Pastor Don's Ponderings

Their names are Donald and Harold O'Rear - and you are viewing them at a distance of about one hundred and fifty yards across the Marissa Recreational Area Golf Course, golf clubs in hand.  I had just walked up to the number 5 green and, while waiting for the others in my foursome to complete their approach shots, saw these two walking towards the number 8 green. Their golf cart was waiting behind them as they sized up their next shots to the green, side by side. They are two of the luckiest men I know when it comes to sizing up and completing golf shots and, oddly enough, the more they practice, the luckier they get! Most notably, they are brothers through and through, in looks, mannerism and demeanor - and I say that with no small amount of admiration for them both. They are gentlemen who know what it means to have respect for others, to earn their way in this world and to care genuinely for the sake of those around them more than any of us will ever deserve. When you look at thi...

One day last Fall I had the opportunity to ride a few rounds in the combine with my brother, Larry, as he clipped off another field. For those who are not accustomed to such a sight, this is a soybean field and we are sitting in the cab of the farm's John Deere combine. What you see in front of you near the ground is the header of the machine, the reel turns in a forward fashion bringing the standing crop into the header, which then moves it back into the rotary separator in the largest portion of the combine. The soybeans, once separated from the stalk and pod of the plants, will then move by way of the clean grain auger into the hopper on top of the machine and the residue of the soybean plant will be chopped and scattered behind the machine. It is really something to watch, especially when you can do it up close from in the cab sitting next to the operator. A ride with Larry in the fields is seldom just a ride. The cab is his office for a large amount of time in Fall, so as...