Thanksgiving season invites us to remember our blessings and give thanks to the “Giver of every good and perfect gift that comes down from above” (James 1: 17). This Thanksgiving, we are remembering how God has gifted us, and so enriched us with a great diversity within our family and friends.
In this blog, you will meet a few of our family members and friends whose different backgrounds have enriched our lives while sharing many of our values and hopes. As you may soon realize, your family is probably also blessed with an ancestry rich in diversity by their geographic origin, ethnicity, culture, nationality, and customs. For our purposes here, we will lump these ways of viewing diversity in the human race under the term
ethnicity.
We should note at the outset that Abby and I are blessed with multi-ethnicity in our own ancestral lineage; namely, Native American and Germanic. Abby’s grandmother,
Alva Mae Bright (above) was ¼ Cherokee. Meanwhile, the name “Silvius” has a Roman origin. [Listen carefully to Season 1 of The Chosen and you will hear Quintus refer to a centurion named Silvius.] As the graphic above (Click to enlarge.) explains, because of the divergence of many different Romance languages from the Latin, it is difficult to trace the nationality of a “Silvius.” [
Read more on the name “
Silvius”
HERE.] How about that? Isn’t it likely that all of us have some multiethnicity or at least "internationality" in our blood? [Again, we are lumping these two concepts for simplicity. Hope no one minds-- "Comment" below if you do.]
Multiethnicity of the First ThanksgivingSpeaking of our family history, we remembered that the gathering on that “first Thanksgiving” in 1621 (and again, in 1623) was also ethnically diverse. The
Pilgrims who survived their treacherous voyage across the Atlantic had faced harsh weather and limited food. Many of them died, but providentially those who reached Plymouth Rock were saved by the good will of Tisquantum, or “Squanto,” a Native American of the Patuxet tribe of the Wampanoag confederation.
Squanto and members of his tribe graciously assisted the Pilgrims as an interpreter to establish communication and peace with the Wampanoag’s including its chief, Massasoit. Then, Squanto and his tribesmen assisted the Pilgrims in hunting game from the forest, obtaining seafood from the Atlantic, and growing corn and other crops. This marvelous show of God’s providential care was the focus of that first Thanksgiving celebration. But the backstory which centers on the life of Squanto is even more amazing.
The Pilgrims were amazed to learn that Squanto had been captured by English sailors and taken as a slave to Europe (circa. 1614). There, he and other captured Native Americans were taught to speak English as preparation for them to be guides for explorers of the North American frontier. A more complete account of Squanto’s life (See
HERE) reveals a second time in which he was captured and transported to Europe; but this time he was purchased from the slave auction block and set free by the brothers of a local monastery. As a free man, Squanto eventually returned again to his homeland where he became that saving grace to the Pilgrims we noted above. Governor William Bradford recognized Squanto’s miraculous role and later wrote that he was “a special instrument sent of God for their good.” [For additional details on the spiritual context of how God worked among the lives of the Pilgrims, see
HERE; and a book
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving, by Eric Metaxas,
HERE.]
Multiethnicity in Our Family
Just as God’s providential hand had worked on behalf of the Pilgrims even before they arrived at Plymouth Rock, so God made prior provisions for our family that we now are realizing. Allow us to highlight some significant ethnically diverse relationships of our early family history that facilitated and enabled the unfolding of God’s provisions for us and our children two children in future years.
Abby and I both attended Malone College (now Malone University) where we met, became engaged, and then married after graduation, in 1969. At Malone, we became friends with students of various ethnicities, especially African Americans and also international students from Africa. We especially remember Brindell with whom we worshiped, occasionally studied, and enjoyed double dates eventually including the junior-senior banquet.
During the first summer after Bradley’s birth in 1970, we traveled to Kalamazoo,
Michigan for graduate level courses in ecology at Western Michigan University. While we were there, we visited various sites including the sand dunes along Lake Michigan and the Kellogg’s cereal company of Battle Creek. This was to be the beginning of a significant role of
Michigan education, geography, and sports in our family.
One year later, the three of us moved to Morgantown, WV for my doctoral studies. There we became friends with international students from several continents. Two
Middle Eastern graduate students, one a Muslim and the other Jewish, invited us to their apartment where they served us their favorite dishes which we thoroughly enjoyed.
Among our neighbors in the trailer court in which we resided during graduate school were
Alvaro and Jane, a delightful couple from Brazil, who soon began to love and spoil Bradley. They introduced us to their Brazilian and Mexican friends and we all went on a day-trip into the mountains of Maryland to enjoy swimming and picnicking. Later, when we settled in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois for a lectureship in botany at the University of Illinois, Alvaro made a special effort to visit us while he was on campus attending an international conference. Of course, Alvaro was especially delighted to see Bradley. Our daughter, Melinda was born in Urbana, IL a few months later.
Little did we know that at the same time, a little Brazilian girl named
Raquel de Paula was growing up in southern Brazil, daughter of Portuguese and German parents, and would later decide to move to Michigan where our paths would meet as we will describe below.
While at the University of Illinois, I was fortunate to serve with the faculty of the Department of Botany chaired by an Indian-American plant physiologist named Govindjee. His research on photosynthesis earned Govindjee the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society of Photosynthesis Research, in 2022.
[Read Govindjee's biography
HERE. And more
HERE.] [If you recall the Calvin-Benson Cycle of photosynthesis, this interview of Andrew Benson by Govindjee may be interesting—
HERE.]
