hospitality done right

In the 60 hours I spent in Elmira Bev and barb have been amazing hosts and I've squeezed in....horse racing(sulkies...apparently), farmers market, steam trains, horse auctions, Mennonite history exhibit, brewery tasting, my first ever covered bridge, personal tour of a grain processing factory and still had time to sit down and get know my awesome hosts! Oh and let's not forget all of the awesome food, ham hock as big as a baby's head, amazing fried chicken, venison sausages and my first experience of "Puff balls"....giant wild mushrooms, bigger than a cabbage!

I got here early evening on Monday pretty exhausted from the drive up from the falls and a little concerned that I was staying with friends of mum's that I had never met in an area I knew nothing about....that lasted about 30 seconds after Bev answered the door(if that long)... Big old hand shake from Bev and a big ole hug from Barb and the next thing I knew I'm sat on their deck, beer in hand, chatting like old friends and then the magic words, you like country music right? If my brother reads this his head may explode 25th jealousy but I spent the next couple days being driven around in Bev's pick up, through the country with the country music on the radio, old dirt roads and all.

For those of you that want to see the rest of my pictures from this spot...

For those of you that want to hear my thoughts on Mennonites and religion, read on...warning though, religious views can be pretty devicive.... https://goo.gl/photos/bV44Pz6nrnb8wn5JA

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Quick note about this being Mennonite country, not a lot of people will know what that is, some may be familiar with the Amish who have similar views, but if anyone like myself has a vague idea of what they are but has not bothered to find out(like me for years)...take a minute, we might think that the buggies and old school clothing is a bit weird, but there's a reason behind it that makes a lot of sense to me and, as an atheist with a very logical mind some of their core beliefs are to me what Christianity was supposed to be.

Essentially, in a super quick nutshell,

They said: "we shouldn'tbaptize at birth because children should be allowed to grow up and choose their religious path"

Catholic church said: "we decide, we are the one true church, deal with it"

They said: "no thanks, we will be off then, but it's ok because God loves everyone and the whole point of religion is to live in service to him and your fellow man"

Church says: "nope, you best start running"

And run they did, hangings, torture, meeting in caves, being driven from their home lands, being told that when they died they didn't have the right to leave anything to their children and it would all go to the state... Ain't religion great

The clothes and buggies and super plain churches come from conscious desires to
a) not integrate into a society which persecuted them for so long
b) a belief that everything and everyone is sacred so we don't need to tart up our churches or people
C) cars and modern life are too fast and you don't get a chance to stop and smell the roses
D) by working hard and dressing humbly they are showing appreciation to God

Now I'm not saying for a second that I've found religion, all I'm saying is, to me...that's the truest interpretation of Christianity I've heard...thus endeth the lectureRead more