Numidia Mennonite Bible School - Reflector Yearbook (Numidia, PA)

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PERSONAL EVANGELISM Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. Eccl. 12:13. The Lord Jesus, the greatest personal soul winner, gave the commandment, Go ye therefore and teach all nations. We who are joint heirs of the kingdom of God should count it a privilege and pleasure to win souls for the glory of the Father. To be effective in personal work the worker must meet the requirements of the Lord' as found in His Word. He must have the blessed experience of the new birth. He must be filled with the knowledge of His will and Word in all wisdom and spir- itual understanding. He must have a heart compassion as Jesus had, praying without ceasing. He must be both evangelical and evangelistic, and should engage in both preventive and redemptive evangelism. Experiences were shared in personal contacts and in practical application of the Word to the situation in which the Holy Spirit led us. A We received many blessings in pioneer- ing with the Mennonite faith in a new community. F We 17 students were led in class dis- cussion by Brother William Wagler. We were all inspired by his dedication in teaching this subject. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the har- vest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. Matt. 9:38. Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am Ig send me. Isa. 6:8. -Marvin Reed CHRISTIAN WRITING Five girls are seated in a semicircle waiting for the arrival of their teacher. Some sit in silence rechecking their com- positions. Others converse about the in- spiration, or lack of it, that they had while working on their writing assignments. Let's step more closely to hear what they say. . Wasn't it fun writing descriptions of people? After I got started it went like a whiz ! Yes, Phebe, but the thing I really enjoyed writing was that paraphrase. I had never written anything like it be- fore. But, Eva, don't you dread starting your autobiography? I just don't know where to begin. I felt that way too, Ruth. The thing is to get started. I guess that . . . Here comes the teacher. Let's step aside. Sister Ida walks briskly and erectly. Tucked under her arm is a book by Rudolf Flesch, The Art of Readable Writing. A slight crease in her forehead smooths out while she smiles with understanding and love, as she approaches her students. Her blue eyes look deep into each of their faces. The class begins. The students bow their heads while Sister Ida prays: Our Father in heaven, we thank Thee for the power of words. Guide us in our choice of words as we write. 'Help us 'to express our thoughts in the best way pos- sible so that Thy name may be honored. Be our Teacher and Guide throughout this class period. Through Christ we pray. Amen. With a rustling sound the students leaf through their notebooks and pull out their compositions. Calmly Sister Ida collects them. She begins reading with low, mellow voice. Two hungry boys burst through the door. Dinner is spread on the table. 'Let's eat Steve,' cried Joe Sister Ida stops. A grin spreads 'across her face as she asks, Is Joe going to eat Steve? It sounds like it, doesn't it? Let's put a com- ma between eat and Steve. Do you see what punctuation can do? Sister Ida reads on. After a paragraph or two she stops and asks, How can we reword this sentence to make it mean what you really want it to say? The students give sugges- tions. They are learning from each other's mistakes. Each composition has been read and discussed. The class open their textbooks to see what technique they can learn from Rudolf Flesch. Buzz-z-z, the bell inter- rupts. The class period ends. Notebooks are closed. As the students arise, ideas are already tumbling around in their minds for tomorrow's composition. Sister Ida watches as the girls leave one by one. She prays that each will use the knowledge gained for the glory of God. -Marla Martin

