The Special Care and Chapel Entrance project is about to go under roof.  There are two parts to this project.  Outside there is a new entrance to the chapel and an addition to the second floor of Special Care.  Inside there is serious renovation taking place to Special Care.

As I mentioned in my last post, the entire project, with the exception of some later-approved renovation, is being paid for by contributions from friends, residents and employees of Messiah Village.  The work will greatly enhance life in Special Care.  The major changes are in the space swap of the dining room and the care base.  The care base was in the corner of the “L” shaped hallways which meant that most of the windows were in offices which prevented natural light from entering the resident area.  The dining room was in a central location but was internal.  Several years ago we added some skylights for more natural light but it still wasn’t optimal.  Now the dining room is in the corner location with lots of light flooding into the central core area.  Also, residents will be able to look out the windows from the dining room.  The care base will be in the former dining room location.

The additional work that was approved is the upgrade of the four quad rooms.  While these will remain quads, we are able to add significant square footage to the rooms and build partial walls to provide separation between beds creating a more private feel.

quad concept

partitions in quad rooms

The new construction will feature a covered drop-off area where visitors can quickly get out of the weather and then head to their destination.  Using the elevator you can go up to Special Care or down to the Wellness Center or the preschool program.  Those going to the chapel can walk up  a slight incline to the main floor level.  The second floor of the new part will extend Special Care by providing a new dining room with country kitchen and more space for activities.  This area will be heated and cooled by geothermal energy.

We are grateful to our many friends and employees who have contributed financially to make this project a reality.

- Post by Carl Ginder