Womelsdorf

We are nearing the end of a busy week at Womelsdorf Mennonite Church. We have been having services every evening. I have been meeting people for breakfast every morning. I have attended a few other meetings that were squeezed into the week as well.

It has been a very good week. We have enjoyed the hospitality of Richard and Elma Newswanger. They have done a splendid job of hosting us.

This morning we had a men's breakfast at Dutchway in Myerstown. I enjoyed my time with the men. They have a really good group of men from the church there at Womelsdorf. We will be here through Sunday evening and then head home.

We have gotten some sad news in the past 24 hours. Edith has a great niece who passed away this week. Also we just heard that Cello Meekis passed away early yesterday. It reminds us of the uncertainty of life.

Pennsylvania

We are in Duluth, Minnesota on our way to Pennsylvania. We plan to arrive there Monday evening. I have an Anabaptist Foundation board meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then from Wednesday evening through Sunday evening we will be having meetings at the Womelsdorf Mennonite Church.

I always have to smile now when I think of Womelsdorf. Last year when I was in the Dominican Republic I was going to Womelsdorf for the Sunday morning service when I got back to the States. Someone in the Dominican Republic asked me the name of the church I will be speaking at on Sunday. When I told them it was called Womelsdorf Mennonite Church, they just giggled. Then they wondered if that is the name of a town too. When I told them it was, they said they thought it sounded so cute. They thought it sounded like a place where hobbits might live.

There is almost no snow on the ground here in Duluth. We still had lots in Sioux Lookout. It has been melting though. We are hoping that by the time we get home again, most of the snow will be gone.

Glad I said, "I Do and I Will!"

It's our anniversary month. I remember feeling a bit terrified on my wedding day. I was making promises for life! How did I know what all we'd face together? Regardless, I made promises of commitment through the good and bad.

I'm glad I did! Merle has been a good husband. He nurtures our marriage by remembering my birthday and other holidays with gifts or cards. He regularly tells me he loves me. When I want his help with projects, he gives it readily without complaining. He's a positive, fun person usually.

I like that he thinks about the needs of the world and invests time and energy into helping others. I like his ability to build friendships and connections cross culturally. After hearing many of his sermons, he's still my favorite speaker! I'm thankful he takes time to do things with our children like snowmobiling, playing chess, table tennis and helping with school work.

At the end of his last post, Merle said something about life being good if I think he's wonderful at least some of the time. I do, Merle, I do! ~Edith

Spring Break

This week is Spring break. The children are off from school. It is Spring too! The temperatures have been above freezing the last few days. Our driveway is turning to slush and is getting rather hard to navigate. Yesterday we took our one snowmobile to the shop to get fixed. We won't get it back until after the snow is gone. On the way to town Elaine said, "We need to move somewhere where the snow stays longer". I don't think I will be moving further North anytime soon.

Another big event this week is the Northern First Nations Hockey Tournament. It is happening all this week here in Sioux Lookout. There is pretty much wall-to-wall hockey from 7:00 AM to midnight every day. Going to the arena is a great place to meet people from all over the North. Elaine, Dallas and I were in last evening and watched three games. I met people I haven't seen for a long time.

There are an interesting collection of people at the hockey tournament. There are the hockey fans that pretty much live at the arena for the week and probably watch over 75% of the games. There are people who come when their community is playing. It is interesting to see grandmothers cheering and all excited about the game. Last night after a goal a lady close to us yelled "That's my son!".

Another fascinating thing is watching the groups of young people. I have pretty much concluded that in every culture there is a place for young unmarried youth to gather for the purpose of seeing and being seen. When I was young this ritual was carried out in our Mennonite community at the Friday evening Green Dragon Auction. I remember big circles of young men and other big circles of young ladies. They stood close enough that they could see each other, but the circles were completely separate. There were a lot of giggles from the ladies circles and posturing from the men's circles. Glances went back and forth, each circle seeing and wanting to be seen by the other.

When we were in Israel, we went to the Wailing Wall at the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath. There were thousands of people there. I saw the youth again all dressed up and groups of young ladies walking around and casting glances at the groups of young men who were sauntering around looking very impressive. It reminded me of Green Dragon. A different culture and a different setting, but the same purpose. I want to see you, and I want you to see me.

This seems to happen at the hockey tournament too. There are groups of young ladies going in and out of the arena. They walk the length of the arena to come in and then 15 minutes later they walk the length of the arena to go out. The groups of young men are standing outside the arena door, or sitting in the bleachers.

Just watching these rituals makes me glad again that I am over 50. That I have been married for 36 years to the same person. That I attempt to impress an audience of one. As long as she thinks I'm wonderful sometimes, and and loves me even when I'm not, life is good and the world is a lovely place!

