The Pastor’s Piece, Pastor Kevin Cernek – FCFI Chaplain

FCFI

February 16, 2025

As I write this, today is our 43rd wedding anniversary. My wife likes to say that’s one hundred and forty three in wife years! That’s interesting because I was thinking about what it must be like to be married to me. If past and present relationships with other human beings are any indication, I may, or may not be, the easiest person in the world to get along with. We’ve made many dear, dear friends over the years, and a few not so dear. I give my wife credit, she’s stuck with me, talks to me everyday, we eat together, sleep in the same bed at night, and support each other through thick and thin. She’s God’s gift to me.

It all started back in the day of the yellow, rotary wall phone. It hung on the wall near the door between the kitchen and living room in my parent’s house. If we stretched the cord far enough, we could sit in the stairway and talk in private. As a teenager, I built up my courage, which was a project in itself, and finally dialed her number. I knew what it was because we had really thick phone books back then, and I found her number in it – her parent’s number anyway. Once she realized who I was, we talked for about an hour – long distance. Over the next three weeks I called back again … and again a third time. Finally, I said, “Well, if you’re not going to go on a date with me, I guess I won’t be calling back.” She said, “You never asked me.” I said, “Oh. Will you go out with me?” She said, “I’ll have to ask my dad.” She came back with a yes and thus began a decades long love story.

Shortly after we were married, I was struggling to find my place in this world. I was working for my dad, which I loved. Me and about four of my brothers were all working together everyday and getting a lot done and loving every minute of it. We worked hard from sun-up to way past sun-down. Dad farmed a lot of acres – over a thousand I’d say, and the biggest tractor we had was a Farmall 706. Next largest was a 560. Those two tractors worked around the clock preparing the land, making hay, and doing just about everything else. Next up was a Super MTA that we cut hay with and an M that dad had on the four-row planter and used it for other chores too. We milked 100 cows which was a lot in those days and raised all the calves. We worked hard. I loved all of it.

But there was something inside that was tugging at me. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I prayed about it and my mind was going in the direction that maybe I should be a pastor. How that would work I had no idea. I had my fill of formal education with high school and one semester of college. The last place on earth I wanted to be was in a classroom. I loved farming and wasn’t looking to get out of it in any way, shape or form. I was married and happily settled in. But I asked the Lord anyway – if He was ok with me driving tractor and milking cows the rest of my life, because if He was, I was very good with that, but if He had something else in mind, I needed to know. I couldn’t live with the unrest in my soul.

One day about this time, my wife made a comment about me going to Bible College. Funny, because I had already investigated three places that I thought would suit me fine should that be the road we chose. Next thing I knew, we were in Phoenix, Arizona and I was enrolled in Bible college. I was able to transfer my previous college credits and made it through the next three and a half years and came out with a Bible degree.

We worked in the business world for a few years while attending college – full time at that, gaining valuable knowledge and experience that I’ve carried with me my whole life. Then one day, dad asked me if I’d be interested in coming back to the farm. I was happy where I was and wasn’t looking to move. We prayed about it and decided to come back where I worked for him while pastoring our church at the same time. Now I had the best of both worlds. That lasted for several years.

Life is one big transition. Just when you think you’re settled in and good for the next 10 or 20 or 30 years, you find something new pops up.

Proverbs 16:20: “Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.”

(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).