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mich 'tree vols, Ilbu. Dlllgl ord, Ptin lave say four 'But Dne.' our fact, I for uber lstle, sing, 1 the this cism from ? our mer's aer's lind- 1ult1- Ltur- was plied fe of ided tudy ium. ltor- eech area ters ings rital 'ord ank E- . T'.'-:S0NG'LEADERSHIP.4 -' - Our song 'leadership class, taught by Brother Bontrager, has proven to be a real help to us four students. Personal appearance has much to do with, a good 'song leader. 'He should be awake. His appearance should be neat and clean and his hair neatly combed. A song leader must know the message of the song and convey it to the group by the expression of his face and the move- ment of his hand. He should know the correct tempo and the correct movement of the hand. One, important thing is to have afsong or a personal experience to tell the audience, if he gets into an embar- rassing situation and finds this an appro- priate way out. ' J The song leader should never think of himself but of his audience. He must know the difference between' a hymn and a Gospel song. This 'should be considered every time a song is chosen. To create a proper atmosphere for the type of meeting is very important. i , , These are just a fewpoints of a good song leader. f'Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of Godl' CI Cor. 10:31bJ. t 1 -Joseph Hostetter up ' RumMENTs or Music -- Four days weekly, nine- industrious stu- dents would gather in room 5 for rudi- ments of music class. In, this class we students could relax and thoroughly enjoy ourselves. Of course, this doesn't mean that we didn't do any work, we gained naiuch knowledge during those class peri- o s. . Sister Bontrager drilled us well to im- plant in our minds a knowledge of music. Learning to read music correctly was, a major object of this course. Naturally, this included learning thepreliminaries, such as the different keys, the distonic and chromatic scales, which give us the thirteen tones of music, proper timingg and other details. Usually, during every class period we would sing, or at least attempt to sing, the notes to various songs. Sometimes the re- sult was harmonious discord . For this reason .Brother Bontrager preferred to have the door of room .5 closed, rather than to hear our melodies floating through the air.. One point which impressed me anew was how wonderfully God has planned music. Truly, God is the Master Musician. -Rhoda Ulrich PRAYER LIFE Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Rev. 3:20. As Brother Edwin Gehman taught our class on the prayer life, using the book Prayer by O. Hallesby, our lives and souls were enriched. We first considered what prayer is. To pray is to let Jesus come into our hearts. Prayer is also a means of communication and fellowship with our heavenly Father. We were made aware of the fact that it is possible to have a knowledge of God and yet, really not know Him. Prayer is the vital breath of the soul. To pray is to let Jesus glorify His name in the .midst of our needs. We need to see ourselves as helpless creatures, as dust of the ground. We must recognize this before we can really bring ourselves to God. Our helplessness is the most powerful plea which can rise up to the tender Father- heart of God. We also considered faith. We found that prayer and faith cannot be separated. But 'let himask in faith, nothing waver- ing. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and toss- ed. James 1:6. I was made aware of the fact that the child of God can grieve Christ in no worse way than to neglect prayer. When one takes such a step, his spiritual life dies out. Let us all pray, Lord, help my un- belief . Without God we can do nothing. Our total dependence must rest on Him. God has promised in His Word to do exceeding abundantly above that which we are able to ask or think. Let us take God at His promises and He will take care of the rest. c Let's not put a question mark where God puts a period. God is never in a hurry but is always on time. This course is a valuable one, and I recommend it for everyone. . . -Suzie Rogers

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lly -I ae-- Hg JW Jo, ass LHS sly. .olf A out md Ier leir mow 'hee our 5 to pos- red. this ray. leaf heir .ects llow xugh able. Ida e as i? It com- see Ida she 'this and 316 0119 the DIVISION 5 - EXTRA CURRICULAR OUTREACH WORK In order to invite the public to our re- vival meetings there was a need that in- vitations be passed out. It was decided by the extension committee to divide the student body into groups and send them out into the community on foot and in cars. In this was invitations were given to the neighborhood in person. Everyone took part in giving these invitations out. Brother Bontrager urged each group to look for a place open to cottage meetings. In some homes where the residents could not attend services because of physical conditions we asked if we could conduct cottage meetings. Groups of nine or ten brethren and sisters conducted these meet- ings. They' sanga number of songs, had devotion, gave testimonies, and offered prayer. The meetings were appreciated very much and we were thanked for com- ing. We were glad for the opportunity to leave a testimony and to tell about our Saviour. Brother Lester Hoover from Pottsville invited a group of about twenty of us brethren and sisters to go with him to the county prison the evening of December 20. They accepted the invitation. When they arrived they had a short prayer be- fore entering the prison. The group sang songs and gave testimonies. Brother Hoo- ver followed with a short talk on Christ- mas. The service closed with Christmas carols, sung by the group and the prison- ers together. -John Frey CHORUS Singing was a factor of our supreme delight at NBS. Each week-day morning at 10:25, students assembled in the chapel for chorus. Yes, and faculty members seemed as eager for chorus as we students, for the songs sung were the type that spiritually uplift a child of God - that made us feel closer to our Lord as the music swelled and rang through the chap- el. The chorus period also brought won- derful mental relaxation. The book used for chorus was the one compiled by the Bontragers -- Songs That Live. During the first three weeks of the Bible-school term the topics of the songs sung in chorus dealt mainly with the life of Christ from His birth to His resurrec- tion. That outline of songs was followed in the music program rendered on the eve- ning of December 22 - the closing day of the first term of the first year of Bible School at Numidia. A number of the songs sung during the final term of Bible school were also in preparation for the program on January 19, which marked the close of the first year of a Mennonite Bible School at Numidia. One could hardly think of chorus with- out also remembering its directors. Broth- er Bontrager and his little tuning fork were our dynamic leaders the first term. During the final term of Bible, School, Aaron Weaver served as our director - the Bontragers having left for Ohio to supervise at Messiah Bible School. Those weeks at NBS not only deepened our perception of truths from the Word, we also learned to more fully appreciate good music. -Ruby Ulrich