Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

We arrived in Lancaster County on Tuesday. I had an Anabaptist Foundation board meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The meetings at Millwood Mennonite Church began last evening. We will be there through Sunday evening. There are quite a few people at Millwood that we know from other places.

We are staying with Luke and Anna Sensenig.

This morning I have chapel at Terre Hill High School.

Loman Youth Rally

We finished the Loman Youth Rally yesterday. They had a nice group of youth there. There were probably 50 or 60 young people attending. I spoke on "Why I am a Christian" and "Why I am a Mennonite".

We stayed with Tim and Kathy Zook. We enjoyed the interaction and our time there. We got to see some friends from Northern Minnesota that we don't get to see very often.

The Youth Rally was finished by 4:30 yesterday afternoon. We left and started driving South toward Pennsylvania. About 30 miles North of Duluth it started getting really foggy. We decided to spend the night in Superior Wisconsin. Today we need to go to Eastern Ohio or Western Pennsylvania. I have an Anabaptist Foundation Board meeting that starts at 5:00 PM tomorrow at Shady Maple near Blue Ball, PA. There are still a lot of miles to cover between here and there.

The Escort Has Gone North

The Escort has left us. I sold it to David Thompson. He picked it up this morning and is taking it to Keewaywin First Nation. He will probably resell it there. He has about a 10 hour trip from here. The last 5 hours are over the ice roads they build across the lakes. He is travelling with two other vehicles. He took a tow rope along, just in case he gets stuck.

I had mixed feelings watching it go out the driveway. We have had it for over 9 years. We put 460,000 kilometers on it. It served us so well. There were never any major problems with it.

We are leaving this afternoon for a trip to the States. We will be in Loman, Minnesota for the weekend and then in New Holland, PA next week.

On our way home we are going to Montreal, Quebec and picking up a 2004 Focus Station wagon that I made a down payment on there. Hopefully, it will serve us a well as the Escort wagon did.

Here is David loading the Escort for the trip to Keewaywin.

Here is goes out the driveway.

First Nations Hockey Tournament

This is the week of March break from school and the First Nations Hockey Tournament in Sioux Lookout. This tournament is a highlight of the hockey year. There are 32 teams from the First Nations communities registered to play in the tournament. By tomorrow afternoon the winner of each of the three divisions will be decided.

We have been in to watch a few games. Lac Seul has been eliminated . We often take the children in to watch the Lac Seul team play.

This is the Slate Falls team playing Wunnimun Lake. Slate Falls won the game.

Trying New Things

New things always have some appeal if you have an adventerous spirit. Yesterday I had a dentist appointment in Dryden to get a tooth filled. It was scheduled for 11:00. I left home just before 9:00. I made one stop in town and noticed that my car engine turned over sort of slow when I started it.

About 20 kilometers South of Sioux Lookout the radio shut off. Then the speedometer needle went down to zero even though I was travelling at 80 Kms. per hour. Then the odometer quit working. Then the heater fan shut off. I knew that the fuel pump was going to quit soon. I was almost to the entrance to a Provincial Park. I made it up the hill by downshifting and coasted into the Park driveway.

My problem was that if I did anything about the car at that time, I was going to miss my dentist appointment. Here if you miss your appointment you still pay for the appointment, and it can take almost six months to get another one.

My best option seemed to be to hitchhike to Dryden, get my tooth filled and then deal with the car. I stood by the highway and stuck out my thumb. The first vehicle was a police van. They said they have prisoners in the back so they can't give me a ride. The next vehicle was a minivan. They agreed to give me a ride to Dryden. They were a couple from Slate Falls who were actually following the police van, because their daughter was being taken to Dryden for court. They took me to the dentist office and dropped me off at the door. They told me that they would be willing to take me back with them if the time worked out.

When I was ready to go I tried to phone them on their cell phone but they didn't answer. I decided to walk out to Wal-Mart to see if I could find anybody from Sioux Lookout there before I called Edith to come and pick me up. I couldn't find anybody from Sioux Lookout there, so I was about to phone Edith.

