Our Story WHO WE ARE... From 2007 to 2012 we, the Millers, adopted our first three children, a preschooler on the autism spectrum and two babies with Down syndrome. We published our first issue of Plain Values in 2012 to highlight Biblical ministries, share the beauty of adoption, and to cultivate anchored community. In 2018 we welcomed our fourth child in a surprise adoption, this time a baby with Mosaic Down syndrome.
WHAT WE BELIEVE... Our values are plain values, steeped in the rich traditions of yesterday. We enjoy the simple things in life. Gathering eggs from the coop, getting our hands in the dirt to grow food, and cooking meals from scratch. Sometimes we sit around a fire and share life. We strive to walk humbly to strengthen authentic relationships with our families and neighbors. And, yes, we have taken a fresh pie to a front porch and surprised a friend… we didn’t even text them before! We just stopped by, walked up the steps, and knocked on the door! Just the way our grandparents used to do on a Sunday evening. They called it living in community. We seek to serve our neighbors. Plain Values began with a prayer, hoping to play a small role in connecting a child with Down syndrome to his or her forever family. We have checked that box nearly a dozen times in the last ten years, and we will not stop until the orphanages are empty! We will rest in Heaven!
HOW YOU CAN HELP... Subscribe today. Join us as we pursue a more authentic life. By subscribing to Plain Values, a portion of each subscription goes directly to Room to Bloom, our non-profit that supports children with special needs.
Our Team PUBLISHER
OFFICE
WRITERS
Marlin Miller
Nic Stoltzfus, editorial manager
Rebecca Greenfield, contributing writer
Sabrina Schlabach, quality assurance
Sherri Romig, contributing writer
Bethany Troyer, bookkeeping
Rory Feek, Roots + Wings
Jan Schlabach, customer service
Merissa A. Alink, Homestead + Roots
Isaac Hershberger, production manager
Joel Salatin, Confessions of a Steward
Seth Yoder, graphic artist
Ferree Hardy, The Widow's Path
ADVERTISING Matt Yoder, Ohio sales advisor Aaron Stutzman, Indiana + Michigan sales advisor
Elam Stoltzfus, Our Heritage Jim Zumbo, All Things Outdoors
MARCH AD CLOSE
//
February 4, 2022
Plain Values is published monthly by Plain Target Marketing, LLC. Please contact us with any questions.
a: PO Box 201/2106 Main Street, Winesburg, Ohio 44690
//
p: (330) 601 - 6106
//
f: (330) 601 - 4099
//
e: reachout@plainvalues.com
W W W. P L AI N VALU E S . CO M This publication and its contents are © 2022, Plain Target Marketing, LLC. Individual copyrighted items, trademarks, etc. contained within are the property of their respective copyright holders. No part of this publication may be reproduced or redistributed by any means without authorization from the publisher. Publisher is not responsible for advertisers’ offers, products, or services, and publication neither expresses or implies an endorsement.
3
FEBRUARY 2022
PLAIN VALUES
4
5
FEBRUARY 2022
contents
February 2022 // Issue 104
feature 12
LIFEWATER Water Today. Health Tomorrow. Hope for Generations. words by: Rebecca Greenfield "Lifewater International, a non-profit organization, 'are Christians committed to ending the global water and sanitation crisis, one village at a time.' Since 1977, they have lived out the power of their name by bringing life to the thirsty through clean water and water hygiene practices."
simple living 35
HOMESTEAD + ROOTS Homemade Sauerkraut column by: Merissa A. Alink
36
CONFESSIONS OF A STEWARD Moving Animals Around (part two) column by: Joel Salatin "If you don't want to pay vet bills, fertilizer bills, or energy bills, tap into the functionality of animal movement. It makes happy and healthy animals, which in turn make beautiful landscapes, which make the farmer appreciate living in a world that is fearfully and wonderfully made."
resources 22
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT Immunity Therapy Center words by: Sherri Romig
PLAIN VALUES
6
8
58
ONE MINUTE WITH MARLIN
ON THE COVER
FUNDS AND BENEFITS
Thoughts and ramblings from Marlin Miller, publisher of Plain Values.
