A few Quick Hits

1. Haiti didn't make the first 6 minutes of the CBC radio national news at 4pm. It's fading from the headlines. Please don't forget the thousands affected.

2. I really have issues with British Colonialism. They really have tried to screw up every culture they've come in contact with.

3. Read the Graphic Novel Series "Bone" this week. Very enjoyable.

4. I hate icy roads.

5. I have a lot of work to do this weekend.

6. The Super Bowl is this weekend.

7. I never get stuff done Super Bowl weekend.

8. I'm screwed.

cheers

A Response to Herb Franz...sort of.

OK this is hard because normally I don't like picking a fight with a pastor of another church but I sort of had to with this. He kind of got me a little angry. This is a portion of Herb Franz's sermon on exclusivity which he preached at Grace Mennonite Church in Winkler on Sunday. The Mennonite community is small so that's how I found out about this. He posts the sermon on his blog. Here is an excerpt...

Let me tell you about an exclusive church that I experienced last fall. When we were at Hans and Irene’s four of us decided that we would like to go to an Old Colony Church worship service. So we asked around about where we could find such a church. We were told that there was an Old Colony Church in the village of Steinreich just a couple of miles from where we were staying. We asked what time it would start. We were told that Old Colony churches never start at the same time. They start one hour after sunrise. Some of our group, not me, were awake early in the morning and knew that the sun rose at 6:30 AM. We assumed that we should be at the church by 7:30. Actually we were told, the service starts at 7:15 or so.

We arrived at the church and Daryl was driving and Daryl did what Daryl always does when Daryl goes to church, he drove into the parking spot. We didn’t know that no one drives into the parking spots; they back in so they can get away quickly when the service is over.

We had been told to make sure that we entered the church by the correct door. We would have to enter by the men’s door. We were told to just watch which door the men were using and follow them in. We got there and I watched and I saw a couple of men walk in one of the doors. But then I became confused because I also saw a couple of women enter the same door. What was going on? Then I remembered being told that there are a couple of doors on the church where the song leaders and the ministers, and their wives can enter. That must be the door. Eventually we saw what seemed to be a steady stream of men heading toward several different doors and we got out of our incorrectly parked van and followed the group.

As we were walking across the parking lot we encountered another man came and I greeted him with my best Low German greeting. He looked surprised and muttered something in return that made it obvious the conversation was over. We managed to walk in the correct door. We noticed there were no children under the age of about 13 in the church.

Before the service started seven men walked in and sat to the right of the pulpit. These were the song leaders. They led the singing in the most nasal singing I have ever heard. We found that no one brought their Bibles to church, except for our own Bill Zacharias, but everyone brought their hymn books which are carried in cardboard slip covers. When the singing started there was a general clatter as the books were unsheathed and the covers were set beside the people on the bench.

When the minister began to speak there came a time when everyone in the building stood up, turned around and knelt facing the back of the bench. I had been on my knees all week tiling at Hans and Irene’s and my knees were in no mood for kneeling without kneepads on a cement floor. I thought it would be awkward to stay sitting and stare at the man in front of me kneeling to pray looking at me so I stood, turned, knelt and leaned heavily on my arms during the prayer time.

As a preacher I’m always looking to learn from another preacher. When this preacher began to speak he did not speak in his normal tone of voice. He spoke sort of in a singing voice that flowed along like this and only occasionally dropped at end of a sentence. Despite that there were entire sections of the message where he spoke in his normal voice before beginning to once again use what I later learned is called the “Holy Voice”. When church was over I expected visiting to happen but everyone stood silently and left without saying anything to anyone. It was clearly a case of beat the traffic in Steinreich that day. In about five minutes our van was the only vehicle left in the parking lot because Daryl had driven in instead of backing in. We had to wait till everyone else had gone before we could go.

We left the church that day relatively secure in the knowledge that we were going to be the topic of many dinner conversations among the people of the Steinreich Old Colony Church. I have never felt so out of place among a group of 250 white people in all my life.

