Sharon Mennonite Bible Institute

Sharon Mennonite Bible Institute SMBI is an organization which serves the Anabaptist community by offering studies for personal growth and development and productive Christian life.

Sunday, May 31Wanda Troyer We reluctantly crawled out to the bus from our hotel in Reno, Nevada early Sunday morning,...
06/02/2026

Sunday, May 31
Wanda Troyer

We reluctantly crawled out to the bus from our hotel in Reno, Nevada early Sunday morning, after having breakfast at a bar. Shockingly, this is not the first time on tour that the hotel we stayed in provided a free breakfast in an attached tavern/restaurant. Welcome to the west, SMBI.
We had a long travel day so we took it calmly, with no games before 11 and some devotional, singing and quiet time in lieu of a church service. The scenery was relatively dry 🙂,but small cheers arose when crossing state lines, specifically Idaho, since for our choir director’s wife Jodie, it marked the last state in the lower 48. We just need to get her to Hawaii.
We made a much advertised stop at the Golden Gate! (a disappointingly average gas station) where the food committee provided PB & J for lunch. The afternoon stayed calm as well, with lots of napping, Rook games, coloring and books, punctuated by rest stops at woefully tiny Nevada gas stations. The fact that the women wildly outnumber the men on this tour was not helpful in these situations, but we successfully made it to Cambridge, Idaho by 5:20.
They hosted us in a gym where we gave a program to an audience seated on bleachers, an interesting change of pace from church pews. We were blessed by a diverse attendance of churches up to three hours away, and actually lost one of our deans to his family who lives nearby. (He is rejoining us tonight we are told.)
Jackie Beachy, one of the girls from fifth term who did not go on tour, is from the church there, so her family hosted nine of us girls. It was delightful to catch up with her, and the rest of the choir was also well received by hospitable Idahoans for the night.

Saturday, May 30 Danielle Fisher It was a beautiful morning, not too cold and not too hot, in Modesto California. We ...
05/31/2026

Saturday, May 30 Danielle Fisher
It was a beautiful morning, not too cold and not too hot, in Modesto California. We all had a great night of rest with amazing host experiences and also lots of snacks to take along on the trip such as Blue Diamond almonds, oranges, and chocolate.
We had the privilege of being dropped off near River Walk Park in Old Sacramento for about an hour and a half scootering/walking the streets and seeing the state capitol building. For lunch we headed off to Denny’s for our first banquet. Our only waiter for 44 people was amazing! Everyone had a budget they could not go over but when you put money and food together we all had plenty to eat and we were out in just under 2 hours like our waitress had said.
From Denny’s we had about a 30 minute drive to Streetlight Christian Ministries. We had a short presentation about the mission and then went to meet the 40 plus children. We were able to give them a small program of two songs and our skit. After the program each choir member paired up with at least one child and made homemade ice cream in a bag. There was a lot of tossing, squishing, and punching bags as each child hurried to make their ice cream. After the ice cream was finished games started and most of those energetic children gave us a run for our money.
By the time the children left to go home we grabbed sack suppers the staff there graciously provided for us and hit the road for our next stop at a Walmart before our hotel stop. At the Walmart stop we were able to see a beautiful full moon which put a perfect end to a perfect day.

Friday May 29,2027 Cynthia Glick The morning events were the normal eat breakfast and get on the bus at the time t...
05/30/2026

Friday May 29,2027 Cynthia Glick
The morning events were the normal eat breakfast and get on the bus at the time that Josh says. As we get on the bus Jadon will greet us with a cheerful good morning. We start each day with sharing (high low buffalo) and devotions by one of the men. After devotions we are allowed a time of quiet time.
We have been blessed seeing all the different scenery. Today we got to travel through the mountains on our way from South Lake Tahoe, California to Modesto, California. As we traveled through the mountains we were at 8,527ft above sea level. We went from almost at sea level up to 8,527ft and then back down to about sea level all in one day. Jadon (our bus driver) did a wonderful job driving through the fog as we went up and down the mountain.
We didn't have far to drive so we stopped at Big Trees State Park. It felt so good to be out of the bus for a while and see God's creation. It was so refreshing to walk among the trees. Seeing the big stumps and tall trees but thinking that God is even bigger than that.
We got to the church in lots of time before the program. One of the men from the church shared with us some about their culture and who they are and some about California itself. There were many interesting things that he said but one that stood out to me was if California would be an economy industry it would be the 6th biggest in the world.
Tonight was our first program without one of our choir members. I feel like it was a good program over all. Thanks for all your prayers we really appreciate it.

