Sunday, July 27, 2008

The start of my journey

So I am reading this book Convergence: Spiritual Journeys of a Charismatic Calvinist and it has gotten me thinking about my own spiritual journey.
I was raised in the Mennonite Brethren church.  I am a half-breed.  I don't mean that as a bad thing, just a fact.  My dad's side is all of German Mennonite Brethren descent.  So I got to grow up with a good Mennonite name (Kliewer).  But my mom is half Yugoslavian (one old lady vehemently said we are Croatian when she heard the family name) and the other half is a mix of German (High, not Low like the MB side, as my great-grandma pointed out with disdain when my mom told her my dad's last name), and some other stuff, I forget.  My mom was raised Catholic and converted to protestant when she began dating my dad and going to an MB church with him.  Of course, when people came up and played the MB Name Game with her (Who are your parents dear?  What's your last name?  Matulich? Uh...Uh.... That's not a Mennonite name, is it.)
she didn't fit.
(Isn't it funny how important names and family lines are to people?  How come people are so proud of their family lines, when it was completely out of their control what family they be born into?  They boast for something that really had nothing to do with them, but more with the sovereignty of God, if anything.  Strange.)
So, anyway, that is some of my family background.  If you don't know about the Anabaptist Mennonite Brethren I would encourage you to look into their history.  It's good to know about other denominations and belief systems.  You will also get a clue about why Chris and I have so many "Hippy" stickers on our van.  Check out this site for a little history in a nutshell - 

Tomorrow I will continue the story of my journey to becoming a charismatic.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i am excited to read all about you on your blog. i just purused it quickly, but did you know the croatians , most of them, left their home when hitler invaded and traveled to finland. i went to a croatian village and a monastary of the croatian orthodox! it's carol from church.

Kim Becker said...

That's interesting. I don't know very much about that history. Unfortunately my Grandpa couldn't tell me about what he knew as he had a brain aneurysm operated on when I was three and was never the same after that. But I have been told I still have family in [back then Yugoslavia] somewhere. ??

Windwhistler said...

Those are my grandmother's zwiebach and her charmoos! Her food was photographed for the book Mennonite Folkways of South Prussia, and that's one of the photos! Her name was Florence Wiens. What a happy surprise :)

Kim Becker said...

Windwhistler - How funny. I found that pic online somewhere. How did you come across my blog? Do I know you? I am looking forward to having some zwiebach at the MCC sale soon! Thanks for reading and commenting. We may even be related. ;-)