Trip to Virgina

Virginia, a state full of beautiful scenery, majestic colonial homes, busy highways, limited cell phone service, lots of curving roads, and rich with history. Driving down the highways and passing road signs with city names of Richmond and Salem brought back so many stories I read about in school on American history. Names like the Shenandoah Valley, Blue Ridge Mountains, and later in West Virginia the Allegheny Mountains, reminded me of stories I have recently read about the history of the Mennonite people. None of us children had been to the northeast so we were all pretty excited to be taking a trip to Virginia; we were also all excited to visit with some friends we hadn’t seen for awhile. It took a lot of work to get everything and everyone packed and ready to go, packing for over ten days, plus all our cooking supplies, and everything else a large family needs took quite a bit of time and when it came to the van space too. On the way up Caleigh and I went with a friend so we took a little different route from the rest of the family, we met new friends and went through an extra state so we saw a little more scenery.

We stayed at Faith Mission Home and then traveled around the area sightseeing and visiting friends. We really enjoyed interacting at the home with the staff and residents!  

Main Home....Entrance and boys wing.

Bell tower....the one mentioned in Pablo Yoder's book.

Church and School

Road down from the main home to the Church.

Guys Dorm

Girls Dorm

The bake shop was one of our favorite places! Not only could you get a fresh warm cookie, but the residents here were so much fun!

Sunday after lunch we hiked back to the falls that are around the mission home. These are the same falls mentioned in Pablo Yoder’s book. We had quite the time getting back to the home, we got split up into three different groups and no one but one person had a cell phone that could get reception!

This girl actually talked me into climbing up and standing at the top of the falls! One of my highlights of the trip was seeing Kaylena Bontrager and Melanie Kauffman, and getting to be with them for an entire week!

Monday we spent the afternoon visiting Phil and Kendra Sensenig. It was nice after all the work of getting ready for the trip, and traveling up there to have an entire afternoon to relax and visit! It was wonderful to see them again! We also went for a hike too….

 We drove parts of Skyline Drive two separate days; there were such pretty views though unfortunately it was pretty hazing both times. Standing at a look out and looking over the Shenandoah Valley made me think of the civil war and how the armies would come into the valley and bother the Mennonites; barns burned, the men having to go into hiding, and their food and animals taken. So much has happened in the valley, it was something to stand there and see it after reading many stories that happened there. 

About to cross the Blue Ridge mountains….since we had to do that every time we went to Harrisonburg and we went there twice, we crossed these mountains a total of 4 times! For us passengers it was kind of fun, pretty, and very interesting, I’m afraid it was tiring for the driver though. :)

One of the printers

On one of our trips to Harrisonburg we toured Christian Light Publications; it was very interesting seeing how the books are not only made, but the process to get them into a book. 

Other side of the printer

This is done to help the paper unroll after being on a roll for a long time.

Cutting the pages of a teachers manual.

Binding a teachers manual

This machine puts the light units together and folds them

Packaging and Shipping department.

 On the way home we spent a night in Arkansas. It was so good to be back and see everyone after being gone 6 months! We were only there a Sunday, not long enough for everyone that wanted to say hi and talk. :) Before we came home we stayed to listen to the youth chorus give a program, they were really good and it was a blessing to hear them sing!