This coming Saturday, October 29, I will be doing a book event at the Mennonite Heritage Museum in Abbotsford, British Columbia. The Museum is just twenty-five miles from my house in Bellingham, Washington, an easy drive now that Canada has re-opened its borders. It does require a stop at the border and showing either a passport or an Enhanced Washington Drivers’ License. The border between the US and Canada is very real even though there is no fence, no wall.

There are many Mennonites in the Abbotsford area, and they have built a beautiful museum to present their story and preserve their history—not just the history of those who settled in British Columbia, but the story of the larger Mennonite world as well. I love visiting MHM. I’m delighted that I’ve been offered the opportunity to present my books there, have my books on its shelves. The story I tell in my books is part of that larger Mennonite story. My family was shaped by it; their lives in turn inform it, add to its substance.

 I expect it will be a small, intimate group this Saturday. The only people in BC who know me are my friend, Dora Dueck, and some of the staff at the Museum. I’m not at all sure that there is anyone else in the Abbotsford community who would want to make the effort to go hear an unknown author talk about California Mennonites. That’s ok, though. The people I know who are coming are delightful. I look forward to talking with them, hearing their questions.