Class Of - Shawn Snider

50th Reunion 37
camp. In 1972, I became the director of Fraser Lake Camp, Bancroft, Ontario; a camp owned by Mennonites,
designed to get city children out of the city into a healthy environment, physically and spiritually. The children
came from the great cities in Southern Ontario.
While directing a camp, a director must keep his mind on his business. However, he can see a beautiful
woman when she comes along. Loreen Wideman was a RN who had been in VS in New Mexico among the
Navajo Indians. She came to Fraser Lake the last two weeks of August 1973. On Easter Sunday, April 14, 1974,
I married her. In January, 1975, Loreen was in surgery with a brain tumor. She was given six months to live.
Fourteen years later she had another brain tumor surgery and she lived 6.5 more years. June 3, 1995 Loreen
graduated to Glory, having completed her life’s work.
During the twenty intervening years, she worked nearly eight years full time as a labor and delivery nurse.
We traveled to Alaska, California, Mexico, Florida and other interesting places including EMU. There comes a
time in life when all one has left is memories. Some are as clear as the day they occurred. I still laugh at some.
Some I cry. But I thank God for those memories. They are a sentinel of a life well lived.
All of my years in Canada, I worked in social work. My work included teens, children (many emotionally
disturbed) and the mentally challenged. It was an interesting and challenging life.
God led me to found several programs: In two churches where I attended, I got a monthly hymn sing going.
One continues today. In Dunnville, Ontario, I saw youth standing around the town just hanging out. The
Lord persuaded me to develop a youth center. With the help of a committee of Christian towns people, we
opened the Dunnville Youth Impact Centre. While director of Fraser Lake Camp, I wanted to continue the
year of camping. I asked several single adults if they were in favor of a retreat for singles at Fraser Lake. The
answer was affirmative. With their help on a committee, we created the Inter-Mennonite Singles Retreat. Every
Thanksgiving weekend (first weekend in October) for thirty years many young and not so young single adults
returned to the north woods of Ontario and worshiped in the Word, singing and physical activities. Some
highlights: A canoe race on Sunday afternoon. Canadian waters at that time of the year can be very cold,
especially for those who tipped their canoes, and the study sessions that always dealt with issues of the Single
Person in light of God’s Word.
Following Loreen’s death, I followed a leading (from most of my life that did not materialize) to go to
Seminary. I entered McMaster Divinity College at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. In 2003, I
graduated with a Masters in Divinity. I focused my studies on chaplaincy. After graduation, I pastored in
Associated Gospel Church in Hamilton, Ontario, for two years. Today, I am chaplain in a senior’s home in
Hamilton, Ontario. People are hungry for the Word of God. It was fun watching the Bibles disappear when I
brought extra large print Bibles for them to use. God is SO GOOD!!
My very last big event was in 2007. I sold my three bedroom home of 28 years as well as all of my and
Loreen’s possessions (a very hard thing to do) and moved into a retirement apartment building in St Jacobs,
Ontario. I am alone, have no children and a large house seemed poor stewardship. The biggest problem is,
I don’t feel I am old enough to be here. One has to be at least fifty five. So I got a part time job, of each day
helping a handicapped man get ready for the day. Hence, I am sure God has a plan for me here too.
May God’s Blessings continue upon each one of you. Again, it is good to reconnect with all of you, Class of
’58. I am looking forward to seeing you and hearing where all your life maps have taken you in the last 50 years.
—Homer Witmer
Dear Classmates,
Time marches on and now we are at the 50 year mark of being connected to each other by virtue of being
part of the class of ‘58 at Eastern Mennonite High School. I am sure that many of us, including myself, look
back and see this as a major step in our journey with God.
After high school, I returned to EMC for college. However, after two years my father died and I needed
to remain at home with my mother. A year later, Paul Wenger and I were married and we moved to Goshen,
Indiana, where he was enrolled in seminary. After one year, he took an assignment in Chicago as pastor of
Mennonite Community Chapel on 18th Street. We were in Chicago for four years. Both of our children (Ron
and Charity) were born there.
In 1966, we moved to Richmond, Virginia, where Paul was pastor of First Mennonite Church for the next
ten years. In Richmond, our children grew up, I went back to school. I became an elementary school teacher,
and Paul moved from pastoring a church to a full time administrator in Henrico County Schools.
In 1982, Paul received a call to become the superintendent of Sarasota Christian School in Sarasota,
Florida. We accepted the call, sold our home in Richmond, and moved to Sarasota believing that we were
following God’s call. Both of our children were beginning their adult lives at this point and they quickly
Homer Witmer
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