Tour Leader’s Blog

Last evening Wilmer and Janet Martin hosted TourMagination staff and their spouses at their home for a barbeque. The theme of the barbeque was “We did it!” Janet ordered a cake with the Mennonite World Conference Global Assembly 2009 logo and the inscription “We did it!” on it.

Trinda Lim, from MTS Travel in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, was our special guest. She coordinated the flights for our 270+ tour participants who traveled to South America for the Mennonite World Conference Global Assembly in Asuncion. Trinda works for TourMagination throughout the year, writing most of the air tickets for our tour members. It was wonderful to sit together and tell stories as we reflected on the MWC experience. Many wonderful memories were created as our tour members experienced discovery and fellowship on our tours.

Our Mennonite World Conference tours are now completed. The tour diaries are being produced and will be forwarded to tour members over the next several months. The barbeque was a way to thank our staff and Trinda Lim for everyone’s hard work in coordinating all the transportation and tour details. Janet and I appreciated our staff’s commitment to provide excellent service as they worked through the many details related to visas and transportation.

The energy of our staff has now switched to our fifteen tours to the Oberammergau Passion Play in Oberammergau in 2010. Interest is high for these tours. We are grateful for the opportunity to continue to relate to the many people who are TourMagination alumni and friends across North America.

~ Wilmer Martin

Yesterday, the final worship service of the Mennonite World Conference Global Assembly was a beautiful experience as we worshipped with brothers and sisters from all over the globe. We even had greetings from a pastor from a Mennonite church in Siberia, Russia.

Four of our groups toured prior to the assembly. Now our four post-assembly tours are traveling. Two groups are touring in Peru, one in Bolivia and Edgar Stoesz is serving as the teacher/story teller for his third tour which will tour in Paraguay this week and then travel on to Peru. During the assembly Edgar and Wilmer took 47 persons on a two-day tour to the Chaco.

Last evening our MWC #6 tour gathered around the fireplace in the lobby of Hotel del Paraguay to reflect on the Mennonite World Conference gathering. A common reflection was that it was very meaningful and gratitude to God was expressed for the opportunity to participate. Mildred Roth said, “It was meaningful to be in the minority as an English-speaking person in a Mennonite gathering.

The music and singing was very spiritually enriching. The final service was mostly Latino with music, singing and dancing and a sermon by Alfred Neufeldt. Hans Nickel so much enjoyed the solo by the nine-year-old blind girl. Her mother came to faith through the chaplaincy program of Mennonite businesses in Asuncion.

We were pleased yesterday to visit the Mennonite Street Children’s program in Asuncion. A highlight for us was that a couple who met as street children in this home when it began in 1991 became Christians, were baptized in a Mennonite church, married, attended the Mennonite Seminary in Asuncion and are now pastors in an emerging church. We were greeted at the gate to the home by their two-year-son who came running to me and wanted me to pick him up. What a wonderful example of faith!

~ Wilmer Martin

Last evening’s opening session of the Mennonite World Conference Global Assembly was an awesome experience. Who could have dreamed, when MCC received permission from Paraguay to bring refugees here in 1928, that 80 years later they would host a world gathering.

All 7 TourMagination tours arrived safely. It was a joy to see the excitement of tour members as they gathered among the crowds under the various TourMagination signs waiting for the buses back to the hotels.

This morning the wakeup call was early for 47 persons. Edgar Stoesz and Wilmer Martin arranged a special tour to the Chaco for those whose tour did not included a visit. Excitement was high as Edgar told stories as we travelled on the road originally built with help from the Pax boys.

There is so much to see and experience and such a joy to participate in this world-wide Mennonite gathering.

~ Wilmer Martin

The first half of our pilgrimage proved rich in both surprise and interest. When the Argentina Airlines cancelled a flight, they had to send half of us on another. That half found the first leg of our journey taking us to Buenos Aires. After flying there most of the night, we were assigned surgical masks, and asked to fill out forms in reference to whether we had any symptoms of swine flu. Then we had had a day to sightsee, an enjoyable bonus! A young German girl – a Rotary exchange student – whom we chanced to meet in our hotel gave us a memorable city walking tour. It included such sights as the national cathedral, a huge obelisk (given by France) that resembled the Washington Memorial, the world’s broadest street, bustling shopping avenues, and even a demonstration by mothers of Argentinian “disappeareds.”

When we flew north to Rio de Janeiro the next day (Friday), we found that the other half of our group had had a similar bonus experience in Miami. At the airport, we were amazed to see that the colorful, luxurious double-decker bus, with two drivers, was to be our very own – all the way to Asuncion nine days later.

At Rio we were led up to the towering Christ of the Andes statue, from which we viewed not just the city clustered amidst its green mountains, but some of the hundreds of favelas crowding the slopes. In Campinas, to the west, we visited two lively and earnest Mennonite congregations, where we sang (to great applause). Then it was on to Curitiba, some of it built on now-absorbed Mennonite dairy farms. We had a wonderfully competent and cheerful guide named Heidi Pauls, who hosted us in her own large home for refreshments (and swimming by our three younger participants).

A visit at the bustling Mennonite community at Witmarsum marked our journey on to the Igazu Falls at the border between Brazil and Argentina. There we had to search for adjectives adequate to describe the power and brilliance of the sweep of torrents. Finally we crossed into Paraguay, where, after the latest of many incredibly bountiful meals, we toured the Hilagro mill owned by a Mennonite Hildebrand family that had moved here from Winnipeg, Manitoba. One sensation after another! On to the Chaco!

~ John L. Ruth

What a delightful tour we are experiencing! After arriving yesterday in Uruguay, we were welcomed by Rainer Kunze, the leading pastor (elder) of the German-speaking Mennonites. He took us to their church in the capital city where their congregation had prepared a delicious beef dinner for us.

After a time of sharing, our group sang a prayer hymn, “God be with you till we meet again.” With tears in her eyes, 87-year-old Dora Thiessen, a member of the congregation, said, “We sang that song when we fled Prussia (Poland) and again as we boarded the boat in Holland for Uruguay in 1948.

We learned so much about the church and their ministry called “Project America.”

Today we toured with.Omar Cortes and Waldermer Driedger to learn about the dynamic program among the Spanish-speaking churches. They are deeply appreciative of the former missionaries Daniel Miller; James Martin and Nelson Littwiller.

We also visited the congregation and study center that meets on the grounds where the seminary developed by Nelson Littwiller used to be. This was very exciting for David Friesen since he studied and worked here for three years.

Tomorrow we are going to the Delta where we look forward to visiting several of the colonies.

~ Wilmer Martin