Home once more

Well, I'm back; have driven to Winkler, Manitoba (about 7 hours away); participated in the Bible Quizzing competition there (as a coach) and driven back home. Four of our students came with me. What's Bible Quizzing, you ask? It's a really great program - check out their FAQ here: http://www.cmdquizzing.org/info/faq.html If you want the Reader's Digest Condensed Version:

"The mission of quizzing is to see visible evidence of the application of God's Word in the lifestyle of each participant."
Bible Quizzing is a ministry of Life Impact Ministries/CMA to assist teens to connect with God in a deeper way by Experiencing Him and Expanding His Kingdom.
It accomplishes this by:
Providing teens with an opportunity to be involved in the systematic study and application of God's Word.
Building character, instilling self-discipline, and encouraging prayer and unity.
Equipping young people with the capacity to serve in other areas of ministry.

Our students did really well. They won the first three matches they were in, and then, while they did know the answers after that, they weren't the first so didn't win the next three matches. They had a lot of fun (which is also very important) and they know an awful lot about the Book of Luke.

It was interesting being in Winkler. It's obviously a very strongly Mennonite community; there were at least three massive Mennonite churches that we passed by. Winkler has a population of about 9,000. There was at least one quiz group that visited amongst themselves in German, and this morning in the worship service, the hymns were all in English and German on the PowerPoint slides. The girls and I stayed with a family that had just immigrated to Winkler from Germany and spoke some English but were fluent in both German and Russian. The boys also stayed with a German speaking family.