Appreciated

Sunday morning we headed West to Mediapolis for church.  We were invited to their Young Group  parent appreciation dinner in the evening.  We sat with Dad's cousin Dave in church in the morning, and had a good visit with him during noon lunch (see Wednesday Evening Blessing).  Several of our cousins and cousins' children attend church in Mediapolis, so we enjoyed our visit.  After church we changed clothes and had a "lunch call" at Brett and Jake's ( DP and deer sticks).  We then made a call at cousin Mary's house and were surprised that cousins Barb and Jane were there also.  At the Fellowship Center, we were served a very good meal of pork loin and finished the evening with a singing.  It was a very blessed evening and we enjoyed the worship and fellowship of the day.  The drive out and back is getting to be familiar.

In one of the daily devotionals that I read each day (Extreme Devotion, Voice of the Martyrs), I was treated to a poem by Constache Ioanid entitled "God Exists".  Constache was a Romanian artist/poet/songwriter who, after being befriended by Richard Wurmbrand, began writing Christian poems and songs.  His poem/song "God Exists" became the rallying song in Romania during the revolution leading to the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu, the brutal, repressive dictator in 1989.
Here is the English translation of his poem.

GOD EXISTS

Oh, no! We are not a dream, an accident,

Nor a self-modeled clay.

But a Creative Force,

A Boundless Wisdom

Molded us.

Truly, God exists!
 

Oh, no! We are not grim wild beasts,

Led by a ruthless whip.

We have a soul,

And freedom,

A heart that beats for skies up high.

Truly, God exists!
 

Not ever would the plowed land

A chaste lily’s smile have noticed,

Hadn’t the Almighty his hand out reached

With feelings our inner well to fill.

Truly, God exists!
 

We bear the Scriptures as a proof,

And never-ending miracles and signs.

And he, who God to see desires,

Should stand in front of Him,

On barricades!

Truly, God exists!
 

Not always shiny is our journey,

Nor is our life a fairy-tale.

But we do live for it’s worth living

When high, above the narrowed world,

God exists!
 

Oh, no! We are not void!

What blessedness!

The Ultimate Truth is revealed.

Jesus lives inside of us,

Light and love,

And death is flight into eternity.

What blessedness!

Truly, God exists!

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Revelation 1:8

Charming

A week ago Monday night, thunderstorms and high winds moved through the area.  While loading hogs Tuesday morning, we got a call from the Township Commissioner letting us know that part of the Township shed was scattered across one of our fields.  Because it was just wind and not a tornado, the pieces were large and they got a crew together and cleaned it up themselves.

Friday morning, we headed out to Leo/Grabill and spent the night with the Klopfensteins.  They took us out to eat at the Cork and Cleaver and I had an excellent piece of prime rib.  At the salad bar they had pickled herring and caviar, so that was a new taste experience for me (I enjoyed them both).  The menu is printed on a large meat cleaver, which was unique and the atmosphere was warm and comfortable.  We enjoyed our visit with the K's and left Saturday morning for Holmes County, Ohio.




We made a stop at Lehman's Hardware Store in Kidron on our way to the Charm Countryview Inn (Bed and Breakfast) in the heart of Amish country.  Sixteen couples, headed by some Rittman couples, put a bid on a weekend at the Inn that was donated to the Rittman Nursing Home for their benefit auction.  After checking in Saturday afternoon, we went to a young Amish couple's home where we were served a traditional wedding supper. We followed supper with a singing, and then headed back to the Inn for fellowship.
Sunday we worshiped with the Rittman congregation.  It was a blessed day and I met a lot of new people and also some old friends.  It was good to see and visit with cousin Jane and meet her four daughters.  In the evening, we had a pizza supper back at the Inn.  After a singing, each of the sixteen couples shared how they met, proposed, and married their spouse.  Each story was unique, interesting, and God blessed.
Monday morning, after a huge breakfast, we decided to head for home rather than shop the Amish stores.  The predicted snow storm had us worried about what the road conditions would be like as we headed West.  We wanted to be sure to be home before dark.
I knew less than half of the couples that we spent the weekend with, but enjoyed meeting the others and spending the weekend with them.  What a blessed fellowship we have in our denomination.

The Charm Countryview Inn

View of Amish farms from the front porch.

 

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
I John 1:3

Red Meat

Ameren shut down our power for an hour and a half Wednesday afternoon to do some repair work following the Tuesday night storm.  When the power was restored, we had a ventilation/heating controller that was dead in our pig nursery.  Fortunately we had a replacement circuit board in stock, so I spent most of Thursday morning replacing it.

"The tissue issue is resolved!"  

The wife of my youth is one of the church cleaners and is responsible for purchasing the toilet tissue.  She switched suppliers last week and found out that not all tissue dispensers use the same width tissue rolls.  We didn't even know that tissue came in different widths.  We knew that roll diameter varied, and that softness varies from sandpaper to squeezably soft, but didn't know width varied.  In particular, certain commercial dispensers only work with a specific size roll.  The tissue issue has been resolved, but we now have a whole case of the wrong size to use up at home!

Thursday evening, we received a text from Son#1 saying that all the food in their freezer was soft.  We had several things to do first, then we headed over to assess the situation.  Everything was still cold, and much still partially frozen, so we decided to try to salvage everything from their full freezer.  We gathered ice chests and emptied the freezer and distributed the refreezable food to D#2's freezers and our freezers.  The softest meat went into refrigerators to be cooked first and then refrozen. Meat juices and thawed red beets made the freezer and food a bloody looking mess!  Hopefully it will all be good quality if not a little freezer burnt.

This little farmer stopped by to help Grandpa today.

I think that I have my taxes ready to go to our accountants, along with the oldest farmer's taxes.  It's that time of year again.

And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's.

Luke 20:25