I went to an Old Colony church service as well when I was in Mexico. And I can only describe Mr. Franz's description as culturally insensitive. Could he have sounded more superior in his description of the Old Colony church service? Maybe next time he should approach the service with humility and a true desire for learning and check his modern evangelical goggles at the door. What did he expect? To be greeted as the wonderful preacher from the far off wonderful place of Canada? If he had tried to learn anything about church before hand maybe the service wouldn't have been so awkward for him. One of his comments was "the most nasal singing I have ever heard". Does he go to Pow Wows and complain about the drumming or watch Riverdance and then complain about how loud it is when they wear those shoes? His comment about "beating the traffic" was also troublesome to me. He really has absolutely NO idea about the culture of the Old Colony people. Instead he invokes his own biases to prove a point. I'm going to fill you in on a little secret. The Old Colony church is exclusive. They are not an evangelical church out to attract new members. They have members, they are the people of the colony. By the way. I did not feel "excluded" when I attended that church service in December. Excluded is when you are left out. Did I feel different? Yes, but I was given as much opportunity to worship as anyone else. On a final note Mr. Franz assumes they were the talk of many dinner discussions. Really??

Cheers

A Warhammer Morning

So nobody went anywhere from our house today (great grammar there) and Griffin has a Vampire Counts Army he hasn't used yet, so we decided to have ourselves a little game. It was a 1300pt battle. Here are the army lists.

Vampire Counts

Heroes

Vampire Hero

Blood Drinker, Forbidden Lore, Summon Creatures of the Night

Necromancer

Hand of Dust, Extra Spell

Units

20 Zombies w/command

20 Skeletons w/command Banner of the Dead legion

20 Grave Guard w/command Screaming Banner

10 Dire Wolves

4 Bat Swarms

1 Banshee with 2 Cairn Wraiths

Dwarfs

Heroes

Thane

Master Rune of Alaric the Mad, Master Rune of Gromril

Runesmith

Master Rune of Spellbinding

Rune of Spellbreaking

Units

20 Warriors w/command

20 Warriors w/ command

20 Ironbreakers w/command Rune of Courage

10 Thunderers

1 Grudge Thrower w/Engineer Rune of Penetrating

Table

We played on the Kitchen table which is 5ft wide but only 3 ft deep. So we made our deployment zones 6 inches. (btw, that's my new imac in the background)

It's hard to see but the Dwarfs are on the near side of the table. From L-R GrudgeThrower on the Hill, Thunderers, Ironbreakers with Runesmith, Warriors with Thane and Warriors. On the Vampire side from L-R its the Direwolves, Bat Swarms, Grave Guard with Vampire, Zombies, Necromancer, Skeletons and Wraiths.

Griffin won the roll off and so the Vampires went first.

VC Turn 1

Every unit except the Wraiths were within 12 inches of the Vampire and so marched 8 inches ahead except for the wolves who marched 18 inches. The wraiths floated 6 inches forward. (they're ethereal after all) G tried to cast Gaze of Nagash on my Ironbreakers but i dispelled it. he then managed to get Vanhel's Danse Macabre on the Wraiths and so they floated 8 inches ahead into the ruins on my right side of the board.

Dwarf Turn 1

I had my three blocks of units move forward and left my Thunderers and Grudge Thrower in place to shoot. FYI I don't move either of those units during the whole battle.

In the shooting phase I opened fire on the Dire Wolves and took out 6. The Grudge Thrower scored a direct hit on the Zombies and took out 11 of the 20. Griffin was not impressed.

VC Turn 2

Well Vampires really like Dwarf blood so this particular Vampire was not going to be discouraged.The Dire Wolves charged the Thunderers while everything formed up into a new battle line. The Necromancer failed to cast Invocation of Nehec. The Vampire cast it successfully and the dispel failed so up sprang 6 new Zombies to replace the ones that had been crushed by the Grudge Thrower. In combat the Dire Wolves killed one Thunderer while the 4 Dire Wolves were hacked up in return.

Dwarfs Turn 2

The Ironbreakers moved up a little to form up with the Warriors. The Thunderers fired on the Bat Swarms and did 2 wounds. The Grudge Thrower must have been affected by the wind because this shot sailed off course and landed harmlessly between the two armies.

