When I went recently to preach a marriage conference up north, the church I was with took half a day and hired a wonderful tour guide. She was a sweet and funny Mennonite lady and, for several hours as we drove around following her directions, she told us about all of the farms, customs and people.
We stopped at an amazing giant pretzel stand, and she told the story of the lady who invented them, a real story of grace and redemption. We visited working farms. We went to gift shops. In one of those gift shops, though, she gave us a warning: “Be careful what you buy, a lot of these gifts are mass produced overseas. Look for the tag.”
That was a surprise, one that sort of tickled me, since I was not expecting it.
A bit later, while once again driving, she pointed out a home that sold fabric. “This is where the Amish go to get much of their fabric,” she said, “but you might want to know that the polyester comes from China. China! Who ever heard of such a thing?”
That set the whole tour bus to laughing.