I decided to try the other people on their cell phone one more time. I was standing just outside McDonalds by the middle post of the famous McDonalds golden arch. On the second ring the lady answered her phone. She said they are about ready to leave Dryden. She said they are at Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and then will be ready to go. She asked me where I am. I told her that I am at Wal-Mart too. She asked me where in Wal-Mart. Just then she stepped out from behind the golden arches post. We were only three feet from each other while we were talking to each other on our cell phones. Her niece had been standing back 10 feet or so and could see both of us. She told her aunt that she thinks we are talking to each other. Now, that is a real LONG-DISTANCE phone call.

Anyway, they gave me a ride back to my car and I got it towed in to the repair shop. Today I should find out what is wrong with it. This may be the final death knell for it. I am not going to spend a lot of money on it anymore. I am looking around for another vehicle and hope to replace it soon.

So, I never was a hitchhiker before. God gave me a ride to Dryden and back. I kept my dentist appointment, got my tooth filled on schedule and my car to the repair shop. It was an interesting day.

T'eague FM

Eague Castor is an electronics genius in my opinion. He has started his own small FM radio station in Cadiac. He has a portable generator that he uses to power his station. He took pieces from a television set and uses them as a transmitter. He covers about a two kilometer circle with his broadcast. He has a CD player hooked up and plays Christian music.

His name is Eague Castor but his nickname is T'eague. Since his nickname is T'eague everybody calls his radio station T'eague FM. He said when it gets a little more professional he will give it a proper name.

He also wanted to broadcast the Cadiac church services. He took the lapel mike hooked a copper wire to it somehow then he ran the copper wire from the church to his house. It is about a kilometer from the church to his house. They ran the wire through the trees. At his house he has the end of the wire wrapped around the antenae for receiving unit for the lapel mike. Somehow from that he broadcasts the church services. The signal has a little static, but is actually pretty good.

Now I need a radio or electronics guru to tell me what he needs to have a proper transmitter. I would like to take him a low power FM transmitter, but I don't know enough about it to know what he needs. If you know somone who knows, let me know.
Here is T'eague broadcasting from his house.

Here is his current transmitter. Don't ask me what it is or how it works, but it does.

Food

I had lots of great food in Haiti. I had goat twice. It was wonderful. I had fried plantains, chicken, fish, rice, wonderful juice and lots of other good things. I was fed many times a day.

Following are some pictures of food things:

This is the table at the wedding reception. The wedding cake is in the centre at the back. There is a bottle of Kremas on each side.

This is the spread of food at the wedding reception. What looks like a cake on the corner is actually rice with a layer of meat in the center. The red stripes are ketchup and the white dots on top are mayonaisse.

These are fish that were delivered to my lodgings one night at about 8:30. There were ten fish. These are small enough that you eat both the tail and the head. The eyeballs on these small ones aren't squishy. They are super delicious. I could only eat about three of them and had to recruit some help for the other seven.

I'm Back...Well Almost

I arrived back in Minneapolis this evening. I will be getting home tomorrow. Basically, I had a good trip to Haiti. I had a really good time at the convention in Cadiac. We had two weddings on Saturday and baptized 16 new members for the Cadiac Church. It made Saturday a very full day.

My most eventful things were related to driving. Pastor Paul took me to see the church in Fond-de-Negres. We were on a little dirt road. I was driving his truck. We hit a few rocks and I decided that it might be good If I would drive with one wheel on the hump in the middle of the road. Just as I was turning over to the left side the truck stopped and wouldn't go. I had managed to high center it on a small rock. It was only about 2 inches wide and 6 inches long, but the truck would not move.

We pushed and rocked it, but all to no avail. We asked a few young men who were standing around to help push, but they said they had no strength at all. Pastor Paul and I crawled under the truck and took turns pounding away at the rock with the tire iron and a rock.