A mother in sub-Saharan Africa gathering water for her family after a long trek.
Every month we provide a listing of opportunities to help out those in need.
photo © Lifewater International
community 29
ROOTS + WINGS Sprouting Wings column by: Rory Feek "God had taken what seemed like failure and turned it into success beyond our wildest dreams. And it all seemed to have happened because she no longer wanted or needed it."
46
THE WIDOW'S PATH Lessons Learned column by: Ferree Hardy "If I could have come alongside the forty-four-year-old me, here are some of the lessons I’d want her to understand so she’d know that the burdens of grief would lighten and become bearable."
history 51
OUR HERITAGE Printing the Ausbund
(part two)
column by: Elam Stoltzfus “...the fifth and sixth hymn in the Ausbund were written by Anabaptist leaders George Blaurock and Felix Manz."
outdoors 54
ALL THINGS OUTDOORS All About Cottontail Rabbits column by: Jim Zumbo "When people ask who taught me how to hunt, I conjure up memories from many decades ago when I accompanied my dad, uncles, and grandfather on rabbit hunts."
7
FEBRUARY 2022
one minute with Marlin
EVERY EVENING Adelaide, Bennett, and I have the same routine. After baths are done, teeth are brushed, and the many “night night love you’s” are shared between the five of us, we begin. The doll babies are put to bed and tucked in their warm blankets. We find the tattered and coverless pictorial children’s Bible, I read a story, we take turns saying a prayer, and then end our routine by taking turns singing “Jesus loves me.” But in between, something wonderful happens. After I have read the story of the evening, Addie and Bennie compete for the Bible in order to “read a story to me!” And what “reading a story” consists of for them is scouring the Bible from front to back and finding the pages with photos of Jesus. Invariably, I am saying the words, “That’s Abraham” or “That’s not Jesus either, that is David. Jesus is in the back half of the Bible.” In their Bible, Jesus is always wearing the same white and red clothes, and the squeals of delight when the kids find Him are unlike anything else. When we are sitting together, I often wonder how much they comprehend what we are reading and talking about. They may never understand the human condition and how sin has destroyed much of what God originally created, but there is something inside our little boogers that draws them to Jesus. I think this is much more of a question being tossed into the air than a statement or an observation. I don’t have an answer, but watching and hearing little children come to our Lord with a level of innocence and purity only those with Down syndrome can have is a blessing all its own. In Matthew 19:14, Jesus says, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Many times, I make life harder than it is. Maybe you can relate. I hope that
MARLIN MILLER publisher, always looking for more friends
tonight, when you and I sit with our families thinking and talking over the last day, we can search for Jesus hidden in the pages of our lives. As always, may you find joy in the simple things. //
PLAIN VALUES
8
9
FEBRUARY 2022
PLAIN VALUES
10
11
FEBRUARY 2022
feature LIFEWATER
Water Today. Health Tomorrow. Hope for Generations. words by: REBECCA GREENFIELD
PLAIN VALUES
12
YOU TURN ON THE FAUCET, the rush of cool water flows freely from the spigot. Ah, there's nothing like a nice tall glass of crisp water, smooth and cool as it runs over the tongue. Perhaps you want to fill a pot of water to start your dinner or simply to wash your hands with sudsy soap. All of this happens in a matter of seconds, without much extra thought. After scurrying through your tasks and drinking that refreshing water, you decide you need to use the facilities. With a quick flush, the waste vanishes, and on you go to the more important matters of the day like work, family, and household responsibilities. Our interactions with water are frequent and quick. Water and workable restroom facilities free us up to allocate our time to other demands in our lives. But in some countries, simply finding and collecting clean water can be what much of the day is centered around. Over 850 million people in
13
FEBRUARY 2022
Two mothers start their trek back home with 40 pounds of water on their heads
the world do not have access to clean water, of which a vast majority are in sub-Saharan Africa. A lack of access to clean water is defined as someone who must walk over thirty minutes to find drinkable water. No wells, no latrines, and no sanitation system cause hundreds of thousands to be susceptible to water insecurity and illness. Lifewater International, a non-profit organization, "are Christians committed to ending the global water and sanitation crisis, one village at a time." Since 1977, they have lived out the power of their name by bringing life to the thirsty through clean water and water hygiene practices. Lifewater serves in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Cambodia.
