Glory to God in the Highest!

Some of the words used to tell of our 2023 are: graduations, cousins, prayer journeys, reunions, loss, kids, grandkids and praises.

Texas and Iowa were the places we served in church camps with our SOWER ministry. New friends, old friends and ministries that are making a difference in the Kingdom of God were found in both of these places. We take our camper and go to work in these camps for a month in March and in September. Painting, remodeling, office work, kitchen duties and other responsibilities are some of the projects we are involved in. It is such a treat to be able to be a blessing to these facilities.

Conrad lost his last brother, Jim, this March. Three brothers have now advanced to their heavenly home. The youngest brother is now left alone to try to keep three sisters in line. That thought has now terrified the little brother. His oldest sister, Dorothy has informed him that he will not succeed in trying to keep her in line.

Two grandsons graduated from high school in May and one grandson graduated from KSU last weekend and has accepted a new job. He has now joined the adult lifestyle of work and more work. We are very proud of all of Jordan’s accomplishments. Anna is a Junior at KU and Joshua and Roman are Freshmen at UNW and KSU. We are very proud of all of our grands.

Hosting a reunion of cousins here at the home place for the Jamison’s made for a fun June. All but four of my cousins were able to come. Then in August we were able to have Cousin Camp also here at the farm. This is a special time for this grandma and I cherish every moment. Grandpa and I also traveled to some of our children’s homes and spent time with grandchildren for various reasons.

Our little teardrop camper headed out on a journey in early July to travel the border of Kansas. We decided to answer the call to pray the border of our state and to stop and pray in every border county. We traveled 1550 miles, we met beautiful Kansans, camped in special places and prayed and anointed the borders with oil. We spent a little time at the geographic enter of the continental US. We couldn’t have picked a more beautiful time to travel our state. The Lord blessed this trip tremendously.

Pam completed the book of her childhood memories for her grandchildren. The Lord put it on my heart to write my story for my future generations. This is not really a story of my life but more of the story of what my Savior has done in my life. I also completed a king size quilt for Haley. This was my fourth king size quilt to be finished.

Conrad has been busy making 75 wood boxes for Operation Christmas Child boxes, being creative with the wood lathe, and driving semi in harvest season for some neighbors.
May you all be blessed with the greatest gifts of God and may this Christmas season find you all well.
Merry Christmas from the farmer and I.

Gove County Border Prayer

According to Blackmar’s History of Kansas, the county was named after Grenville L. Gove a Union soldier, son of Moses Gove. At the time of the Civil War, Grenville L. enlisted in Company F, Sixth Kansas Cavalry as a private but soon made corporal and later captain.

Trails of Gove County

Living creatures make many trails and leave a fascinating history. Gove county has trails made by the many buffalo that once roamed here. Trails were left by deer, coyotes, pheasants, rabbits and many other wildlife. Indians, pioneers, explorers, soldiers and other people left their marks on many trails in this county. The Pawnee, Kaw, Cheyenne, Sioux and Arapahoe Indians all lived in this county at one time or another. Travelers and pioneers traveled on the Smoky Hill Trail and the Butterfield Trail. Cattle drives used the Texas to Buffalo Park trail. The railroad too made their own trail.

A trail of prayer was our assignment one day this week. We’ve agreed to be prayer contacts for our county. During Covid our pastor encouraged his congregation to drive their community and pray over the city or the region once a week. This seemed like a great way to serve our community while everyone was housebound. This led in natural progression to praying over the borders of cities, counties, states and nations.

Gove county is 30 by 36 miles. There are some incredibly unique geographic formations in this county and diverse types of terrain. Our little house on the prairie is located on some flat farmland that is perfect for growing crops. The south part of the county along the Smoky Hill River is rough, hilly and less populated. The population was estimated at 2,683 in the county in 2014. The county covers 1,071.8 miles.

We traveled 190 miles and were on the road for five hours. We traveled to the four corners of our county and prayed, took communion and placed oil in every corner. These corners were not easy to access. All of the roads were rough gravel roads and due to recent rains, they were had deep ruts in some of them. We crossed cattle guards and drove through herds of cows passing through Pyramid Rocks. In some parts of the county there were no roads, only fields and pastures. Castle Rock is another unique formation found here. Many fossils, arrow heads and shark teeth have been found in these areas.

