Tour Leader John L. Ruth
May 12th, 2008John Ruth was in southwestern Ontario from Thursday, May 8 to Saturday, May 10. The annual meeting and breakfast of Shalom Counselling Services (Waterloo) was held on Saturday at the Crosshill Mennonite Church and celebrated their 25th anniversary.
Wanda Wagler Martin, executive director, approached TourMagination to be the corporate sponsor for this event and invite John Ruth to be their guest speaker. John was asked to speak on “Forgiveness: Strategy, Skill or Story” based on his most recent book, Forgiveness: A Legacy of the West Nickel Mines Amish School. Two hundred persons attended this event early Saturday morning.
Since TourMagination sponsored and brought our most respected storyteller/tour leader to Ontario, we invited TourMagination friends to meet Thursday evening at the Stone Crock Restaurant in St. Jacobs. Thirty-eight persons attended the dinner and listened to John share a visual presentation entitled “New Insights into our Heritage from Recent European Tours.” What a delightful evening we had!
John has a tremendous gift of telling stories, helping individuals and families recognize their past, learn from their history and integrate those learnings into life.
On Friday evening, Milo and Laura Shantz invited John, Janet and me for an evening dinner. We enjoyed sitting around the dinner table and shared stories for more than three hours. It was another wonderful evening.
~ Wilmer Martin
