We celebrated Uncle Wally's life. He lived well.
After Bible college, he and Aunt Wanda went to France and served as missionaries for 40 years with TEAM Missions. Below is a picture taken before they left for France. My grandpa and grandma are on the right; Monroe and Anna.
Here he is as a child.
Brothers
Brothers, grown up.
The picture below is from back in October, 2013, when my mother was still living. Uncle Wally and Uncle Mahlon came to visit us in Kansas.
Now, only Uncle Mahlon and Aunt Anne are alive. Wait, not true! Mom, Dad, Uncle Wally and Aunt Wanda are more alive than ever!!!
Saying our good-byes.
Nancy, my cousin, spoke such gracious words at the service. My cousin's son, Devereux, played the piano and his wife sang Great is Thy Faithfulness. Nancy's husband, Rob, gave a sweet talk. Rob is a Presbyterian pastor and he told the story of how Uncle Wally, who is Mennonite, once told Rob that he had a book called "What The Bible Says of Infant Baptism". He was handed this book and when he opened it up, it was filled with blank pages! We all got a good laugh over that! Uncle Wally was quite a jokester!
When Uncle Wally and Aunt Wanda returned to the States, they debated about which church to attend. Uncle Wally wanted to go to St. John Mennonite, where he grew up and Aunt Wanda wanted to go to her church, the Ebeneezer Mennonite Church. Rob said that although they did attend St. John all these years, Aunt Wanda got the last laugh because they were buried at Ebeneezer!
I saw a pile of old cemetery gravestones in a pile. The undertaker told me that the church had begun a project to clean these old stones and reset them. Some were all broken apart. Some are illegible. They don't know who is buried in the spot where they were. But the Lord knows who is buried there and one day He will come for His own!! I hope it is a project that will one day be restarted so the people can get their headstones put back in place!
And he loved to whistle! You would hear him whistle all the time! Often not even a tune. Just a straight long note.
I was surprised to see Rev. Tschetter's grave! They were good friends of my parents. He also pastored the church that Allen grew up in for a while.
The church provided the family a meal for after the funeral at Uncle Mahlon's house. The pastor took a family photo of all of us in front of the old barn.
"Nancy, let's go into the barn!"
There is nothing like the smells of that barn to bring back memories!!
We used to climb up that ladder when we were kids.
See the double-door?
My mom had told me they used to jump out of that onto hay bales below.
It's a long ways down!!
A hand-crank drill that grandpa and great-grandpa used.
It was neat to see the toys that my great-grandpa Aaron made.
That evening, those who were still around went out to eat in Bluffton.
One fun memory of our time together is how some of the cousins ate a peanut butter and jelly burger. Ever heard of this??
What a precious time to be with family! And to thank the Lord for Uncle Wally's life and the impact he made for the Kingdom!
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