26th December:
I preached on the Gospel for the Day. After the sermon I announced to them that about noon on the 27th the two children of our dear Br. Gerhard Etter would be baptized in his house because they are weak and live eleven miles from the Meeting House.
27th December:
With Brother and Sister Engel, Sister Beck and Kuckers I went there and baptized these two children into the Death of Jesus. It was a lovely act and during it there was a blessed feeling. On the way back we visited Peter Fetter who, with his sons, was ill.
28th & 29th December:
Because no school could be kept this week since Br. Beck was sickly as were many children and Br. Engel had many visits to make, I worked ahead and conferred with my Brethren and Sisters about their school and the method.
30th December
I held school with the Brethren and Sisters and showed them how to find their way around in the little Spelling Book and how they could instruct their children according to it. Towards evening Br. Rauch arrived with Br. Johann Schmidt from Donegal.
31st December:
Br. Rauch preached with feeling and with blessing. After the sermon there was no other service except the Speaking [18]. We passed the evening happily together. I received another packet of letters from Europe and many of the dearest bits of news. With emotion I recalled the Watchnight in Bethlehem and everything that the Savior had done for me in the previous year, closing the year as a sinner and blessed.
18. Prior to each Eucharist, the communicants were all interviewed by their spiritual advisors
Brother Bader's Diary
of his Journey and Visit to the Schools in the Country from
16th November 1752 to
28th February 1753
Translated by Pastor Roy Ledbetter
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