Tour Leader’s Blog

Yesterday was the funeral service for my father, Omar R. Martin, at the Chambersburg Mennonite Church in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Janet and I received a call that my Dad was very low while we were on tour in Romania. We left the tour in the capable hands of Ed Epp, my co-leader who finished leading the group, and arrived in Pennsylvania a week ago.

Rev. Omar R. Martin

I was grateful that I could be with my father for four days prior to his death and stayed with him through three nights. He asked me to preach his funeral sermon which I found to be a challenge, but also a great privilege.

Some TM alumni may have met my Dad on one of our tours or during his many years of ministry in the Mennonite Church. My father, 88 years old, was a retired minister and bishop in the Church, who also had a successful farming career. We all rejoice because of his faith and hope, and that he is now in heaven with my mother and brother.

~ Wilmer Martin

Last evening, TourMagination held an open house at the Bird-in-Hand Restaurant in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania. We had a delightful evening with approximately 75 persons participating in our event.

The enthusiasm was high as persons came wanting to talk to Janet and me about specific tours in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

This event allowed TourMagination to feature our Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, tour leaders who assist as Bible teachers and storytellers. Edgar Stoesz, who serves as our storyteller on our tours to South America will be leading a tour in 2008 and two tours in 2009 in connection with Mennonite World Conference. Susan Godshall will serve as the storyteller for our Churches and Safaris in Kenya and Tanzania tour; previously led by Don Jacobs, who introduced us to Susan and asked her to serve in this role. Also, Paul Zehr, has agreed to serve as the Bible teacher for our Following the Steps of Moses tour, November 2-14, 2008, and will be serving as storyteller for our September 2010 European Heritage tour which includes the Oberammergau passion play.

We invited these local tour leaders to share their excitement and vision for the tours that they are leading and give their vision as it relates to TourMagination’s mission of building bridges among Mennonites and other Christians and faiths around the world.

The attendees had specific questions, especially after they learned that Edgar Stoesz’s tour to Mennonite World Conference (MWC #6) is sold out and several of the other MWC tours are over one-half subscribed. They were somewhat surprised to learn that one of our fifteen tours to Oberammergau in 2010 is already sold out. One attendee, at the end of the evening, worked with Wilmer and Janet on a specific tour to Oberammergau, as he already has two-thirds of a group committed to travel in 2010.

The refreshments and conversation were enjoyable. The noise level in the room was high as persons shared stories of traveling on previous TourMagination tours, as well as anticipating traveling on one of our six tours to Mennonite World Conference in 2009.

If you are interested in traveling to the Mennonite World Conference Global Assembly or to Oberammergau, please email or call and talk to one of our staff.

~ Wilmer Martin

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, our friends, from the staff at TourMagination! Thank you for the confidence you have had in TourMagination this past year. We had a very strong year in 2007, offering 21 tours which provided discovery and fellowship for more than 400 persons.

TourMagination Staff

The enthusiasm and curiosity of our tour members assists us in fulfilling our mission of “building bridges among Mennonites and other Christians around the world through custom-designed travel.” We are grateful for the families that traveled with us in 2007. We were honored to have two families with five children on our tour to Egypt in November. In the evaluations, many persons commented that it was wonderful to share a tour with children participating. The age span was seven years old to ninety years old–what a blessing!

We look forward to serving you in the future. We invite you to check our website for tours being offered for 2008, 2009 and 2010.

On behalf of the TourMagination team,

~ Wilmer Martin

We have recently renovated our TourMagination office at 9 Willow Street, expanding office space for our growing operation.

Outside the TM Office

We have scheduled an Open House on Wednesday, October 31 from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. We invite anyone in the area to join us to see our renovated office, to meet our special guests; Larry Miller, the Executive Secretary of Mennonite World Conference, and Albert and Mary Hildebrand from Sommerfeld Colony in Paraguay.

We hope you will come to enjoy refreshments and have conversations with our guests and staff. At that time, the brochures will be available for our six tours to the 15th Global Assembly of Mennonite World Conference in 2009.

Larry Miller will bring greetings and interpret the program of the Mennonite World Conference Assembly in Asuncion, Paraguay, in July 2009. And our staff will be happy to answer questions about our tours.

We look forward to meeting you and welcoming you on October 31.

~ Wilmer and Janet Martin

TourMagination is one of the cooperating travel agencies for Mennonite World Conference assembly to be held in Paraguay in 2009. Janet and I have been in Paraguay with the planning group for the past 8 days. From the meetings we learned what TM was already sensing. Interest in attending MWC is strong.

Iguazu Falls

TM already has more than 20 people registered for our tours and the MWC assembly. The assembly and tours will be very exciting and a wonderful opportunity to meet our church family from 70 countries around the world. We encourage you to register as soon as possible. Contact TM to register for our tours and the assembly. We expect to have our 6 tours brochures available by the end of September.

~ Wilmer Martin