In these days of digital newspapers, I find The Budget delivers a comforting, hefty thump when it lands in my rural mailbox. The Budget, published since 1890 out of Sugarcreek, Ohio, brings 50 to 60 paper pages of news from every Anabaptist community in the world, including Amish, Mennonites, and Brethren.

It boasts “50,000 Readers each week in Plain Communities across the Americas.”  The “scribe” of every community reports the weather, the comings and goings, the births and deaths, and the illnesses and recoveries of their group — plus any other anecdotes that might resonate with these far-flung readers.

With the news comes inserts advertising everything from harmonicas to wellness centers where “brain scanning, rife scanning, and microscope blood analysis” is offered. Individual ads hawk the necessities of Amish life: horseshoes, hoop house covers, trampoline parts, and pain-relief supplements. And yet another section includes feature stories and national news — the opening of an Amish quilt show at the Smithsonian Institute, volunteer work drilling wells in Haiti, and lectures on the odyssey of some Mennonites who fled Prussia, where they were forbidden to own land, to settle in Russia, then eventually in Mexico.

The Anabaptist diaspora kicked off in 18^th century Europe and spread all over the world, but the majority of the communities settled in the United States. A quick glance at The Budget finds columns from Pennsylvania where the Amish first fled from persecution, to Alabama, to Kentucky, to Montana. Predominantly, the Amish, a sub-group of the larger Mennonite umbrella, left the Swiss/Alsace region of Europe to find the religious freedom to practice their beliefs that rejected infant baptism, military killing, and swearing oaths of allegiance to the state.

This week’s Budget column from Fredericksburg, Ohio began with a description of the eclipse:

Screech owl hooted. In the Speelman Bottom 18 deer came out to feed. The eclipse goggles were great. But our youngest one was worried the birds will become blind since they don’t have the convenience of these glasses. Our oldest Hershberger in church wondered if the hens will lay twice since it was expected they’ll go roost.

Then at the end of this column, another animal became a main character in a story about a benefit auction:

The auction seemed well-attended with some high-priced items, which is good. One of my uncles deemed it wise to check on buying a tall night-stand, there at the auction for his wife’s side of the bed, giving her a convenient spot to park her glasses and dentures, instead of on the floor. Recently, one morning they searched high and low around the bed for those teeth of hers. Bed cover shaken, nothing. In the living room underneath the recliner they were found then, all honor to the house pup … Teeth got thoroughly scrubbed!

But it was the wind that carried the theme of the rest of this week’s paper. A scribe in Albia, Iowa, thanked the previous owners of their farm for the plantings that block the fierce spring winds:

Andy and Millie, I don’t know if you read these or not, but we’ve often been thankful for the plants and trees you planted, now for our benefit. Also, the evergreen wind block on the north–that is a real blessing in good old IA! Smile.

In contrast, in Nashville, Arkansas, the scribe didn’t have such a good experience with the wind:

Later Mon. evening a thunderstorm from the south brought several gusts of wind. A neighbor was burning brush behind Grace Point Mennonite Church and the wind caused it to spread and put the building in danger. Our fire department responded to the call and soon had it under control.

Then wedged into the right-hand corner of the next page of The Budget: a story of a visit to the Schlabach’s former family home near the village of Jessberg in Hesse, Germany. The family had once occupied a house that now stored bagged fertilizer and garden supplies. Two hundred years before, the Schlabachs had left everything behind to set sail for the United States:

The Schlabach family had boarded the ship “James von Bremen” at the port city of Bremen on the Weser River on April 19, 1820. Due to “adverse winds and storm,” which prolonged the ocean crossing to three and a half months, it was not until the 15^th of August that the ship first touched shore at the harbor in New York.

In the end, it’s the columns of the scribes in international locations that most interest me. I followed the Waterford, Ireland community throughout the pandemic, intrigued by the lockdowns there, the quarantines, and the romance between a member of the community with a man in the U.S. I traced the travels of the prospective groom. He had to bring proof of vaccination from the United States, then isolate once he had arrived in Waterford before he could be married to his beloved.

I saw the war in Ukraine through the eyes of communities in Suceava, Romania who ran medical supplies through Moldova into their ravaged neighboring country. The Mennonites drove trucks toward Odesa, risking their lives, bombs and missiles dropping around them. A Feb. 14, 2024 entry again reported on this Mobile Medical Team:

And finally, the Christian Aid Ministries scribe in Jerusalem dramatized the tremendous fear that lives in the hearts of those in Gaza and Israel. On January 31, 2024, she wrote:

. . . Fifty miles from here, the conditions in Gaza continue to worsen. I hear it by the news and from bits and pieces of information from Palestinian friends who have family in Gaza. Daily, and especially at night, I hear the low rumble of fighter jets overhead. The sound is not terrifying, but it is a reminder that one more bomb will explode in Gaza.

On Feb. 21, 2024, the Jerusalem scribe wrote :

Then this week, the Jerusalem scribe continued:

WASHINGTON — Mayor Pro Tem Millie Youngquist can officially shorten her title, coming out of a special election Tuesday with 432 ballots in her favor. At 44.7%, she won the plurality of votes cast to choose Washington’s next mayor in a four-way race.

