Photo courtesy of Lovina’s Amish Kitchen Lovina hosted church services at her home the Sunday after Easter.

Today is Easter Sunday. Jesus is risen! His life, death and resurrection paid for our sins.

Last Sunday, our church had a council meeting at our neighbor’s house. Next Sunday, we will host communion services here. In between the two churches, we have Fast and Prayer Day. Son Kevin went home with son Joseph and Grace last night, so he won’t be home until tonight.

Daniel Ray and daughter Verena and son Benjamin’s special friend Joanna joined us for lunch. I fried chicken and made mashed potatoes and gravy along with corn, peas and cheese. We rested most of the day.

We are hosting church services next Sunday and I thought you would enjoy learning a little about it. Church services will start at 9 a.m. The men and boys sit on one side and the women and girls sit on the other side.

The bishop, ministers and deacon sit along the wall and everyone faces them. Most times there are visiting bishops, ministers or deacons from other church districts to help partake in Communion.

Communion services are held twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. Singing is usually done for the first hour or so.

Around 11:30, we will begin to serve lunch in the house in shifts. One table will be for the men and boys and the other table for the women and girls. At each place setting is a glass for water, a cup for coffee or hot water, a bowl, spoon, fork and knife. We reset the table after every time.

My husband Joe will go out to the pole barn where the services are being held and tell the men and women when we have reset the table and will bring in more people. My daughters will be helping me with the lunch. Also, sisters or other family members will help if they attend the service. Some places, they will have lunch in the same pole barn as the services but just hang a curtain or canvas to separate it.

Our menu will consist of chicken noodle soup. Daughter Elizabeth and Tim made my noodles. I do not have any canned chicken broth, so I’ll just cook some chicken off the bones so I’ll have broth and chicken pieces for the soup.

I plan to make around 32 quarts of soup for the lunch meal. Also on the menu is homemade wheat and white bread, ham, cheese spread, peanut butter spread, pickles, pickled red beets, hot peppers, strawberry jam (I was out of jam so I bought some strawberries and made fresh freezer jam), butter, coffee, tea and a variety of cookies. After everyone is done eating, we clean up and go back outside to sit down.

Communion starts around 3 p.m. The bishop has the main message and shares the story of Jesus’ crucifixion. The bread and wine are distributed, and the members partake of this in remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. In our church, the deacon’s wife bakes one large round loaf of bread. Everyone is given a small piece of bread from that loaf. Eating from one loaf is supposed to symbolize unity in the body. After this, the members of the church wash each other’s feet as a symbol of humility and service, following the example of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. Four buckets of water are set out, two on the men’s side and two on the women’s. The women pair up to wash each other’s feet as do the men. While this is being done, a German hymn is being sung from the Ausbund (the book that has our German church hymns in it).

Depending on the size of the church you have depends on how long this takes, but usually by 4 p.m., everything is done and everyone heads for home. I will set out the leftover lunch for our family so they can eat before they head home. Usually before leaving, our family helps load the benches up in the bench wagon so that it’s ready to go to the next place where services will be in two weeks.

God bless!

Church chicken noodle soup

Ingredients:

3 quarts chicken broth with chicken pieces

3 to 4 pounds of noodles

7 quarts of water

1 cup of chicken soup base

1 tablespoon of salt

Directions:

Bring broth to a boil in a 12-quart kettle. Stir in noodles. Add water, chicken soup base and salt. Return to a full boil and cook for several minutes then turn off heat. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes.

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her three cookbooks, The Cherished Table, The Essential Amish Cookbook, and Amish Family Recipes, are available wherever books are sold.