Tour Leader’s Blog

Janet Martin’s father, Robert Ranck passed away this morning after a lengthy illness.

His obituary can be viewed here.

Visitation will be held at East Bethany chapel (Landis Homes) from 6:00-8:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 20th.

Funeral services are planned at Rohrerstown Mennonite Church (on Rohrerstown Road, Rohrerstown, PA) on Monday, June 21st at 11:00 a.m.

All are welcome.

I spoke last evening at the annual fundraising dinner of the Mennonite Historical Association of the Cumberland Valley in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. I was introduced by my mother’s best friend as a “boy coming home” and that’s what it felt like. I moved away from this area 42 years ago, but it was like a homecoming. The room was packed with about 150 people. Many of them wanted to talk with me. I did well remembering names too even after such a long time.

I spoke about my call to leadership that came from this community. I thanked them for laying a foundation. I thought I was being called to be a farmer-preacher, but God had different plans for me. I talked about my ministry and leadership and shared some of my challenges as well as successes, and I read stories from my book, Building Bridges. People thanked me afterward for my vulnerability.

It was such a heartwarming event for me to see my church family and my TourMagination family coming together to share the same values. Some of the people there had grown up with me, while others had traveled with us. There were even a few people who will be going to Europe with me later this week! It was a successful event for the Historical Association too – they raised $6,700 in a freewill offering.

As I said in my talk, TourMagination is about building bridges. I would love to visit other communities across North America with this message. Please let me know if you would like me to come to speak at your church or community event.

~ Wilmer Martin

Our Great Trek tour has had a wonderful time in central Asia, retracing the steps of their ancestors. Today, as the tour draws toward a close, they are at the most remote part of the Silk Road, visiting the Khan’s Garden in Ak Metchet, where 60 Great Trek families settled and where there are still signs of their time in this remote land. They are also visiting the Ichan-Kala Museum in the walled city of Khiva, which features the Mennonite story. They will have good stories to tell us when they return on Thursday.

Today, also, Audrey Voth Petkau and John Ruth will depart with their European Heritage tour. By early tomorrow morning, they will arrive in Amsterdam where they will visit a working windmill and a craftsman who makes wooden shoes. This will be Audrey’s first time seeing the Passion Play at Oberammergau – she is very excited by the reports coming back from other tours about how wonderful this play is!

The TourMagination office staff is very busy preparing last minute details for all the tours that leave this month – to various European destinations as well as to Alaska and Israel/Palestine.

It’s not too late to take advantage of our 40th anniversary offer: $400 off any 2010 tour as long as you register by the end of June.

Finally, join us in wishing Wilmer a very happy 65th birthday this week. He wonders if he should start to act his age, but we tell him to keep being himself.

Churches were filled to overflowing as St. Jacob’s Mennonite and Crosshill Mennonite hosted the Bäretswil Church Choir, a Reformed Church choir from Switzerland, on a concert and relationship-building tour April 27-28.

This 52-voice choir toured in hopes of bridging the historical gap between Swiss churches. Tour organizer Wilmer Martin of TourMagination called the choral experience “deeply spiritual” while Peter Schmidt, who initiated the tour, called it “a dream come true.” He added, “We know we are brothers and sisters in the Lord - it was a trip of building bridges. The choir was received very warmly in homes. We even had one evening of singing where Amish people sang to us and we sang to them.” Laura Shantz of St. Jacobs hosted several choir members in her home and said that they were very congenial and that their music was beautiful.

~ Susan Fish

We arrived home this evening; thanks to Air Canada for adding a special flight from Zurich to Toronto. We finally left Bucharest early yesterday morning but not on the Bucharest-Frankfurt-Toronto flight we were confirmed on. The portion to Frankfurt was cancelled. Lufthansa re-routed us Bucharest-Budapest-Frankfurt-Toronto. Got to Budapest and Frankfurt cancelled again. Re-routed again via Zurich to London and on to Toronto today (Thursday). While waiting in Zurich, I decided to check other possibilities again. That’s when I found out about the Air Canada flight today. So re-booked again and we stayed in Zurich for the night. It’s been quite the adventure!

We are grateful to God for the kindness of the airline staff. They were so helpful and patient in the midst of a lot of uncertainty and pressure from travelers anxious to get home. Janet and I are thankful for safety in our travels and that the airlines covered all the costs for the extra flights.

We were reminded of the importance of patience and kindness. Mostly the other travelers we encountered were pleasant, just anxious to get to their destinations. We did not see one irate person, a little surprising since the airports had many stranded passengers.

While on our cruise, we were a bit disappointed that we had little time alone on our vacation. So many persons wanted to spend time with us. They were interested in our lives, TourMagination, and just general interest, wanting to join us for meals, etc. We are grateful for all the new people we learned to know and that we could share our lives with them. Perhaps you will meet some of them on our tours.

The three unplanned days alone, trying to get home gave us lots of time alone to talk, play games and reflect.

TourMagination staff kept the office running smoothly and stayed in touch with us on our Blackberrys. The Lufthansa agent in Budapest had our alternative schedule all figured out through Brussels. When she went to print our tickets one flight was cancelled. She looked at me and said, “your gold status doesn’t help when a flight is canceled.” We laughed and she worked out the schedule to Zurich. Unknown to her or any of us, six hours later this special flight was added by Air Canada.

God is good.

~ Wilmer Martin