From Farming to Philadelphia

About this book

This reflective memoir traces the 77 rich years of my life up to now, from Amish farm boy in Ohio to eventual long-term resident of Philadelphia, where I enjoyed various careers in church leadership and college teaching. I describe major blocks of time in various settings, noting especially those persons, events, and contexts that had a decisive influence in shaping my life and character. Along the way, I revisit the considerable emotional stress of adjustments I needed to make in the many transitions from isolated farm life in an Amish community to one year of high school in Johnstown, PA, college life in Harrisonburg, VA and Columbus, OH to teaching in the tropical heat of Lokoja, Nigeria (a small city in West Africa) during a civil war, and eventually spending the past 45 years living in an almost all-black inner city neighborhood in North Philadelphia. It is a testimony to God's grace that these considerable challenges and opportunities served to strengthen my Anabaptist convictions and to deepen my appreciation for a robust urban faith community in which to anchor them. Woven throughout my story is the underlying call I felt at Plainview School to serve God as a missionary, perhaps a missionary doctor, somewhere in the world, probably some overseas location. This deep sense of call was instilled by a wonderful Mennonite teacher, Esther Hilty, who came from Eastern Mennonite College to teach in this tiny Amish school in rural Ohio. She opened our eyes to the wonders of the gospel, the magic of the English language (German and PA German were the lingua franca of the Amish), the beauty of music and art (we learned to read music and sang straight through the Church Hymnal), and made the Anabaptist faith a wonderful lived reality, not just a conservative tradition. Since the Amish were not ready to embrace the call to mission, I waited until I was of age (21) out of respect for my elders, to leave the Amish, join the Mennonites, and set off for college. Later I married my wonderful wife, Naomi Peachey, during our last year at Ohio State University, after which we set off for West Africa to test our call to mission in a 3-year stint with Mennonite Central Committee's Teachers abroad Program. During the Nigerian civil war in the late 60's, when the US put a man on the moon, assassinated a president, and watched their cities burn during the civil unrest of the time, we began to feel a redirection to serve God back home in the city. This led to several years of teaching in an all-black inner- city high school in Columbus, Ohio, followed by three years of seminary at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, and then 45 eventful years living and serving in inner city Philadelphia. My story traces God's faithful guidance and provision as we sent our daughters to several public schools in Philadelphia, pastored a wonderfully-diverse multicultural Mennonite church, and watched our daughters marry an African America, a Puerto Rican American, and a mixed race South African. These three amazing sons-in-law and our 9 incredible grandchildren all bless our lives daily in the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection which we all love to call home. I am eager to share our story as an encouragement to others and a testimony to our faithful God who is preparing an eternal city for us all to eventually call Home.