CORNUCOPIA
THE STUDENTS WRITE
Bethabara Park
By Melissa Shoemaker
Many homeschool families enjoyed a field trip to Bethabara Park on December 9th. We began our tour in the 209-year-old Moravian church and discussed what they used to do during church time. Back then males and females had to sit on separate sides of the church (boys on the left and girls on the right). They believed it was best to keep males and females apart so there wouldn't be any temptation. The Moravians were pioneers seeking religious freedom and desiring to evangelize the New World. Moravianism is basically Presbyterian in structure and has played a major role in the development of Protestant worship, evangelism, missions, and theology in the last three centuries.
Moravian women could marry at age 14 and were set to work on meal making, clothes making and many more laborious jobs. Children began school around 7:00 am and finished at about 4:30 p.m. They came straight home and did house-hold jobs for their family. For Christmas time they didn't see the use of a tree because it was a waste of the wood, so they made a permanent triangle-shaped tree with shelves that would fit on a table and placed scrolls of scripture and decorations of greens and apples on it. The children only got a little scroll and a piece of chocolate for Christmas.
Mealtime was a special time. The main meal was at lunchtime and included chicken or hunted game, vegetables grown in the garden and homemade breads baked in the fireplace. Children enjoyed apple pie as a favorite breakfast food.
Clothing styles were very important. Women and girls made their own clothing, spun their own thread and dyed it also. Little children had to spin the thread for the older women on a machine called a "weasel". Girls couldn't wear anything fancy. They were not allowed to wear buttons or have pockets. Their hair had to be pulled up and hidden under a cap. The ribbons that tied their caps showed which "choir" they belonged to: girls wore red, single sisters wore pink, married ladies wore blue and widowed ladies wore white. Their necks and legs could not show either. They were very modest. Men wore slacks and a shirt, which they also slept in at night. They wore a 3-cornered black hat, but they had to take it off inside, for it was rude to wear a hat indoors.
You can see they lived a pretty hard life. The tour was very interesting and I recommend you visit Bethabara Park sometime soon.
Repentance
By Catherine Harrison
God, tell me,
Are you really there?
Or is it that You
Just don't care?
As I sit here all alone,
Crying, weeping, on my own.
If You're listening, would You care,
If I dare to say a prayer?
Lord, I can't do it on my own,
I need Your strength to carry on.
I need You here by my side,
With the love that you provide.
I was wrong and You were right,
I have stumbled from Your light.
Lord, now I do confess,
Please bring me out of my loneliness.
Winter Is Coming Fast
By Catherine Harrison
Everywhere I look, I see
The dead, fallen leaves,
A gray sky
That goes hurriedly by.
The air is windy and cool
And the children are out of school,
The trees are so bare,
In the woods and everywhere.
It is now late afternoon,
And I see the rising moon.
As far as I can see
There is nothing left but me.
Yes, winter is coming fast
With chilly, icy blasts.
Yes, winter is coming fast.
Mother, Mother
By Jenna White (age 9)
Mother, Mother quite a bother,
How do your children grow?
In spiritual Godly wisdom
Or in growth of stupidness?
Mother, maider, quite a bather,
How does your soap clean?
In forgiveness with God
Or in the dirt of sin?
Mother, maker, quite a baker,
How do your cookies bake?
Hard so they rot or soft and warm
Fit for the Lord Himself?
For thine Lord says be kind to one another.
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