VC Turn 3

The Bat Swarms moved in front of the Thunderers, the wraiths moved beside the warriors on my right while everything moves up carefully. In magic both his attempts at Invocation were dispelled. His Banshee did her howl at the Warriors and one fell to his death.

Dwarfs Turn 3

The three blocks of units move back 1 inch to try and stay out of charge range. The Thunderers do 6 wounds on the Bat Swarms while the Grudge Thrower's artillery veers off course again.

VC Turn 4

Wraiths and Skeletons charge the Warriors on my right flank. Warriors have to take a terror test and fail so they flee. The skeletons fail their charge but the wraiths catch the warriors and they are destroyed. The Banshee then howls and destroys three more warriors from the other unit. The Bat Swarms charge the Thunderers who fail their fear check and flee off the board. (I needed to roll a 9 or less on both and rolled 11 twice!!!) Grave Guard and Vampire charge into the Iron Breakers who don't have to take a test because they have the Rune of Courage on their banner. The Zombies charge the Warriors who pass their fear test. The necromancer moves forward. Invocation of Nehek by the Necromancer fails while the Vampire (who must have hated his necromancer) cast Vanhels on the Necro and charged him into the warriors as well. The Necro has a bound spell but that is dispelled. In combat the Zombies whiff while the Warriors dispatch of 5. With combat resolution the Zombies unit had 3 left and the necromancer crumbled to dust. In the other combat the Grave Guard do no wounds while the Iron Breakers do 1 wound so the Grave Guard lose by 2 and 2 Grave Guard fall to the ground.

Dwarf Turn 4

Nobody moves cause everyone's in combat except the Grudge Thrower, and who'd wanna move that thing anyway. In Close Combat the remaining Zombies are destroyed. The Ironbreakers destroy one Grave Guard and one Iron Breaker falls in return. The Grave Guard lose one more to combat resolution.

VC Turn 5

The Bat Swarms move in behind the Iron Breakers and the Wraiths move behind the Warriors. The Banshee Howl fails this turn and Invocation of Nehek is dispelled. In Close Combat the Grave Guard destroy the Runesmith and combat ends up as a draw.

Dwarf Turn 5

The Warriors charge into the flank of the Grave Guard unit. The Grudge Thrower shoots at the unit of skeletons but misses AGAIN!! In combat the Grave Guard kill two warriors on the front and side but still lose combat by 6. They only have 9 left.

VC Turn 6

This was not a good turn for the Dwarfs. The Bat Swarms charge the rear of the Iron Breakers, the Wraiths charge their flank and the skeletons charge the rear of the Warriors.

In combat the Vampire Counts won by about a million and outnumbered the dwarfs so they automatically run and are subsequently are caught. All that's left is the grudge thrower and they decide discretion is the better part of valour and take off. (I conceded).

It was a lot of fun to be able to play. Griffin gets older all the time. I'm glad he's old enough now that we can do these things together.

cheers

Something Quick

I find it funny how schools reword things now. When Griffin got back to school after the break he hadn't finished all his homework. So he went to "Homework Club" during recess until it was finished. Back when I was a kid it was called "detention".
cheers

My Lineage

Just for Kicks.

Budilian Kehler

Parents
Peter T. Kehler
Lenora (Sawatzky)

Grandparents
George Kehler
Mary (Toews)
Ferdinand Sawatzky
Martha (Rempel)

Great Grandparents
Jacob L. Kehler
Helena (Loeppky)
Peter H. Toews
Susan (Hiebert)
Jacob Sawatzky
Anna (Klassen)
Erdman Rempel
Anna (Dueck)

I'll do more in the future. I actually could list one of my great-great and one of my great-great-great grandfathers. I'll hold off for now. I've been interested in my history for a while. But I'm still not sure whether I want to spend the money on ancestry.ca. That's expensive. What I know for sure is most of my family came from the cool Dutch-North German Mennonites and not those pansy Swiss-Southern Germany ones.
Cheers
Bud

