A Christmas Prayer by Vannetta Chapman

Author:Vannetta Chapman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2020-10-06T00:00:00+00:00

Rachel read the letter twice. She had at least a dozen questions, and the expression on Micah’s face told her he did too. Chloe was watching them closely, as if she could sense that something was amiss.

Finally, Rachel folded the letter and placed it back in the envelope. Glancing again at Micah, she saw such patience and concern that she felt tears prick her eyes. She looked left and right, anywhere but directly at this dear man.

“Perhaps we could go for a walk,” she said.

“Ya. A fine idea.”

He helped her into her coat, then shrugged into his own, and called out to Chloe. She didn’t need to be asked twice. They walked down the back-porch steps and into a December day so bright and crisp that Rachel felt pierced by the beauty of it.

They were halfway across the field before she found the words to begin.

“I barely remember my aenti Deborah. A few years after she married, she and her husband left the Amish church and joined the Mennonites.”

“What year was this?”

“I hadn’t begun school yet, so it must have been more than fifty years ago. I didn’t understand what had happened, why they weren’t around anymore. I only knew that I’d lost my playmate.”

“Savannah.”

“Ya.” Rachel smiled at the memory. “Even her name was different. According to my mamm, her schweschder never quite settled into our Plain life. She wanted to continue her education, even after she’d had Savannah, and that wasn’t allowed. Also, she and her husband questioned parts of our Ordnung. I don’t know the entire story, only what I’ve managed to put together. You see, a few weeks ago I found a box of letters Mamm wrote to Deborah.”

“The day I surprised you on the back porch, you’d been crying, a letter in your hand.”

“Ya. Mamm never mailed the letters. They weren’t even addressed, probably because she didn’t have an address. I think she always intended to send them if she could ever learn where Deborah was, believing in her heart they would somehow reconcile. But apparently she and my dat were killed in the buggy accident without her ever discovering Deborah’s whereabouts. I doubt she knew how to try. I didn’t.”

“Did the letters explain what happened?”

“Mamm talked around it a bit. Apparently my aenti’s husband had a schweschder who’d been abused by her husband. The man left the church and divorced her, but as you know . . .”

“Under our Ordnung, she wouldn’t be allowed to remarry.”

“That seemed the final straw that pushed her family into the Mennonite faith, where women who’ve been abused aren’t under the same restriction.”

Micah picked up a stick and threw it for Chloe, who dashed across the field the best she could. She might be an old dog, but she still enjoyed playing. There was a lesson in that.

Micah stole a glance at Rachel. “Fifty years ago . . . Many communities still practiced shunning then.”

“Many still do, but ya, at this time it was still our practice to sever ties completely with someone who left the church.

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