Following our two years at U. of Illinois, we moved to Maryland for employment as a plant physiologist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville outside Washington, DC. As a researcher within the Light and Plant Growth Laboratory where two of my colleagues are noteworthy: N. Jerry Chatterton was a fellow plant physiologist and bishop within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; and, Takuma Tanada, a Hawaiian-born American, was also conducting
research, specifically on the effects of red and far-red wavelengths of light and the element boron on photomorphogenesis of plants, particularly the roots. Mr. Tanada is recognized for the discovery of the “Tanada Effect,” named for the effect of specific light wavelengths on plant roots. [More
HERE.] In 2011, Tanada was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award in the United States, for his assistance to the U.S. military in World War II. He died in 2018 at age 98.
Believing that
all research and no ministry to others makes John a dull boy, our lives in Maryland were greatly enriched among other family activities by our worship at Belcroft Bible Church. There, we enjoyed our ministry to the career singles and met
Ravi Waldon and
Heidi Sweetman. The two married, raised two sons, and Ravi is now a Principal at Michael Graves Architecture & Design [Click
HERE.]
When we became part of the Cedarville College (now Cedarville University) faculty in 1979, it was my honor and blessing to represent the university at the Academic Council of Au Sable Institute for Environmental Studies in northern Michigan. I was also blessed to lead numerous trips to northern Michigan with my students for field laboratory studies in environmental physiology and ecology.
Meanwhile,
Bradley was completing his high school (Cedarville H.S.), undergraduate (Cedarville University), and graduate education in mechanical engineering (Rensselaer) and settling in Michigan. There he eventually met and married
Raquel de Paula, once the little Brazilian girl we mentioned earlier. Raquel had grown up and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan where she was serving as a nanny. Bradley is Founder and president of The Little Leaders Company [See
HERE.] and Raquel is Project and Program Manager for the University of Michigan.
Not long after Brad and Raquel had settled in Ann Arbor, Melinda who had completed her secondary and undergrad college education in the same institutions as Bradley, married Steve Salyers of English descent, and they had three children, Caleb, Kiara, and Della Rose. We enjoyed many visits to the Salyers home near Temperance, Michigan; and, we were blessed to worship with them at
Northpoint Church of the Nazarene, pastored by Steve for eleven years. At Northpoint, we made friends with many African Americans, Hispanics, and other brethren of European descent.
In 2012, we retired from Cedarville University and moved to Wooster, Ohio where we joined West Hill Baptist Church. Among the new friends we met at West Hill were members of our missionary family. Keeping our ethnic focus of this blog, I will note three families who are indigenous missionaries.
Aroop and Rebecca Kumar serve in Bangalore, India; and
Daniel and Anna Telfort minister in Port au Prince, Haiti. The Kumar’s and the Telfort’s are husband-wife teams who serve in one or more local churches and teach men who are studying to be shepherding pastors. They also reach out to individuals and families experiencing great spiritual and physical needs. The Telfort’s work with Bibles International and Daniel has nearly completed the entire Bible in the Creole language.
Matt and Daniela Brenner serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators in a mission to bring the Gospel to indigenous people in rural Brazil. Matt grew up near Wooster and married Daniela whose hometown is Garça, Brazil. All five of the Brenner family are "on mission," each in their unique way as anyone would testify who has spent time with them.
In recent years, Steve and Mindy’s son
Caleb completed his secondary education and enlisted in the Army National Guard where
he met
Soni, an enlistee of Indian descent from Philadelphia. Caleb and Soni married in 2019 and reside near Pittsburgh where we have enjoyed several blessed times visiting them.
In 2022, our older granddaughter,
Kiara married her best friend,
John Basford, born of German and English parents. They await the arrival of their first child next year.
Marvelous Multiethnicity
So there you have it. The family account of John and Abby Silvius, a multiethnic couple who have been blessed to meet and enjoy the friendship of a diversity of ethnicities over the years. And, most blessed of all is that we now are part of a multiethnic family. We look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving together this year as a family.
Of course, our earthly genealogy, wonderful as it is, has carried the curse of sin reaching all the way back to Adam and Eve. Sad as it sounds, this fact must be reconnect with by humbly yielding to Christ whose sacrifice of His holy life in our place earned Him the right to say, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father [in Heaven] but through Me. (John 14: 6).
If you have yielded your life to the saving grace of God through Christ (Ephesians 2: 8-10), regardless of your ethnicity, you will be part of that numberless multitude described in Revelation. We hope you are!
The Scripture from Revelation (Right >) and the testimony below, written by a Cedarville University alum and friend of Abby and I, provide a fitting end to this blog:
“I truly believe God is glorified by this diversity of peoples and ways of living. So wonderfully unique, but all bearing His image. All of us are touched by common concerns, many are touched by crisis, but all are offered peace that passes understanding. Truly, it’s a gift.” - Julie Titus Sanders
Where to Next?
In Part 2 of “Thanksgiving for Multiethnicity,” we will describe the workings of God in an Asian family that ministers to multiple ethnic groups and nationalities around the world.
Meanwhile, if you have questions about your relationship to Jesus Christ and wonder if you will be part of that “great multitude” described in Revelation 7 (above), why not check out “Steps to Peace with God” [Click HERE.] We also invite you to respond in “Comments” below, or e-mail us at silviusj@gmail.com