Back to the Grind

So things are back to normal I guess. It's bloody cold, I'm at school and it's cold. My car sounds like it's going to fall apart. It shakes so bad I feel like I'm back in Mexico driving on bad gravel roads. It's been too cold to work on the rink too. I'm really disappointed by that. Oh!!! maybe I'll stay home with Griffin on Saturday morning and Tina can go skiing with Griffin, I'll work on the rink and make sure G can make it to an 11am birthday party. NICE!! I'm glad with things work out like that. Over the break I read four books. In order
1. Cross Bones Kathy Reichs
2. Twilight Stephanie Meyers
3. New Moon Stephanie Meyers
4. Eclipse Stephanie Meyers

I really like the Twilight series although I'm getting a little tired of teenage angst. (And I want to be a High School teacher??) I think it's easier to deal with because I like vampires so much.
Ummm
Disappointing news today. Found out Zumba got changed to Tuesdays. ACK!!! I really enjoyed Zumba. Now I have to do regular exercising. Kind of Suck.
Anyway
I'm in Teaching K-8 (Full year course) Math Prior to 1640 and Mennonite Studies post 1786. I think it will be a really good semester. I'm looking forward to everything.
Anyway. Gotta go.
Cheers

We're Back!!

Alright, so we're back from Mexico so I thought it prudent to give a little report. It's not going to be too long because I have to prep for Christmas but as you can see it will include some pictures. So we left early on December 8th. It was -28 that morning. We traveled from Winkler to the U.S. border in Emerson and then on to Grand Forks. It took a little longer than expected to get there because a warning light went on in the car so I had to slow down. That was a little scary. All I could think was, "just get us to the airport". We made it to the airport obviously. When we got there I dropped off Tina, took her jacket and mitts and went and parked the car. I left my jacket and toque there and ran to the terminal. I parked in economy so it was a bit of a hike. When I got to the terminal Tina told me she forgot to give me her boots. She was not lugging them around Mexico. So back to the car I ran and then back to the terminal. That was cold!!!! Finally we got on the plane and were off. In Minneapolis we were worried about the storm coming up from the Midwest throwing a wrench in our plans. Fortunately it only hit in the afternoon. The flight to Cancun felt a little long but landing and getting out into +28 was kind of nice. We spent the first 5 days at the Xcaret Grand Flamenco Resort near Playa del Carmen. It was really nice but a little confusing at first because it's sooooo big and the maps aren't that great. It's really easy to have lots to drink there. It's an all inclusive resort so all the drinks and food are included. Margaritas taste very good when the temp is pushing 30 degrees. It was a very relaxing time for Tina and I. It had been hectic with work for Tina and school for me so it was great to unwind before we headed off to the colonies. For those of you who don't know the real reason for the trip was for research. Royden Loewen, who chairs Mennonite Studies at the University of Winnipeg is writing a book on the history of horse and buggy Mennonites in North and South America. He has about 8 researchers heading off to different areas to gather stories. Some of you might remember Tina heading to Mexico in January to do this. At that time she made it to most of the colonies on the Yucatan Peninsula but still had two to go to. That was the reason for the trip. We just included a little vacation time as well. We didn't do much at the resort other than sit at the beach and do a bit of dancing. There were tours going out to different areas. But we only had 3 full days at the resort so decided to rest and enjoy the outdoors rather than push ourselves. We got a lot of reading done. I read Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs and Tina read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. We both enjoyed them a lot. So on Saturday, Dec 12 we headed off to Hopelchen. We took a bus from Playa del Carmen to Merida. From there we had to walk to a secondary terminal to catch a bus for Hopelchen. We caught the last one for the day 5 minutes before it left!! Thank you God for your traveling mercies. So we rolled into town at about 7pm. It was dark already and there was lots going on in the main square. Fireworks and shops and people walking around. It was a major festival on the Catholic calendar. I haven't quite figured it out yet but I think it was Guadalupe or something. I'll look it up some time. There are some Amish in Hopelchen helping out the Mennonite Colonies in that area so we headed off to their place. Tina had been there in January. We actually ran into Jonas in the main square. He was heading off to a restaurant where his family