Eventually I drove, Pastor Paul rocked and pushed the truck and we were on our way. Pastor Paul thought the young men looked a little disappointed that we hadn't needed to offer them some money to help push.

Then on the way into the city I was driving and Pastor Paul's son Walcus was with me. We were in stop and go traffic in Carrefour. A dump truck on the other side of the street backed into a bus. We were looking at the damages and kind of laughing, when our front right wheel dropped into a sewer hole with the grate missing. The bystanders on the street saw what had happened and it was their turn to laugh at us. Walcus put the truck in four wheel drive and I was able to back out.

Here is Pastor Paul taking his turn under the truck pounding away on the rock.

This is what it looked like from the back.

Next Step In The Trip

I made it to Minneapolis this evening. It was a beautiful day to drive. This morning when I left Sioux Lookout it was minus 27 degrees C. With the windchill it was minus 38. It felt very cold. Here in Minneapolis it is supposed to be 3 below F tomorrow morning. I don't have room to take my coat all the way to Haiti, so I will be leaving it here in my car. I think I will look rather strange going to the airport on the shuttle bus in a short sleeved shirt with no jacket!

I found out today that Pastor and Madam Gabriel are going to be on the same flight from Miami to Port-au-Prince with me. They were quite worried about making the connection in Miami by themselves. God had everything under control, because I get into Miami about 90 minutes before they do. I will be able to meet them at their gate when they get in and help them make their connection to the flight to Haiti. Madam Gabriel had a knee replacement while they were in the States so she doesn't want to have to walk very far.

I am sure that when I arrive in Haiti it should be at least 100 degrees F warmer than it was in Sioux Lookout this morning! I am not complaining!

Haiti Trip

Tomorrow morning I leave for Haiti. I will drive to Minneapolis on Monday and spend the night there. I fly out of Minneapolis at 6:00 AM on Tuesday. I go through Miami and will be in Port-au-Prince by 4:10 PM.

It looks like I will be travelling to Cadiac with Pastor Gabriel George, from LaColline, and Nixon Vital on Wednesday. I should be to Cadiac by noon.

The Cadiac church is having their convention this week. They start their meetings today and end next Sunday. The final portion from Friday through Sunday noon is a huge event in the community. There are usually close to 500 people there for Saturday night and Sunday morning. Not everyone fits inside the church. They will have a few rows of people standing outside to listen to the service. I will probably have two messages, one in Kreyol and one in English using an translator.

I plan to go back into Port-au-Prince on Sunday afternoon and fly back to Minneapolis on Monday the 12th. I should be home again on Tuesday the 13th.

I am looking forward to seeing our friends there in Cadiac again.

Merle

Wedding Anniversary

Today Edith and I have been married for 34 years. It doesn't seem that long. I used to think that couples who were married for 25 years were getting quite old. Now we have been married 34 years already. I heard once that at the 50th wedding anniversary celebration for a Mennonite evangelist and his wife, he remarked that he can't believe that they have been married for 50 years. His wife responded, "That is because you have only been home for half of it". I hope that is not true for me.

Anyway, I am more impressed with marriage the longer we are married. It seems to get better as we go along. Which leads me to believe that the best is yet to come.

According to Ephesians 5, marriage represents the relationship between Christ and the church. I get excited about loving Edith in a way that shows the world how Christ loves the church. The hard part is that Christ gave himself up for the church. I must admit that while I like that as a concept, it is not easy to do in daily living.

We see so much violence and family breakdown in our society. I believe that one of the ways that we impact our world is by being Godly in our marriage. I promised to love and cherish Edith 34 years ago and I am even more committed to that today. I want to work hard toward having an exceptionally good marriage. I don't want to plateau and be statisfied with simply a good marriage.

Next year will be 35 years of marriage for us. We try to do something special every five years for our anniversary. For our 30th we went to Newfoundland. We haven't decided yet what to do to celebrate the 35th next year. Any suggestions?