Village Voices - We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks

With fall comes the harvest. And with the harvest our church has an annual garden produce contest. So far, the biggest watermelon has weighed in at 38.8 pounds and the largest tomato is 16 inches in...

My phone rang just after five o’clock. I was still in bed and I figured I’d get it when I got up in a few minutes. Sometimes one of my brothers will call early so I didn’t worry about it. About...

Today I’m going to blow off a little steam. This is an opinion piece after all. Recently, I was reading a story in a newspaper publication on why the Dairy Breakfast was canceled this past June in...

My day started early yesterday and ended late, but it couldn’t have ended better. A young man who was visiting our church with some friends, came to Bible study, heard the message of God from the...

My wife and I were working on a home improvement project and needed to rent a certain piece of equipment that would spray and scrub concrete and then suck up the gray water. We checked all the local r...

Last week my wife and I took a trip to Nashville, Tennessee to visit our daughter and son-in-law. It used to be when we traveled, we hit the pavement with the tires squealing and we didn’t slow...

Did you know that the first french fries were not cooked in France? They were actually cooked in grease. Fun facts about teeth The first set of teeth (baby teeth) has 20 teeth. The second set of...

Everybody messes up from time to time. One time when I was a kid working on the farm, Dad decided to sell some grain. The guy came out with a semi and parked it under the auger and started loading....

It had been a few years since my wife and I visited Branson, Missouri. When we were last there, our children were small and the town was too. Actually, we’ve been there twice before. The first time...

My wife and I are in Branson, Missouri this week along with some friends at a Fellowship of Christian Farmers International Convention. On the way down here, St. Louis got 9 inches of rain before we...

Sometimes God brings very unique people into our lives for reasons only He knows. Such was the case recently when we were introduced to a saintly elderly woman who walked into our church one Sunday a...

As cataclysmic events are taking place all over the world, and we see so much evil manifested in so many unprecedented (to us) ways, many Christians are wondering, "Is the Holy Spirit going to revive...

Sometimes I’m asked what kind of advice I have to give during tough times? Well, good advice for hard times is the same thing as good advice for good times - Worship God faithfully. Tithe. Minimize...

Last Friday was a historic day as the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. I have always held to the belief that God would not bless our nation as long as the bloodshed of the unborn was on our...

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...

“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...

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...

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...

A day in the life of … 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 farmer...

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...

Traditional wisdom comes from the old adage: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” In the technology-saturated world we live in today, that wisdom may be...

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...

Following are notes from my “diary” that I sent out to the people praying for me before, during, and after surgery to repair a hernia: I’m healing well, thanks for your prayers and concern. The...

I’m sitting here tonight on the eve of going under the knife tomorrow. For the past few weeks I’ve been dealing with some lower abdominal pain. I found out this week I have what is called an...

For the Christian living in the world today, things seem a little bleak. There is moral rot and decay all around us. The morality and teaching of the Bible is ridiculed and mocked in our culture and t...