was, so we joined him. It was outdoors (it's so nice) and we enjoyed Ponochos, Tacos and Orange Fanta. Ponochos are a small torilla that is a little thicker and has chicken and peppers on it. I made sure to add a little Habanero sauce to give it a little kick. We spent the night at a neighbor lady's spare room. The next day we were off to Neuvo Durango colony, which is about 1 hour southeast of Hopelchen. When we arrived we walked into a room with 10 preachers from the surrounding colonies. That was a little freaky. But Tina was her charming self and by the end had set up some interviews and made a contact with the other colony that we wanted to go to. We spent 4 nights in the colony with the Deacon and his family. I went to some of the interviews, read my book and played one afternoon with the three granddaughters. I even got to go to an Old Colony school one afternoon. Children only go to school until they are 12 years old. I find that a little sad because I met some children who were very sharp. But on the other hand for the lifestyle they live they don't need much higher. When I walked into the school I thought I had walked into Anne of Green Gables. Kids were on benches with long desks using slate boards and chalk. (Chalk pencils that is) They sang the catechism and did the multiplication table by rote chanting it in unison. When we walked in with the teacher all the children stood up and the teacher said Gaun Dag (Good Day) and the children replied with the same in unison. A very different experience. On Thursday we got up very early and we had a buggy ride to the nearest village which was about 1 hour away. From there we took a taxi to another town to catch a bus. The taxi was interesting. We pulled up at this house that had a truck with Ontario plates and a van with no plates. Then a Mayan kid comes out who looks about 12 years old and gets into the drivers seat. I think he was 15. He drove well. So we went to the town and took the bus back to Hopelchen. That afternoon we took a taxi to the Mayan ruins at Xtampac. It was kind of funny. We booked the taxi and he drove around a bit and ended up picking up a girl. From our limited understanding of Spanish he wanted to find someone to help him pass the time while we were at the ruins. She certainly did that in a kanoodling sort of way. Anyway, after the ruins he drove us to Santa Rosa Colony. It's a Sommerfelder colony (they have trucks). We stopped at a house at random and asked the people if they would drive us to Chavi Colony. No problem. So off we went to another colony. It was a little different there. We were a different people's places almost every night. That Sunday we went to an Old Colony church service. THAT was different. It's hard to explain because I didn't understand it but the singing was very different because there was no harmony and was more like a drawn out nasal high pitched Gregorian Chant. Weird, I know. One song took about 10 minutes. The preacher then preached for almost an hour. He needed to go toastmasters. Tina said she's heard better Old Colony preachers and not to base my views of Old Colony preachers on him. OH, NO KIDS. A person was not allowed to go to a church service until they were near baptism age. (About 17 or 18). That afternoon I put on a mini-show for the people we were staying at. I juggled oranges. They loved it. HONEST. That evening we stayed in Jolnon Colony at a house right beside where the bus picks everyone up. We were on the bus till Merida and from there to Cancun, we were on our way home!! That night we stayed at a hotel right across the street from the bus depot. Very handy. We had a nice meal at the hotel and I had my first cold beer in over a week. It tasted very good. The next morning it was off to the airport. We got there early and made it through security so we could do some Duty Free shopping. That was fun. Then on to the plane for a flight to Minneapolis. When went through U.S. Customs it turned out the border guy spent 20 years on the North Dakota/Manitoba border. He was very well acquainted with the Winkler area. What were the chances? So, after a short layover were on our way to Grand Forks. It was -10C when we arrived. Much warmer than the -29C we left behind. The highlight in Grand Forks was that the car started. YAY!!! The trip home was less than 2 hours but felt longer. We really wanted to see the kids. So we pulled into our garage went to the door and were greeted by the two most important people in our lives. We missed them soooo much. It was good to feel their arms squeezing our necks. The made us this great sign too. That night Emi and Tina slept in the bed, I slept on the couch and Griffin slept beside me on the floor. We just all wanted to be together. So, that's my story of Mexico. I'm sure there's lots I've missed but we can talk about that some other time.