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My wife and I spent last weekend in Nashville, Tennessee helping our daughter and son in law move into a new house. 

The 29th Annual Fellowship of Christian Farmers, International Conference, July 27-29th in Branson,
Missouri is the most important FCFI Conference ever. The need for Christian farmers to meet, pray,
and plan is job one of the “Crop Plan.”

Our family has done a lot of grieving the last couple of weeks over the loss of our nephew’s little boy, but our faith is well-grounded and we are trusting God in all His Sovereignty to bring good out of this tragedy. I’d like to dedicate this column to reprinting my great nephew’s obituary:

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.’”
I’m getting tired of crying all the time.
It’s been another roller coaster week emotionally. My family is enduring much sorrow at this moment in the loss of my nephew’s 3 year old son due to a drowning accident on Memorial Day. That, and the loss last month of a 10 year old boy from our congregation in an accident and we are weary with grief and sadness (not to mention the national tragedy in Texas).

Mother’s Day is the day set aside to honor Mothers and Motherhood and
the infl uence that mothers have in society. This month we celebrate all the
mothers…past, present, and future. Also, all the women who longed to be
mothers, but their bodies did not respond, we hold you close this day. Mother’s
Day is celebrated in more than 40 countries.

I’ve been serving the Lord in “my” church (it’s not mine at all) for almost three decades. The paradox of that is that it is a long time, but also, it’s not a long time. At this stage in my life, I look back and wonder where all the years have gone? It seems like yesterday my wife and I were moving across the country pursuing God’s will and purpose for our lives. Then we were moving back. Then our children were babies. Then toddlers. Then adolescence, teenagers and now married. Time flies. The Bible says our lives are like a vapor, here for a moment and then we “vanish away,” (James 4:14).  

Occasionally, when a member of our church is moving out of the area, they will ask me what they should look for when they are searching for a new church? I always tell them one of the first things they should look for is to see if the people are carrying their Bibles into church with them on Sunday. If they are, that most likely means the Pastor uses the Bible to preach from, and they are turning there to follow along as he preaches. I would have to wonder why one would even go to church, if they weren’t being taught out of the Bible? 

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.

Mother’s Day is the day set aside to honor Mothers and Motherhood and
the infl uence that mothers have in society. This month we celebrate all the
mothers…past, present, and future. Also, all the women who longed to be
mothers, but their bodies did not respond, we hold you close this day. Mother’s
Day is celebrated in more than 40 countries.

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.

I know many of you like being in the middle of God’s work and one of FCFI’s main
missions is to give ordinary farmers, like me and you, the opportunity to jump in
and use our abilities to further God’s Kingdom. Let me share a story: As a young
farm kid in the late 1960’s I developed an interest in the country called Romania.
It was a communist run country at that time but God gave me a keen interest in
learning all I could about it.