Haiti Travel and Presidents

I am on my way home from Haiti. We had a good week over there. The response to the micro-finance feasibiity study was good. We had an attendance of about 130 people. I was expecting a maximum of 50. They seemed very eager to begin a savings led micro-finance program in the area. We are now waiting for the report from the people from the Dominican Republic.

The convention at Cadiac was also well attended. Friday eveing, Saturday evening and Sunday morning the crowd overflowed the church by about 100 people. Saturday night after the service I showed our pictures from our trip to Israel. Because not everyone could fit into the church, we hung a bed sheet on the outside of the church and I projected my pictures onto that. It was quite a challenge for the church leaders to get 500 people seated on the grass in the dark to watch the pictures! Eventually, we had a semblance of order and all went well.

I preached four times during the week. Wednesday evening I used an interpreter because there were a number of people there who only spoke English. Saturday afternoon I spoke Kreyol for the meditation for the baptismal service. We baptized 12 new members for the church in Cadiac. Some of them were young people that I have known ever since they were born. Our oldest baptismal candidate was probably about 60 years old. Sunday morning I preached in Kreyol. Then Sunday evening I preached in a service for the CAM staff. Of course, that was in English.

I enjoyed meeting our friends there again. We have been blessed to have relationships with people in Cadiac who love us and welcome us into their homes and lives.

It was geat to spend an evening and a morning with Bethanie at the CAM headquarters too. She is an amazing lady, and I am so pleased with the choices she has made in life, and how she is using her life to help others. One of the CAM staff people told me after the message, "I discovered that you preach the way Bethanie writes, with lots of passion, stories, and intensity."

Getting out of Haiti and back to the United States seemed to be the bigest challenge of this trip. We headed to the airport just after noon on Monday. Bill Clinton and the Secretary General of the United Nations had come into the country for a meeting at the National Palace. Traffic to the airport was rather interesting because of some streets being closed to general traffic so Bill Clinton could get from the airport to the National Palace. While we were waiting at the airport we saw the press conference on the airport television.

An speaking of waiting at the airport, we were supposed to fly out at 4:20 PM. They kept announced delays for the flight. Eventually, the plane landed in Port-au-Prince at about 7:30 PM. We left for Miami around 8:30 PM. With the time change that was 9:30 PM in Miami. We arrived in Miami close to midnight. Of course, I had missed my flight to Minneapolis. They gave me a voucher for a meal and a motel room. I, along with about 30 other people waited outside the terminal from 12:20 AM to 1:30 AM for the motel shuttle to pick us up. I walked into my motel room at 2:00 AM. They booked me on a flight to Dallas, Texas that left the airport at 6:00 this morning. I got a shower and about a two hour nap before I headed back to the airport. By the time I got to Minneapolis at 1:00 this aternoon, I wasn't sure anymore if I was dead or alive.

American Airlines said that when the plane took off in Miami to come the Haiti the wheels wouldn't go up. With a full load of people and fuel, they had too much weight to land so they had to fly around for a while to burn off some fuel. Then they weren't sure if the landing gear was locked into place properly, so they did an emergency landing with the runway cleared and all the emergency vehicles ready. They landed fine but had to change planes. That caused the delay.

When we arrived in Miami, we were standing in line for United States Immigration. At midnight they don't have a lot of officers on duty, so it was a rather long wait. The line I was in was for United States citizens. The man behind me made this comment in Kreyol to his friend, "Where is the big picture of Obama? The last eight years, everytime I come into the airport Immigration area I would see a big picture of "Baby Doc Bush". Now we have a good president and they have no picture of him."

Haiti

I am on my way to Haiti. I drove to Minneapolis today. I fly out of here at 6:00 tomorrow morning and arrive in Port-au-Prince at 4:10 in the afternoon. I am meeting Lyndon Swarey, Ken Burkholder and John Sensenig in Miami. At least if the snowstorm in the East doesn't keep them from coming.

Wednesday we will meet three people who are coming over from the Dominican Republic. We will travel out to Cadiac Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday the people from the Dominican Republic will leading a community meeting that is part of a micro-finance feasibility study. Anabaptist Foundation is considering starting a micro-finance program in the Miragoane area. Our micro-finance partner organization is doing the feasibility study and will let us know if it looks like a possibility.

I am also participating in the convention at Cadiac. They started their convention meetings yesterday and will finish next Sunday morning. The theme is taken from the book of Job, chapter 1. The passage is the one where God askes Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job?" The theme is: God is counting on you.

Sunday evening and Monday morning I will be spending time with Bethanie. I am looking forward to being with her again.

Anyway, if God brings me to your mind in the next week, pray for me.