Reached for comments after unofficial election results were announced, Youngquist said she was, “Pleasantly surprised.“

“I’m pleased and flattered that the citizens of Washington have put their vote of confidence in me,“ she said. ”I’ve done a lot of hard working meeting people and knocking on doors and shaking hands, and talking to people, and hopefully that helped get some of the vote out.“

The longtime council member and Washington’s acting mayor for the last 14 months campaigned on a simple message: she’s practical. She’s patient. And she already knows how to do the job.

Those talking points proved more persuasive than those from skeptics, some of whom argue she’s not as assertive a leader as recently resigned Mayor Jaron Rosien, or blaming her for recent sewer and water rate hikes.

Runners-up in the race were council members Elaine Moore (171 votes,) and Ivan Rangel, (240 votes,) as well as challenger candidate Rob Meyer (130 votes.)

Special elections — which happen outside of regularly scheduled primaries and general elections, involving high-profile state or federal offices — are not known for generating much voter interest. With that in mind, a considerable number came to the polls April 30, totaling 978 ballots.

The number dwarfs the last citywide special election in 2017, which saw just 507 voters turn out for a public measure on hotel/motel taxes.

But it falls short of other off-season citywide elections in recent memory, like a contentious bond referendum in 2016, which brought 1,712 voters to the polls before it ultimately failed. And Washington’s last contested mayoral election, a two-way race between Jaron Rosien and Pete Schaefer in 2017, brought 1,308 ballots, considerably more than Tuesday night’s totals.

Even for a special election, the latest race happened on unusually short notice, and for the first time used a polling place at Dallmeyer Hall on the Washington County fairgrounds, rather than a retirement home closer to most residents’ doorsteps. Both factors may have suppressed turnout for demographics that rely on the convenience of a longer mail-in absentee window, or access to a ballot box within walking distance.

After winning what was effectively a re-election bid, Youngquist is poised to remain in the mayor’s chair once unofficial results are finalized by County Supervisors next week. That gives her a green light to direct council members toward her priorities, a list that includes infrastructure maintenance, communication with the public and enforcement of the city’s nuisance and property maintenance codes.

The mayor-elect previously said she thought of the race as a referendum on her own leadership over the last several months. Tuesday’s vote appeared to confirm Youngquist still has the public’s blessing to stay at the helm, at least from the plurality of Washington’s voters.

“For me, knowing that I’ve been duly elected by the citizens of Washington, would be like a vote of confidence,“ Youngquist said in an earlier interview with SEIU. ”I could move forward with my ideas. I always want to remain open for citizens, for them to come to me.“

On Tuesday night, the Mayor-Elect said she was excited to continue her role, and thanked opposing candidates for running.

“I look forward to working with Ivan and Elaine on city council, they have not lost their position on council and their voice, and they are passionate about Washington,” she said. “And I also thank Rob for putting himself out there as a candidate, and wish him the best.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com

SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – Moving to a new city can be stressful. Now, imagine moving to a new city, in a new country, with nothing but a suitcase.

That’s a reality for refugees settling in Siouxland.

Lutheran Services in Iowa has a program helping refugees settling in the Siouxland area. It helps them find housing, jobs, transportation and anything else families may need to get started. This includes furnishing apartments and homes with basic necessities like couches, beds and tables, and, they need donations.

“We collect used furniture, gently used furniture, especially couches, loveseats, dining room sets, and then we get other household supplies that we always need for new families like cooking, cookware, dishes, cleaning products, all those types of things that families need to get started with their new life here in Iowa,” said Director of Philanthropy Eldon Bensen.

The goal is to get families settled in Siouxland, and active in their communities. LSI assists them in enrolling their children in the local school district, find medical care and whatever else they may need to live life here in Siouxland.

”They come here with whatever suitcases they brought on the plane, really,” explained Bensen. “And so all this stuff is new to them. And they only get a certain amount of money to get started with their new life. And so our goal is to get them self sufficient as quick as possible. If they’re self sufficient, that means that they’re not taking government benefits. They’re not on food stamps or Medicare, Medicaid anymore. So they’re actually contributing more than they’re bringing in after eight months of being here in the US.”

Bensen says that LSI has been helping refugees in Iowa for years, but the Sioux City chapter of LSI has only been working with the refugee resettlement program for three years. In that time, 94% of the refugees that they assisted were self-sufficient in 8 months.

“And it’s been really nice to have the opportunity to to bring these families into Siouxland, get them started, and have them contributing back to the city as soon as they possibly can,” said Bensen.

In 2023, they helped 147 refugees settle in to life in Siouxland. In order to do that, they rely on donations and volunteers.

“We’re bringing new people in with new experiences and new ways of doing life and really just benefiting Siouxland as a whole,” said Bensen. “We have a lot of people that are moving in here from all over the country. And now they’re moving in from all over the world. Just seeing the effect that it’s had on that city is really encouraging to know that that’s the type of environment that we can create when everybody works together for a common good.”

LSI doesn’t just help those settling in Siouxland, but the surrounding area as well.

Items In Need:

• Hygiene Products
• Paper Products
• Cookware
• New Bedding and Linens
• Cleaning Products
• School and Office Supplies
• Batteries
• Alarm Clocks
• Light Bulbs

If you have items to donate or would like to volunteer, you can call Lutheran Services in Iowa at 515-422-6663 or visit their website, or drop off donations during business hours at their office located at 1308 S. Cleveland St. in Sioux City.

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