A mother living in Tanzania grabs a weathered five-gallon bucket. Dirt and sand have crept into the dry crevices. The mother's own hands are worn, with layers of grime and grease from her early morning chores. She wakes her two children, who are not quite old enough for school. The baby can't walk yet, so she swaddles him tightly to her thin-framed body. She grabs the empty bucket and calls for her three-year-old. They are heading off for a three-and-a-half-hour round trip to the nearest water well. This has become a routine for them while the eldest two children are in school, and the father is in the village trying to earn a wage. Once at the well, they fill the bucket to the brim. The commute there was tiring for three-year-old legs, trying to keep up with his mama, but the walk back home would be even more arduous. The terrain is not easy, traveling it with no shoes, on rocky soil in the beating sun through eighty-degree heat. There isn't much time to stop for a break as they try to make it
PLAIN VALUES
14
home before the hottest point of the day and in time
requests from other ministry leaders for clean water
for other chores. The bucket is filled, the children
in over 100 countries in need. In response, he began
are tired, and the baby starts to cry, but this is life,
holding conferences that recruited volunteers with
and it is time to return home. The mother, bearing
professional skill sets. The volunteers would be
the burden and the weight, grabs the filled bucket,
trained to not only bring "physical" life-giving water,
which now weighs around forty pounds. Her thin
but more importantly, "spiritual" life-giving water
frame is deceptive. Despite the bucket weighing
through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
about a third of her body weight, she has developed
As Lifewater evolved, so did their vision and
the muscle over time to sustain the long, heavy
outreach. Just as God does not only show up in an
journey home. This is what she knows. This is her
emergency, but cares deeply about relationships and
"normal." This is what she remembers doing when
the holistic renewal of a person, so does Lifewater.
she followed her mama as a naive toddler herself
They did not simply want to enter a desperate
decades before.
situation for a quick fix; instead, they saw an opportunity to help a whole community thrive. When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, the water she went to retrieve was symbolic of a greater thirst
"Every two minutes, a child dies due to illnesses caused by unclean water."
she had, a greater thirst all of us have — to be known, loved, and forgiven by the person who transcends the earthly confines of this broken world, Jesus. Lifewater knows that physically people are thirsty, but spiritually they need to drink from the water that can help them both in this life and beyond. Jesus told the Samaritan woman as he referred to Himself, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would
Like this Tanzanian mother, women and
have given you living water" (John 4:10). Lifewater
children are often the biggest victims of unclean
wants to provide this same hope and sustainability
water. Many times, it is women who are responsible
to the communities they help. Through
for retrieving the water for their families. It is
community
health
training
and
also the women who are nursing their children
evangelism, Lifewater partners with a village in a
back to health who are frequently sick from
dignified way over a three-year period. There is a
waterborne illnesses or suffering the grievous loss
two-fold purpose in this approach. First, it helps
of their child. Every two minutes, a child dies due to illnesses caused by unclean water. The awareness of preventable deaths, impoverished communities, and a skill set that could aid in a plausible solution to help is what motivated Lifewater's founder, Bill Ashe, into action. It all started in 1962 on a trip to Mexico, where Ashe, a water pump business owner, repaired a windmill hand pump at an orphanage. By 1968, he had dedicated his life to ministering to suffering families in Baja California, Mexico. Nine years later, Lifewater was established. Attending a Billy Graham conference in Amsterdam, Ashe received over 2,000
15
FEBRUARY 2022