We're off to Paraguay

On Friday, July 10th, Diane and I are off to the Mennonite World Conference gathering in Paraguay. For those of you who don't know, this happens about once every 6 years. It was last held in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (2003), and previous to that in India (1997). The one previous to that is the only one Diane and I have ever attended - Winnipeg 1990.

We look forward to meeting many old and new friends; old friends from our connections across the Mennonite Church over the many years, and new friends as God gives opportunity to build relationships with some of the almost 6,000 people who will gather. I understand that there are 7 people going from my congregation alone (Sherbrooke Mennonite Church in Vancouver), although some of these have roots in Paraguay and are also taking opportunity to "go home".

I don't know what opportunities I will have to get on the internet, but if I do, I hope to send some updates as we go along. We are part of a tour group. We start in Iguazzu Falls, Brazil, arriving on July 11th. We will take a bus from there to Asuncion, Paraguay, visiting Mennonite colonies along the way (Apparently these folks have developed amazing dairy operations, and supply a good portion of the milk for the whole country). The conference is from July 14th to 19th. After that we will go to Menno Colony and stay in the community of Loma Plata. There are several friends who are formerly from Sherbrooke Church who live there, and we already have plans to meet them. On July 22nd we return to Asuncion, and on the 23rd, Diane I go our separate ways from the tour group.

We are making a 3-day visit to Brazil. Our main interest is to go to Curitiba, where friends from Sherbrooke Church have roots. We have already hooked up with a sister of one of our friends who is a travel agent there. She has set up our travel itinerary, and the bonus is that we get to also stay with her family.

We arrive home in Vancouver on July 27th.

Talk to you from out there.

The Ride to Saskatoon

I chose to do a kind of a ride of a lifetime for my travel to and from the Mennonite Church Canada Assembly in Saskatoon. I put just over 4,000 kms on my motorcycle on this 2-week trek. The reason the ride was special for me is that I was on roads that for-the-most-part I had been on before, only this time I would enjoy them from the open view of a motorcycle. It was amazing! The other special thing was seeing and staying with friends and family. Someone mentioned that it was something like the Apostle Paul's missionary journeys. I like that image. I took Highway No. 3 on the way to Saskatchewan. For my whole journey, I took the perspective that pictures could never do justice to the scenery around me - so I just rode and didn't take any pictures. I didn't count, but I'm sure I passed through at least four uniquely different mountain ranges. There were the mountains that start at Hope, then the desert-like mountains at Osoyoos. Once past Osoyoos, it doesn't take long to switch to a mountain that I have not really been able to describe - kind of a small and rugged type. They are not the majestic-rugged that the Rockies are. These are the mountains around Grand Forks.

Below you will see three pictures from my first night's stop. I stayed with friends that are formerly from Sherbrooke Mennonite Church in Vancouver, now at Grand Forks - Tony & Jen Boschmann and their boys, Lukas and Jakob. You will see their house, their front yard and them.

After spending and evening and a morning with Tony and Jen, there was the next day. I rode through the Kootenays. The Kootenay Pass is apparently the highest pass in Canada. The air temperature was okay, but I was way above the snow line - there was snow on the ground amongst the trees as far down as I could see on the side of the road away from the mountain. I stopped for lunch in Cranbrook at Werner and Sue Froese's - retired pastors that I know both from BC and Saskatchewan. It took a picture, but it wasn't good, so I'm not putting it in here.

Travelling through Fernie and on to the Crowsnest Pass gave me a peek at the Rockies, but I didn't really get into them. The Crowsnest opens the way out of the mountains and to the prairies. The first things that stood out on the southern Alberta landscape were the hundreds of wind turbines. These are massive fans that generate electricity, placed on ridges to catch the maximum amount of prairie wind. This took me to Lethbridge for night. I actually stayed in a hotel - the only one on the journey.

Seeing the green fields of sprouting crops provided its unique beauty. I think the prairie beauty also had something to do with the fact that I was going home - that is, the place of my growing up and where my family is. I spent a week with Diane's parents in Saskatoon while attending the assembly. It was pretty cold the whole time, but then I didn't have far to ride each day. Nak Sun Kim, the pastor of the Sherbrooke Korean Mennonite Fellowship, stayed there with me.

After the assembly I went to Outlook, an hour south of Saskatoon, and stayed a night and a morning with my brother and his wife (Howard and Lori). The next day was rainy, but not real cold. Howard and I spent the day riding, ending up at the Rosthern Mennonite Nursing Home - where our parents are now living.

I spent two nights with my Mom and Dad at Rosthern. They are really doing well, and it is so good to know that they are in good hands while we live 18 hours away. They posed with my bike all loaded again for the journey home.