Thursday, May 28 By Anthony Haines This morning we found ourselves waking up to a cool, crisp, windy morning. We met at ...
05/29/2026

Thursday, May 28 By Anthony Haines
This morning we found ourselves waking up to a cool, crisp, windy morning. We met at the church in Eureka around 8:45. Before we left, we spent time in prayer for the happenings of the night before. With heavy hearts we hit the road around 9:45 leaving without one of our choir members. There was not much happening today as we traveled highway 50 for most of the day which happens to be the loneliest road in America. At one of our stops, we were able to stop and see Stokes Castle which is pretty much a three story house made out of stones. Around 4:10 we arrived in South Lake Tahoe where we checked into our hotel before kicking back and taking it easy. We closed off the evening with a time of sharing and spending some time enjoying the view of Lake Tahoe. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue on tour and still have two weeks left.

Wednesday May 27, 2026 By Maxine Clugston The day dawned bright and beautiful in Provo Utah. We enjoyed sleeping in a bi...
05/29/2026

Wednesday May 27, 2026
By Maxine Clugston
The day dawned bright and beautiful in Provo Utah. We enjoyed sleeping in a bit before grabbing some breakfast/coffee and hitting the road at 9:00ish. We headed to Salt Lake City and unloaded at the Temple square. Groups split off to different places. A lot went to the temple, which was unfortunately under construction, and some went to the tabernacle. Someone asked for permission for our group to sing in the tabernacle, so we sang a couple choir songs. That was pretty cool! It was just fascinating and sobering seeing all the beautiful buildings and meeting people from the LDS community there in Salt Lake. It just made me ponder a bit. They believe that they have the real gospel and are so dedicated to their missionary work and trying to bring people into their "faith" (or religion). But its really not the true Gospel.
From there you could find choir members in lots of places, either getting ice cream, scooter riding, touring the Capitol building, family tree place, coffee shops, the library, etc. Then we were back on the road headed towards the desert land of Eureka, Nevada.
Two stops en route, one being a lunch stop. And there one of the girls got to chatting with a cashier inside the gas station, so we went in and sang one of our choir songs for the workers that were around.
We got to the Eureka Community church and we're given a lovely welcome. Then practice, changing, all the normal things happened. The first half went fairly well with everyone singing and things going as normal. The second half brought about a few things that were not expected... We had a medical emergency which resulted in ending the program early and one of the choir members having to leave tour and get medical attention.
It wasn’t what we wanted to happen and it wasn't fun. But I see God's hand in the midst of it. He was there, working out so many details and giving the deans wisdom and calmness as they made decisions and cared.
We didn’t have the physical rainbow just outside like we did after our last program, but my mind keeps going back to that. God gave us that sign of his promises. And those promises are just as true and real in the middle of these hard things. God is here. And we trust Him and still have so much to thank him for. Just some verses that came to mind thinking of all of this.
My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness 2 Cor. 12:9
The angel of the Lord is a guard: he surrounds and defends all who fear him. Psalm 34:7
But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 1 John 4:4
Please keep us in your prayers as we continue on tour and for the deans and tour staff as they make decisions and keep tour going.

