Category: The Pastor’s Piece

With the advent of the Internet and the smartphone and everything in between, I enjoy going online and watching farmers at work in different parts of our country. These farmers take a camera with them everywhere they go and record their days’ activities. Simple things like hauling corn to the elevator, sorting cows, pumping the manure pit, or working a field becomes entertainment. It’s basically all the same work, just different. I don’t really have a desire to carry a camera with me everywhere I go recording, editing, and posting my day’s activities, but I don’t mind giving you a glimpse into my day by writing it down on paper. So here is a glimpse into a typical day in my life.

Recently, I officiated at a funeral for a child who died suddenly. I’m sharing part of the message from that service in today’s column.

This is a difficult day. We all want to help, but none of us knows what to do. So we pray. But we don’t even know how to pray.

When my wife and I were first married we bought a small, 13 inch portable television. To get reception we’d adjust a set of rabbit ears on the back, twisting and turning them to pick up the invisible signal. We got about three channels on that little thing. Since then, we’ve graduated up to larger models. That TV seemed very small at the time. That’s when they were first coming out with giant  60” large screen TV’s.

Following are notes from my “diary” that I sent out to the people praying for me before, during, and after surgery to repair a hernia:

I’m sitting here tonight on the eve of going under the knife tomorrow. For the past few weeks I’ve been dealing with some lower abdominal pain. I found out this week I have what is called an inguinal hernia. The doctor considered my symptoms to be somewhat urgent and I have repair surgery scheduled for tomorrow morning. I’m not sure if this is major or minor surgery, but the nurse told me they were going to slice, snip, pull, wrap, tuck, and sew my innards back together again. 

For the Christian living in the world today, things seem a little bleak. There is moral rot and decay all around us. The morality and teaching of the Bible is ridiculed and mocked in our culture and the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches is being practiced everywhere. Even some who call themselves Christians have adopted the ways of the world. We should not be surprised by any of this.

For the last several weeks the fighting between Russia and Ukraine is front and center on the world’s stage. (Step aside Covid). But the struggle we all share is – how can we help? We are so limited in what we can do. I’m haunted by pictures of bombed out buildings lying in piles of rubble. I see pictures of people digging through debris in search of lost belongings and treasures. One picture is that of a blonde haired mother holding the hands of her two young daughters who look to be about 6 or 7 years old as they walk across a shattered concrete parking lot.

Lately I’ve been reporting on the story of a ministry in Romania that has been taking in Ukrainian refugees as they flee their war-torn country. The work of this mission has been on-going. The pastor in Romania, who is a personal friend of ours, opened his campus to receive these refugees. A group of 70 children were first to come. A few days later they moved on to a safe home in Germany.