When I hit the road, I went to Didsbury, Alberta to spend a night with Diane's brother and his family (Terry and Kim Falk). It was wonderful, including taking in their daughter Dynna's soccer game. The next day was my longest day, ending up at Clare & Bev Neufeld's in Kelowna (pastor of First Mennonite Church, and friend from Vancouver as well as Saskatchewan). On this ride is where I saw the Rockies in their fullest majesty!

Clare suggested I head for the Fraser Canyon for my trek home. So, I went through Merrit and on to Spence's Bridge. Just as I stopped at Spence's Bridge to look down at the Fraser River far below, it started to rain for pretty much the only time other than the one day in Saskatchewan. Low and behold, just ahead of me was a little restaurant that had a veranda for me to park my bike out of the rain while I had a bite to eat.

The end of my journey was at Camp Squeah where my congregation, Sherbrooke Mennonite Church was having their annual family camp. This is where I met Diane as she came by herself from home. It was a wonderful trip; it was wonderful to be together again. I officially ended back at home Sunday afternoon after the family camp.

I give thanks to God for safety and blessing.

Photos from Saskatoon 2009

Hanging out with people at the displays

Putting on Clothes of Christlikeness - based on Colossians 3:12

People - Actually, friends. It's cool that when you go to these assemblies over the years many people become both acquaintances and friends - I know a number of these people in this random photo taken by an MC Canada photographer.

Rudy Baergen of the MC Canada Faith and Life Committee presenting the introduction to prepare us for the discernment time on biblical interpretation. The "Living Inside Out" theme banner is behind him.

Discerning what God is saying and doing amongst his people.

Mennonite Church Canada Assembly - Saskatoon 2009

From my two lame photos of the building where the Assembly took place, you may be able to tell that I am a person who often forgets to get out the camera because I am busy connecting with friends and taking in the conference sessions.

Anyway, I would say it was a very good conference. I began by taking in a meeting of Conference Ministers and then taking in the Ministers' Conference. Actually, in Mennonite Church Canada language, conference ministers are now called Area Church Ministers. We met Wednesday afternoon (June 3rd) in the "Africa Room" at the MCC Saskatchewan offices. We spend more time catching up with each other and the stuff going on in our area churches across Canada (that is: BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Eastern Canada), than we spend on business. Our MC Canada denominational minister, Karen Martens-Zimmerly, leads us - as does a great job. We also have Anna Rehan, Mennonite Church Canada Youth Minister, joining us as her place of connecting. The price Anna had to pay for joining was to serve all of us dinner at her, and her husband Ed's, beautiful home on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River.

On Thursday was the Minsters' Conference - this is a special time for pastors and spouses to focus on a learning theme. Dan Epp-Tiessen spoke on "Nurturing a Vision for Engaged Congregations," based on 1 Corinthians 12. I particularly learned that it would be good to preach less about all the things we should be doing, and preach more of the good news of Jesus' love! I also had the privilege of discovering that our closing worship was to be led by Valerie Wiebe, a good friend from the congregation in Langham, SK where I used to serve.

The big event was the main assembly, and I would say that the highlight for me was the discernment that we had around tables on three topics: biblical interpretation, proclaiming peace in the public square, and being a healthy church. You can check out the details of these discussions and the assembly in general by checking out the Bridge City Bulletin and the photos at: www.mennonitechurch.ca/events/saskatoon2009/. Actually, I think I can snag a couple of photos from that website to give you some of my highlights. Check my next blog entry for this.

Also, check out a bit about my ride to the conference in another blog.

REACH - MCBC Joint Worship Service 2009

I would say that REACH went really well. Sorry, no photos - the photos that were sent to me were, for some reason, not uploadable. We had approximately 375 people gather together. We had hoped for many more, but it was a sunny summer-like afternoon and many of our congregations already had a morning worship service. Some of the highlights were: 6 very interesting interviews with people involved in various ministries, lots of visuals dipicting ministry among our 31 congregations, good worship singing, a song that was sung in 9 different languages (representing almost all of the languages in which our MCBC congregations worship), and good food afterward.

The interviews included: Billy Chiew (ministry in downtown Vancouver at Vancouver Chinese Mennonite Church), Kristina Toews, youth worker at Eben-Ezer Mennonite Church in Abbotsford (also Mennonite Church Canada's representative at the Mennonite World Conference Youth Summit), Rob Tiessen (talking about missional opportunity at Camp Squeah), Lee Dyck (talking about her and her husband Gerald's observations as they have been on a mission of visiting many of the MCBC congregations in the Lower Mainland), Nhien Pham (speaking of the Vietnamese church plant in Abbotsford), and Paul Heinrichs (representing the Karen ministry at Living Hope Christian Fellowship).

We are looking for good ideas as to what we could do next year to build our unity. It has been suggested to have a sports day and picnic. What do you think?