Travel Events

Sunday we were at Fairhaven Mennonite Church for the Sunday morning service. We had lunch with Romaine and Leroy. Carol, Mary and Betty Ann and Marvin were there too. Some people we had met in Switzerland 10 years ago are in the United States for a visit. They were there too. In the evening we went back to Fairhaven for the Joyful Hearts chorus program.

Monday morning I attended a promotional breakfast for the Institute for Global Opportunities. Lester Weiler had made the arrangements and invited the people for the breakfast at Shady Maple. We had a good turnout and response.

I spent most of the day after the breakfast with Ken Burkholder from Anabaptist Foundation and David Leid from Christian Aid Ministries. We were doing some research on the possibility of doing micro-finance overseas. We met some interesting people and got some good information.

Last evening we traveled to Steve Brubaker's house and today we had a meeting with our study group. It was great to be men there again. We are now on our way to SMBI. I will be teaching in the WATER Training program there.

Distances

No, it has not gotten closer between Sioux Lookout and Pennsylvania. We left home Thursday and met with a few people in Dryden. David Thompsons were on their way to Winnipeg, so we had supper with them. Then we met with another couple who was sort of in the area after supper.

Yesterday we drove from Dryden to Hammond, IN. We ate supper at a Cracker Barrel in Janesville, Wisconsin. We left there at 8:30 PM with a goal of getting to the East side of Chicago. It was sheer endurance from there on. We got to the Super 8 in Hammond at about 11:00.

Today we will hopefully, cover the rest of the distance between here and Pennsylvania. I am hoping that in eternity we can do time travel and be on the other side of the Celestial City in a second. This morning I feel like I have spent too much of this lifetime inside a car.

Birthday Party

Elaine had her 14th birthday on Friday. We had planned to have a party on Saturday, but then went to Slate Falls for the funeral instead. The party was delayed until Sunday. We had a long church service Sunday morning because we had a sharing time related to the death of Carrie Mitchell. Then we had a special prayer time for the fathers. Then we all went to Hochstetler's house for a Father's Day picnic. Just as we were ready to start eating it began to rain. We moved all the food tables into the school and had the picnic inside.

After the picnic we took all of the party participants to our house and had Elaine's birthday party. They stayed over night too, so the party went on into the night. At 11:40 PM the power went off. That created some extra excitement.

This afternoon the power went off again and stayed off for a few hours. We made a fire outside and cooked some hamburgers over an open fire. It was an unplanned picnic supper. Just as we were finishing our supper the power came back on.

Our garden is almost completely planted now. I will put in the tomato plants, broccoli and cauliflower tomorrow.

Here are a couple of pictures from the birthday party:

Slate Falls

We made the trip to Slate Falls yesterday for the funeral of Carrie Mitchell. We left Sioux Lookout at 9:00 and arrived there just after Noon. We had three vehicles traveling together. We had only one flat tire by the time we arrived. The road was rough and it made driving a rather grueling task.

The funeral was held at the school. There were a lot of people attending. Two of Carrie's grandfathers were there. Sam Carpenter from Slate Falls was there and Matthias Mitchell's father from Fort Severn was there. The Mitchell grandfather is 92 years old and in good health. It stretches my mind just to try to think about all the changes he must have seen in his lifetime.

Nate Hochstetler led the funeral service and had the message. I was in charge of the service at the grave.

Nate, Rick Martin and I had sung some songs at the visitation service in Sioux Lookout on Friday morning. We were planning to have some singing, but then the youth from the church were not feeling ready to do it, so the three of us sang together and some people in the audience helped. Afterward one of the grandfathers told me he wants to get the CD, so it must not have sounded too bad.

We left Slate Falls at 6:45 PM and got home about 10:15. It was nice to be in Slate Falls again.

Today we are having a Father's Day picnic after church. Then Elaine is having her birthday party. It was supposed to be yesterday, but due to the funeral it got delayed until today. She turned 14 on Friday.

Carrie Mitchell

Carrie Mitchell was a vibrant young lady from our church. She was usually smiling and enjoyed being with children. When we moved to Sioux Lookout she was a student at Cornerstone Christian School. She gave a lot of attention to Elaine and Dallas when they were the newest students at the school. They liked her a lot.

On Tuesday of this week, everyone was shocked when she died as a result of complications from her diabetes. It has been a difficult week for the youth and everyone in the family and the church.

This morning we are having visitation or calling hours at the church. The body will be flown to Slate Falls Reserve this afternoon. We will be driving to Slate Falls tomorrow for the funeral. There is a road into Slate Falls. I have never driven it. They say it is quite rough. It is between a two and three hour drive. Everyone says the time it takes to drive it depends on who is driving. I think it will be a three hour trip for us.

First Catch of the Season

The other day we decided to go for a canoe ride. Dallas ask if he could bring his fishing rod along. I said, "sure", partly because it would keep him entertained while we were in the canoe.

We were out about 5 minutes when he caught a 23 inch Walleye. 2 minutes later he caught another walleye. Anyway, in about 20 minutes he caught five fish. We left one Northern Pike go and one walleye got away. Contrary to most fishing stories, we did keep the big one. It was a little one that got away.

Here are a few pictures of the big fisherman with his catch.

MEMO Cuba Meeting

We had our meeting here in Sioux Lookout for MEMO Cuba on Tuesday evening. There was a small group of people who came out for the meeting. However, those who came were very interested in making something happen to get medical equipment from Sioux Lookout to Cuba.

In the afternoon I took Dr. Jerome Harvey and a few other people from MEMO Cuba through the two hospitals here. When we were at the 7th Avenue site, some of the nurses gave us a few arm loads of outdated supplies that had been pulled from their shelves that day.

Yesterday the hospital administration gave us a small pickup truck load of X-Ray film, IV infusion pumps, and other outdated equipment. All of these things would not have been used in the hospital here any longer, but will be of real value in the hospitals in Cuba.

The hospital administration is going to make a presentation to the hospital board regarding the donation of unwanted equipment when they move into the new hospital in 2009 or 2010. We will keep praying and see what happens.

It is rewarding to see some of these supplies and equipment being sent to where they will be useful. One of the nurses at the hospital said, "Happy harvesting". I think that the Old Testament model of the gleaners who picked up the missed and discarded grain after the reapers pretty much describes what we are doing at the hospital.

We will likely be getting a continual supply of equipment and supplies as the hospital has them available.

Kitchi Pines Church Campout

This past weekend we went to Blackduck, Minnesota for the Kitchi Pines church camp out. We got there Friday evening. We stayed with Japheth and Aimee Stauffer. When we got there I thought maybe I should have made more effort to dig out our tent and camping supplies. Then it rained all day on Saturday and we were glad that we were not camping in our tent.

It was great to see our friends there again. We had a wonderful time of fellowship with the church people.

One of the blessings too was getting to visit with LeRoy and Clara Mae Yoder. It is uncertain how long LeRoy will be with us, due to his cancer. He has been a blessing in my life and I felt it was a privilege to get to spend a little time with him.