Tuesday, May 26, 2026. By Rebecca Peters We hit the road at about 7:30. It was a relatively short 7.5 hours from Cheyenn...
05/27/2026

Tuesday, May 26, 2026. By Rebecca Peters
We hit the road at about 7:30. It was a relatively short 7.5 hours from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Provo, Utah where we gave our program. All day was amazing scenery. We went from green rolling hills with cows scattered across, to tall snow covered mountain peaks in Utah. Games are great on the bus! One group’s game lasted literally all day! Another interesting highlight was singing on the bus. Mr. Samuel told us that the program would be completely off book, so towards the end of the day we began to practice. First one song, then two. Slowly more and more people joined. By the end over half of the people aboard the bus were singing. It was like having our very own program on the bus! The program was absolutely amazing! By far one of the best programs we’ve given. The acoustics definitely helped.
A group of us girls walked outside right after the program, and it was just beautiful! It had been raining during the program and there was a beautiful double rainbow with the western mountains in the background. Simply breathtaking! The church served supper for the choir and an amazing charcuterie board snack for all afterward. Another special highlight about this program was seeing José again. He is from Provo and had been to term but did not go on tour.

Monday, May 25, 2026 by Vivian Burkholder Monday morning found us peeling our eyeballs open pretty early in the morning....
05/26/2026

Monday, May 25, 2026 by Vivian Burkholder
Monday morning found us peeling our eyeballs open pretty early in the morning. Thankfully we were able to get a full night of sleep though! I was with a lovely 7 hours, as were most others. ✨ The church in Missouri graciously fed us a yummy breakfast of egg bites, yogurt parfaits, and coffee, water, and juice. We were very grateful! It was a day of only travel (11½ hours) with no program in the evening. We had several stops along the way, as Coach Cami trudged along from Missouri -> Nebraska -> Colorado -> Wyoming (I should clarify, we took a 10 minute detour just to hop through the corner of Colorado).
Some highlights: -the Burkeys graciously hosted us in Beaver Crossing, Nebraska and fed us a delicious lunch. Too much yummy food to mention it all, but honorable mentions include brisket, BBQ chicken, and fresh fruit. ✨ Matt allowed us to pay off our "debt" by singing two of our program songs, which was such a delight.
-at our next stop after the Burkeys, some of the choir members talked to a Mexican who gave us two bags of fresh tamales! Expect the unexpected I suppose! 🤩
-we had an hour and a half from our last stop to our hotel. Josh posted a poll to see who wanted quiet time and who didn't want quiet time. Josh allowed the poll settings to where you could vote for both options so there was a lot of fighting on the chat and the numbers kept going up and down, and tying and all the things. Finally the vote carried to not have quiet time.
We ended the evening by driving into a lovely Nebraskan/Wyomingian sunset. We arrived at our hotel about 9:00 and were once again blessed with the opportunity for full night of rest.

Sunday, May 24, 2026By Priscilla Sensenig With fog in the air and 2 programs on our minds, we - The Sharon Singers - be...
05/25/2026

Sunday, May 24, 2026
By Priscilla Sensenig

With fog in the air and 2 programs on our minds, we - The Sharon Singers - began the first day of programs. The first program was in Illinois hosted by Linn Mennonite Church. They were very gracious and many a superb host experience was mentioned in the High Low Buffalo time on the bus. Rehearsal brought the enthusiastic side out of Mr Samuel so he could get us to sing with excitement. The song entitled We've Come A Long Way was quite meaningful to the audience causing many to tear up. Around 12:50 we departed for Missouri where we gave the second program of the day to approximately 300 people. All things considered, it was an 8 out of 10 kind of day!

Prayer requests:
- health for bus driver
- a spirit of unity and grace for each other

05/24/2026

Saturday May 23
Cheyanne Weaver
The masses of suitcases were strategically packed in the compartments under the bus. The PR equipment, uniforms, and spikeball (let's not forget THAT) found a new mobile home for the next 3 weeks. When the bus pulled out of the SMBI driveway at 6:10 am; there was no turning back.
We are committed and for better or for worse... come what may. We had a really good day of travel, including 11+ hours of driving, at least 5 stops, and a new role call time record: 15.8 seconds. Not too bad for 43 people, but we have lofty goals of shaving off at least a couple more seconds. When we arrived at the church in Illinois, they graciously hosted us for a pizza party and volleyball with their youth group. When energy was spent and the beautiful sunset faded, the school and church grew quiet as everyone dispersed to host's homes for a restful night of sleep.

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7304 Lincoln Highway
Harrisonville, PA
17228

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(717) 485-4341

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