The Reimer Clan

One year and a day ago, I went on the most exciting adventure of my life. It was my first day attending School of Ministers, an infamous bible school held in the Southland Church in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada. I remember waking up that day, a crispy 6:10am (because waking up at 6am is too close to 5:59am, and nobody wants to wake up at a 5am minute...So 6:10am.).

As I arrived in the parking lot at 6:57am, I walked through the door into the SOM classroom and immediately began my search for my brother Taran and my two very close cousins Dale and Calen. There was nothing more comforting than to have 3 of my favorite bros waiting for me to join them at a table at the far corner of the room that would soon be known as the "Reimer Clan" table!

I believe the most exciting part about that day was being pointed out that Taran and I were the ones from Texas. Our teacher asked, and so we stood up and were then stared at intensely by all the Canadians (which is to be expected, right? We Texans are a rare breed!).

Throughout the entire day, Taran and I were constantly accompanied by one or more people asking us about Texas, why we came to Canada, how we heard of SOM, and why we didn't have strong Texan accents or carried guns in our boots with spurs.

Later that day, or maybe it was a few weeks later, the Reimer Clan stumbled across a fellow student who seemed to fit right into the group. He was funny, quick-witted, a video game junkie and evidently a strong Christian--the perfect poster child of a Reimer! So inevitably, we Reimers took interest of this fellow, whose name was none other than The Trevor Andrews. But one day I was displeased with his last name.

I stood with my fists on the table and loudly proclaimed, "YOU ARE OUR COUSIN NOW." And thus, Trevor Andrews suddenly became a Trevor Reimer, and stayed faithfully by our sides through the entire year.

There were plenty more of these friends made during our year at SOM. These friends made it so easy for me to love waking up at 6:10am and running through three feet of snow to turn on my car and break the ice off my windshield wipers and drive through ice and tundras.

I miss School of Ministers, the people and the potlucks, the robot dance-offs and the small group studies, the retreats in Pinawa and drawing on the whiteboard. But I will never forget the amazing growth I had there in God, and each and every friend I made. I will always come back to Canada, just for them, because they made my life awesome. And so, even though I'm not attending SOM this year, I pray the students now will be able to make friends just like we did, grow even more than we did, and build an even finer life than mine!

So good luck with that. I've got a pretty dang fine life thanks to all of you!