No one has greater love than this...

This past week we spent five days camped out in the basement of Ed and Gay Kauffman’s house. Ed and Gay are members of Sermon on the Mount Mennonite Church (SOTM), one of two Mennonite churches in Sioux Falls. We only visited SOTM though, and had plenty of time to explore the city.

Sioux Falls is a really nice city, if you like that sort of thing (cities). It’s about 120,000 people in the southeastern part of South Dakota, but has a small-town feel to it. It has a lot of parks, a 26 mile bike path around the city, and hosts something called the “Mayor’s Lunch” every Fourth of July. As far as I could tell, the “Mayor’s Lunch” was entirely free, and included lunch, ice cream, a cowboy festival, and an outdoor performance by an orchestra (thank you, Sioux Falls taxpayers). The “Mayor’s Lunch” is only one of the things that gave Sioux Falls it’s small town atmosphere.

I’ll mention one other thing: friendliness. After living in Goshen/Elkhart for five years, I’d gotten used to not really making eye contact with passers-by. But there I was, in Sioux Falls, four times the size of Goshen, and people greeted and smiled at me like I was a good friend of their children. It felt nice to have my humanity affirmed by strangers.

Perhaps the most amusing story came from our afternoon at the “Mayor’s Lunch.” Mark, Randy and I were standing roughly parallel to each other. I’ll mark Randy with an “R,” and Mark and I with “x” since we’re peripheral to the story.

R x

x

We were waiting in line for our lunch. It was an extensive line, but moving quickly, and we were optimistic that soon we would be stuffing our faces with delicious sandwiches and potato chips. The line had just moved under some shade trees when a mysterious young lady (we’ll call her Hannah) entered the scene. I’ll mark her location with an “H.”

R x

x H

She quickly glanced at our trio of handsome men, found someone she liked, and struck up a conversation. No, it wasn’t me or Mark, even though we would seem the natural choices-we were closer to her after all. Nope, she immediately started eyeing Randy. She stared right past Mark and I like we weren’t even there, and fired a series of questions at Randy, “What’s your name? Where are you from? What are doing in Sioux Falls?” She quickly and smoothly shouldered Mark and I out of the way to pursue her new true love.

RH

x x

Randy looked like a deer caught in the headlights as he was caught off-guard by Hannah’s directness. He mumbled a frightened answer, and quickly moved forward to talk with Ed and Gay, who were a little further ahead in the line. Thankfully, Mark’s outgoing nature deflected Hannah from Randy as he engaged her in small talk.

Later on, Ed, Gay, and the “Seeds” group reflected on the “Hannah situation.” After much reflection, we worked out a plan to handle similar encounters in the future. I’ll outline our guidelines briefly.

Whereas Randy is a handsome man, and will undoubtedly find admirers at every stop;

Whereas Randy does not really want to talk to them;

Hereby; we, the Seeds of the Kingdom, resolve with a unanimous vote;

1. As the resident extrovert, Mark will intercept all unwanted conversation,
2. Jess will begin talking about wedding plans as if Randy’s opinion matters. It doesn’t, of course, since she is marring Marcos Stoltzfus next summer. But a little misdirection will surely help the situation.
3. Matt and Elizabeth will hold hands and move in between Jess/Randy and Mark/admirer. This will form an impenetrable physical wall and will serve as a last resort in case the other strategies fail.

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

John 15.13

Matt Troyer-Miller