Shipshewana, Indiana

Balmy 15 degrees...

It was a rough adjustment coming from beautiful sunshine and warm weather to mid-winter in Indiana, but with the cold also came some wonderful blessings including a free Saturday to explore some of Northern Indiana and visit the Amish community of Shipshewana. The day started out very cold and frozen. At one point when it took nearly a half-hour to defrost the car I asked Bud, "If our kids were doing this would we approve?" The nearly three-hour (one way) trip went off without a hitch and God provided us with a beautiful and rest-filled day which we both needed a lot! At one point we stopped at a rest area for Bud to "de-ice" the back window (it was so cold the rear defroster wasn't able to keep up) and the temperature read a balmy 15 degrees! A good Samaritan who had also stopped noticed Bud was using a paper coffee cup to "break up" the ice and offered to lend him an ice scrapper - thank you Jesus!

Buggy Siting

That was about the time I asked Bud if we were crazy to make this trip and that any respectable Amish wouldn't be out in a buggy in this weather! Low and behold, a short time later we turned the corner and I said, "Do you think we're getting close?" Bud replied, "Yep - see for yourself," and there was a horse-drawn buggy on the road ahead of us. We spent the day just being "tourists" walking the snow-filled streets, visiting the various shops and sweet stops, and just relaxing in a quiet little community which I'm sure in the summer is jam-packed with "real" tourists!

Look at all that snow!

The entire day was filled with sunshine and blue skies although the temperature never got above 17 degrees! There was so much beauty to behold (from, as Bud reminded me several times, the inside of a warm car!) We laughed about the reality that you don't have to live "across the ocean" to be in a cross-cultural situation.

Postcard Perfect!

Being in Greenwood for several weeks of training probably wasn't our first choice of how to spend January, but we have been richly blessed in the time we've had with the other missionaries here and the friendships that have been made, and, as Bud reminds me, "We'll always have Shipshewana!" 

Thank you Lord for a reminder of the beauty and glory of your creation which surrounds us everyday.

When I consider your heavens, 

   the work of your fingers, 

the moon and the stars, 

   which you have set in place, 

 what is mankind that you are mindful of them, 

   human beings that you care for them?

 Psalm 8:3-4