Passion and Hope
One fall day, we received a letter from Uncle Sol Loewen containing a request and several pieces of litmus paper. I knew this was my great-uncle, baby brother to my adored Grandma Anna Suderman. He asked that I record the sweet or sour taste resulting from chewing the paper. I have forgotten which taste our four children Dan, Paul, Tim and Anna experienced, as well as mine and Ed’s. I returned the information to Uncle Sol. He wrote a letter in reply and thankfulness for our participation in one of his theories in genealogy.
At that time I did not know much about Uncle Sol except through my Mom. I knew he taught biology at the Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas. I knew he looked very much like my Grandma. I also knew that Biology is not my forte. I ‘took’ it for the second time at the Junior College in Dodge City about the time I received the request from Uncle Sol. Needless to say, Biolody was not my passion.
Dr. Solomon Loewen taught biology, and since that word was unfamiliar to the Plautt Dietch speaking community, they called it ‘bug’-ology. How did this man begin an interest in biology in the middle of Kansas? He had an inquiring mind that wanted to process everything he saw. He studied a reference book with many pictures of small and large creatures and bugs that his father had.
Solomon Loewen was born on December 23, 1898, to Jacob and Justina Leppke Loewen, the first child, the 9th son, born in the brand new 5 bedroom house built to be home for the family. He attended the one room Ebenfeld school, across the road from the Ebenfeld Mennonite Brethren Church. My grandmother, Anna Suderman, told her friends that she received a baby brother that year for Christmas.
When Solomon was about five, his father took him on a Rock Island train to Elbing and Whitewater, KS. His father, Jacob Loewen, a self-taught doctor, treated folks for tooth aches, sore muscles and other ailments. His first train ride was the fastest ride he had ever experienced. Later, Solomon became a Ford man, and Loved to Drive (LTD) and he loved to travel. Later, his travel adventures included Mexico, South America tour, Paraguay, El Salvador, Guatemala. He also traveled to Russia, Warsaw Poland, Leningrad, Amsterdam, Dniepr River, and other areas of Russia. Always curious and wanting to know, every trip was a learning experience for Solomon.
In 1916, he attended Tabor College. It was here he met his wife-to-be for almost 69 years. As I continued to read his many memories, I was struck with his kindness, his bent for teaching, his curiosity, and enduring passion for learning. His memoir contains his drawings of crayfish, stinger of a honey bee, a drawing of a his right wrist, and his wife’s broken hip, Extended Hydra with bud, the Wing of a horse fly, bugs of various kinds, and the creatures he studied. He also made a study of the behavior of farmyard animals and Teratology.
After he retired, he bagan genealogy writing in earnest, employing the computer – taking a course at the age of 92. He taught senior citizens many different kinds of hobbies as he learned them. He defined a hobby as doing something you have interest in without being paid for it.
During his last hospitalization, he realized that his walk has spoken louder than his talk. “This experience has reduced me to dust, and I have been impressed what God can do ‘with dust’. He makes the mighty mountain ranges with beautiful snow covered peaks, turns dust to rock, creates broad fertile valleys moistened with the most unique liquid water, as it comes down from the mountain. Man is the most remarkable creation of God. The Psalmist says it so well in Psalm 139: 13-17.”
He died at the age of 97 years.
His passion and his joy in living was learning of our Lord’s Creation. His hope was in Christ from the time he was a young man. He lived vibrantly with the Fruit of the Spirit qualities in his life, seeing God’s creation as his classroom for learning. Uncle Solomon said, “The greatest truth Scripture gives us is that God became man in his son Jesus Christ, who gave his love to us in his sacrifice on the cross, rose again triumphantly, thereby paying for our sins.”
Colossians 3:15-17 (Message) Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
Hebrews 10:22-25 – So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.