“When America’s early pioneers first turned their eyes toward the West, they did not demand that somebody take care of them if they got ill or got old. They did not demand maximum pay for minimum work, and even pay for no work at all.”
Paul Harvey

It was a good journey around Gove County. Much prayer was needed for the agriculture and farmers in the region. And as with all places there are many concerns among our neighbors. Grief, struggle, anxiety, fear, and disappointment are just a few of them. So, we prayed and asked that we could help our county and its citizens in the everyday walk of this journey called life. That the Lord would comfort and encourage them and show them the best pathway for their life. Thank you, Lord for hearing our prayers.

Unexpected Detour Ahead

One of the major keys to success is to keep moving forward on the journey, making the best of the detours and interruptions, turning adversity into advantage.
John C. Maxwell

I left home one morning at 6:45am in early May to go with a friend to console a classmate that had lost her husband the previous week. Thankfully, the Farmer called before I left town at 7 and said he had a little problem. He blacked out on the treadmill and it bucked him off. He said he almost blacked out again so he thought maybe he should call me and let me know.

Needless to say, I raced back home and rushed him to our hospital where they began to do all kinds of tests including putting him in a neck collar. He was really not a fan of that. As they monitored him they noticed his pulse was in the 40’s and dropping sometimes. He had a complete heart block. They were going to fly him to a larger hospital, but the weather did not permit and all the ambulances in the area were busy.

God was our strength and He sustained us and kept us fairly calm. When they began to get the AED ready just as a precaution, I did sense some concern as I’ve taken that training and know why that is used. Six hours later they got a wonderful ambulance crew and we were transported to a larger facility. Our oldest son had arrived and drove me to the hospital where our younger son was already waiting the arrival of his dad the Farmer.

The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive.
Bill Watterson

Children are a wonderful blessing as the Word of God says. Our son in Dallas, TX and our daughter in Kansas City were also in constant contact with us and ready to head our way if they were given the word to come.

I admit that the thought that we might not make it to our 50 Wedding Anniversary did cross my mind. We were only 21 days away from that celebration. It’s so important that we take charge of our thoughts in all situations as we have an enemy that wants to destroy us in any way possible. I also found it interesting that just the day before we went to pray the Word over a dear friend that was having surgery in a couple of days. We prayed for his complete healing and restoration. Now we activated the prayer chains and had people praying for us.

The cardiologist told us he needed a pacemaker. He has a cow tissue artificial valve in his heart that he had installed ten years ago. This sounded like a piece of cake compared to that open heart surgery. It really wasn’t just that easy but the Farmer did well. He was really devastated post surgery when they told him he might not be able to weld again. This girl was just happy to keep him around with or without the welding skills.

He had doctors orders to not use that left arm for a month as they didn’t really want the heart wires disengaged. We did not desire that either. The Farmer had some jobs that had to be completed anyway. Yes, that is his bride who does not care for heights in the tree, on a ladder with a chain saw.

The Farmer recovered well and we did indeed celebrate that anniversary. Too be continued… Thank you, Lord for our story continuing! We praise the Lord for helping us get through the detour and survive the chain saw.

Granted, detours are anything but convenient. They take you out of the way. They take longer than you originally had planned to travel. But they are necessary. God is more interested in your development than your arrival.
Dr. Tony Evans

The mind of man plans his way. But the Lord directs his steps.
Psalms 16:9

Prayer Walk

A prayer walk is an activity that consists in walking and praying at the same time. It’s done not for the physical benefit but for spiritual exercise. Although both benefits are available. Prayer walking is praying for your city as you, praying for neighbors and businesses along the way, it may be praying through a prayer list or listening to the Holy Spirit and praying as He guides you along the way. A prayer walk may include a time to just listen. Our Heavenly Father has a still small voice and we live in chaos and the noise level is overwhelming. We need to pull away from this world and quiet ourselves to hear His wisdom and insight.

Our pastor at our Foursquare church challenged us in the message Sunday to take prayer walks and to pray and intercede for our nation, churches, families and the world around us. As he continues to show us in Acts 2:42 the first believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Prayer walking is the powerful dynamic of praying on-site with God’s insight.

Prayer is front line warfare. It is the ultimate weapon in our ‘struggle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in high places.” Eph. 6:10

Here are some of the sights I see as I prayer walk at this beautiful camp in Texas. It is sucha joy to walk and pray for the SOWER team, the staff, for the kids here this week, for those at home and for our prayer concerns from home.