Passing on the Faith

Last fall, my daughter collected a small amount of soybeans that were scattered on the ground after the last of the crop had been put into the bins. They didn't even fill 1/4 of a pint jar, but she was determined to keep them over the winter and plant them this spring. She kept the beans in sight at all times and every so often would tell anyone who cared to listen that she was going to plant beans like her dad. This spring she carefully scoped out the yard and decided the plant them in the small planter we made around the utility pole and electric box.

When she woke up this morning, she was determined to plant, so I sent her to her room to get dressed thinking she might get distracted as I had a list a mile long to accomplish! Instead, she came out dressed in her blue and purple capri pants, bright yellow shirt and old pink tennis shoes and we put her hair into two blonde braids. Her dad helped loosen up the dirt and she dilligently pushed the beans into the ground with her tiny thumb. She dug out Mom's old green watering can and poured the life-giving moisure onto her carefully planted beans. Then all three of us, held hands and prayed over that tiny plot of beans. It's an activity that we do for every field we plant. We stand in the field and give it back to God. We wanted to teach her that her tiny plot of beans were no less important to God that our big fields.

I was struck with the thought that I wish it were that easy to pass on our faith. If we could just show them once on a small scale and have them learn instantly. Skylar will have to learn that her beans need to be weeded and watered; she'll have to keep the chickens from scratching the dirt away and the cats from using the freshly tilled ground as a litter box. She'll have to protect her crop. In the same way, one day, she must learn to tend to her own faith. She'll have to learn to "weed out" the influences that can choke her faith to death. She'll have to learn to keep the "critters" out of her life so they won't destroy the fruit that God wishes to produce through her. It's a lesson that will be a lifetime in the making. All because of a few soybeans....

Farming: Day 1

So it officially begins. Planting. The day was perfect...65 degrees...no wind....lots of sunshine. Amid the hustle of making sure all the technology was working (or rather that we knew how to work it...), getting the seed boxes loaded, making sure we had all the inventory on hand... there was my daughter. Riding around in circles with her jellybean helmet, princess bike and a big smile on her face. She would get off every five minutes to see what everyone was doing; try to catch the illusive kitties; pick up a tool that someone needed 30 seconds later; skip around the planter; always in constant motion.
Kenton is cleaning out fertilizer tanks; making sure the sprayer works so that he can spray fertilizer on the newly planted field; cranking up the motors to run the pumps on the sprayer, delivering more seeds to the field; always in constant motion.
Then there is me. Mentally counting how many people I have to feed for lunch, making sure the technology is in sync with the office computer, telling Skylar to give the tools back and quit chasing the kitties; wishing I could have finished my cup of coffee before the rush started; always in constant motion.

There you have a brief picture of the first day of planting. The scene will continue for about 4-6 weeks (depending on the weather.) We'll have days when nothing works and days when we are a well oiled machine. At the end of the day, just before we drop off to sleep, I wil thank God. What a blessing it is to live this life. My husband works at a job that he loves. By the very nature of what farming is, Kenton must have faith that the seed will sprout. We have total trust that, even if the crop fails, God will provide. "The LORD gives and the LORD takes. Blessed be the name of the LORD!!" My daughter is happy and healthy. She gets dirty from head to toe, but her smile outshines it all. And I...well, let's just say I totally get the verse that states, "...and she {Mary} kept all these things and pondered them in her heart."

Home for now...

I told our pastor that I'm in the mood the clip the wings off my shoes and then maybe I'll stay at home for a while! Washington DC was a great learning experience. I was so excited to have lunch with foreign ambassadors from Africa! That was truly a lifetime opportunity. Visiting our nation's capital was great. Everyone should go at least once in their life.
Even now, eight years after 9-11, I was struck by one thought. Certainly, we lost lives; our everyday lives were altered and we now remember to kiss our family once more before going out the door, but we also lost something even more special. We no longer have open access to our governmental buildings. We can't walk into the nation's capital to claim ownership to our government. The front doors to the National Archives is barracaded off and one must enter through a small side door. We are not able to absorb the richness of our heritage without a metal detector, a pat down and police escorts at every turn. I'm not complaining in the least about the protection, but those thoughts were always at the forefront of my mind. Hopefully I'll have pictures post soon of my trip and a few more details!

So it's been a little crazy at the Hofer household this week. Kenton was gone for 8 days on a missions trip to Guatemala with our church family. You can view their activities by going to www.guatemalamission2009.wordpress.com It was fun for us to have updates everyday.

I (Autumn) will be leaving on Sunday afternoon to fly to Washington, DC with a group of people who are a part of Foods Resource Bank. It's an organization that Kenton and I have been involved with over the past year and I'm so totally excited to go! (www.foodsresourcebank.org)

As I sit down to write this, I'm a little overwhelmed at all that must be done. Sometimes I think that God would have us be a little less busy doing his work so that we can concentrate a little more on our relationship with Him. March is only a week away and I'm going to challege myself to schedule less on the calendar so that I may have more time with God and with my family!

Thanks again for keeping up with us. Once I figure this blog-thing out, I'll try to post some more pictures of our activities.

Intro to the family

Welcome to our life! I have been married to Kenton for 7 years now. Our family is traditionally called a "blended" family. Sheldon (Kenton's oldest son) is married to Shannon and they live just up the road from us. Tyler (Kenton's younger son) will be graduating from college this spring and he's going to marry Kayleigh in July. Skylar (our daughter together) is 6 and is in Kindergarten.

We are not a perfect family and have had to learn to give and take...a lot. The journey has not always been easy (nor fun), but I thank God everyday for the lessons we've learned along the way. Life is good now. Time and maturity have helped to heal the wounds, but we also praise God for the scars that remain, for they are a constant reminder to never take each other for granted.

I won't post to this everyday, but hopefully you'll be able to keep up on the happenin's of our life. Please keep in touch and I look forward to hearing from you!

Autumn