The Friday evening banquet will be held at Fair Haven Amish Mennonite Church (located 5 miles east of the Goshen courthouse on S.R. 4) and will feature the keynote speaker, Dr. Ervin Stutzman, Ph.D., who is the Dean of East Mennonite Seminary. His topic will be, "Serendipity, Sweat and the Sweet Taste of Telling Your Family Story". The time of the banquet is 6:00 PM with doors opening for seating at 5:30 PM. The cost is $12.50 per person (regrettably, no child or senior discounts are available) and the menu will feature a full home-cooked banquet meal, prepared by the local Amish Mennonite neighbors.

The Saturday lunch will be served at the same location that the Gathering is being held Bethany Christian School (located 3 miles south of the Goshen courthouse on S.R. 15) at noon and the cost is $7.50 for adults and $4.00 for children aged 12 and under. It is being catered by Nelson’s Golden Glow, based in Wakarusa, Indiana, who’ve been making the best (in our humble opinions) pit barbecued chicken for over 30 years. Their charcoal-fired and motorized "Port-a-Pits" are fifteen feet long, give or take, and all stainless steel. Towed by a big pickup, they usecoolers (which are used for their ability to hold heat) to the site to keep the “cooked-to-perfection” chicken meat warm. Their select meat travels on a conveyor belt through a marinade then over the fire and back again to the marinade . . . for hours. By the time the chicken halves are done almost all the fat has been cooked off, the skin is tender and succulent, and the meat is, quite simply, a regional northern Indiana phenomenon.

As you might be able to tell, we highly endorse both meals. A reservation form can be downloaded and and filled out by clicking here.

Either or both meal event reservations must be accompanied by a check written to "JHFA, Inc.", and sent to Pat Dickerhoof at  JHFA, Inc. P.O. Box 2085, Elkhart, IN 46515-2085. The cut-off date for prepayments will be July 1st, 2008.

Attendees can also opt to bring a "brown bag" lunch on Saturday or visit one of the plentiful, and varied, local restaurants.

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