Back Home

We arrived back home last evening about 10:00 PM. We spent Sunday night and Monday morning in Nappanee, IN with Dave Hostetlers. While we were there Jason and Judy Beachy stopped in, so we got to see their little boy.

Monday we drove to Madison, Wisconsin and spent the night there. Yesterday we drove from Madison to here.

We had about a foot of new snow while we were gone. We barely made it in our driveway, even though some of the snow had already melted. The trampoline that we set up too early was all sagging with snow. By this afternoon a lot of the snow had melted. It shouldn't take too many more days for the rest of it to leave.

The wedding in Ohio was good. We got to see a lot of our friends there. We stayed with Eugene and Ruth Sommers in Hartville.

Here are Joe and Andrea.

This is the Bridal table at the reception.

This is the couple signing the marriage license at the wedding.

Wedding

We are in Fort Wayne, Indiana on our way to Hartville, OH for the wedding of Joe Cospito and Andrea Byler. Joe is a member of our church and Andrea was a school teacher there for a few years. They started dating and are getting married today.

We left home Thursday evening about 8:00 PM and drove to Fort Wayne last evening. Needless to say it wasn't hard to sleep last night. Since we left home they have had about 6 inches of snow, with another 6 inches expected today. I'm glad that I am not there to see it in person.

Spring painting

When we moved to our house three years ago, the entire living floor was painted white. I knew I'd eventually want a bit of colour. This Spring I painted the dining area a pale yellow/green. On Tuesday I stenciled the part separating it from the kitchen. I had bought the stencil when we still lived in Dryden, so it was fun to finally use it!~Edith

IGo Students

Here is a picture of the current students at IGo. We have one student from Pakistan and one from Thailand. The rest are from the United States.

Left to right: Janelle Burkholder, Jamie Miller, Dorcas Nissley, Pervaiz Patras, Rochelle Wenger,

Orlondo King, Lauren Weber, Anthony Sensenig, Bess Peters, Tyler Martin, Angkana Luksanasakulchai

Rushing the Season

It is probably rushing the season a bit. Our snow is not quite all melted yet. But yesterday we got the urge to set up our trampoline. There was a bare spot in the lawn where we usually put the trampoline, so we got it out and assembled it. Now we just have to hope that we don't get a foot of snow next week.

The Second Year of IGo

On Monday the second year of the Institute for Global Opportunities will begin with a student orientation. Then regular classes will begin on Tuesday the 22nd.

We have 9 students enrolled for the first semester of this second year. They all arrived safely and are getting adjusted to things in Thailand.

The instructors for the first three week term will be Val Yoder, Rick Rhodes, Collier Berkshire and Brian King.

We are excited to have some staff in Chiang Mai who are there doing ministry as well. Josh Berkshire, Katrina Nisly, Kris Schrock and Becky Stoltzfus are all there involved in various ministries.

If you think of IGo in the next week or two, pray for a good beginning to this second year of classes.

Rain

This week Spring is coming to Sioux Lookout. The temperatures have been in the 50's F. the last few days. Today it is actually raining. The snow is melting pretty fast now. If we have another week of warm temperatures most of our snow will be gone. There are starting to be some bare patches of ground here and there now.

This morning as I was taking the children to school, we saw some ducks and geese on the open water in the river. Yesterday there were dozens of seagulls on the ice on Pelican Lake in town.

These are all signs that warmer weather and open water are getting closer.

Taxes

Today I had a few things planned. Then this morning I thought about Income taxes and wondered if I have everything I need to fill out my forms. Our deadline in Canada is April 30. I checked and realized that I have everything. So, I got started and spent most of the day getting everything filled out.

Do you fill out your own tax returns, or do you hire someone to do it for you? I do my own. I would still have to get all my forms together and my information slips. Then I would need to explain to someone what I did in the past year. By the time I would do all that, I figure I might as well fill out the forms too.

I am glad to live in a country that has an effective tax system, and provides services for the citizens. We might feel that we pay too much for what we get, but when you look at countries that have almost no tax system and provide no services, I would rather live here.

Sarasota

Dallas and I had a good week in Florida. I spoke at Sarasota Mennonite Church from Wednesday evening to Sunday evening. We stayed with Larry and Ann Miller and their family. They have four boys. Dallas had a good time with the boys.

The meetings at the church went well. I enjoyed learning to know the people at the church better.

Friday the Make a Wish Foundation had an airshow for one of the teenage girls from Sunnyside, the Beachy Church, in Sarasota. She was allowed to invite 100 people. Dallas and I had the privilege of attending. It was great! The Thunderbirds were there as well as an F-15 Demonstration team. There were other stunt planes there too. As Nathan Overholt said, "This is an interesting mix of Mennonites and Military".

Saturday Larry and his boys took us out to the ocean. Dallas' classmates at Cornerstone Christian School had asked him to bring them some salt water and some sand. So he collected those at the beach and took some back for them.

I overheard some comments made to Dallas throughout the week It was rather obvious that we were in a Mennonite Church when I heard one boy asking him, "Are you a Miller or a Yoder?". One day he told one of the boys that he is Ojibway and possibly part French. The other boy replied, "Oh man, I ain't got nothin'. I'm just American".

We got home Monday evening about 10:45. We drove through the results of the snowstorm in Northern Minnesota. Between Duluth and International Falls they had received about 24 inches of snow Sunday night. It made traveling rather slow.

Here is Dallas going out to fill his jar with salt water.

I'm not sure what they are discovering here, but we did take a few shells home with us.

Here is Dallas and Larry's boys trying to net something alive in the ocean. I don't think they were successful.

What do you call a group of Pelicans? I don't know, but they were at the beach too.

This great blue heron was walking around at the beach too.

Here is Nathan Overholt and a Thunderbird pilot watching the airshow. I thought the mix of Mennonites and the military was interesting to watch.

I liked watching the Mennonite teenage girls get autographs from the U. S. Air Force pilots.

This is the F-15 that flew some demonstration flights.

I'm not sure what this airplane was, but Dallas liked it.

Another Airshow airplane.

These are Thunderbird airplanes.

Another airshow airplane.

One of the Thunderbird airplanes.

This plane did a few stunt flights.

The Men's Trip

Dallas and I are on our way to Sarasota, Florida. I am speaking at Sarasota Mennonite Church from Wednesday through Sunday.

Today we dropped Elaine off at school and then drove to Duluth, Minnesota. We fly from Duluth to Sarasota tomorrow. Our trip today was uneventful, which is always good, even though it can be a little boring. It was nice to have Dallas along to at least have somebody to share the trip.

The weather forecast for Sarasota says there should be a high of 83 degrees F tomorrow. That will be quite different from the 14 degrees F that we left this morning. On Sunday in our church bulletin there was a request that read, "Pray for Merle - Preaching in Florida". One of the ladies said she is tired of praying for Merle while he is preaching in warm places.