By Pastor Bridget Sheely Racine/Sumner Center UMC, Stewartville UMC Children’s Ministry Coordinator In the name of Jesus Christ our Redeemer I bid you peace on this beautiful day the Lord has made. Spring is a miraculous experience. The whole world comes alive after the winter in which it seemed that everything was dead. The world comes filled with color and the scent of … [Read more...]

We’ve all had near-death experiences. Eating your sister’s cooking, trying to break Joey Chestnut’s hotdog eating record, smoking an “It’s a boy” cigar, drinking milk that’s past its expiration date, driving a car whose oil should have been changed, eating suspicious school lunches, or buying a red car after a study found it’s pooped on most often by birds (green cars are the … [Read more...]

American author Zane Grey once wrote, “If I fished only to capture fish, my fishing trips would have ended long ago.” This philosophy eloquently describes the unseen rewards of fishing, and Brent Afseth is one fisherman who finds joy in more than just the catch. Brent’s earliest memories of fishing include going with his dad to Mille Lacs lake and staying at McQuoid’s resort. … [Read more...]

If any of you have ever noticed that your daily schedules and plans can be a bit regimented, you are not alone.  I am finding I need to start “bending” my daily ways before I become obnoxiously schedule and task oriented – and, heaven forbid someone asks for something that is outside of my schedule. Ha! Aside from the abnormal COVID social restrictions that limit going out and … [Read more...]

Part five of a Civil War series It was not a mystery in 1861, but the lack of clarity in an 1882 history of Houston County made it a mystery to me in 2021. One name – Winfield Scott – all but jumped off the page. Winfield Scott was the era’s most famous army general and a major 1852 presidential candidate. Known as Old Fuss and Feathers for his insistence on military … [Read more...]

By Pastor Mark Woodward Maple Leaf Parish Spring Valley: Faith, Cherry Grove and Fountain United Methodist Churches It was a very meaningful journey for me to be a student at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. While a member of the seminary community, I met many well learned scholars and was blessed in so many … [Read more...]

A friend suggested we try paintball. I declined. Here’s why. I liked Roy Rogers better than Gene Autry. I liked Gene Autry better than Hopalong Cassidy. I liked Marshal Matt Dillon more than the other three. I wanted to visit Dodge Center, Minn., because I thought it’d be like Dodge City, Kans., where Marshal Dillon plied his trade. That would have been great. I got a … [Read more...]

It all started in high school when Paul Klockeman’s shop and industrial arts teacher, Richard Wildgrube inspired him to develop an interest in woodworking through a class called Building Trade. Truthfully though, it was probably already in his blood. Although he never met him, Klockeman believes his grandfather was a carpenter as well. His father did some woodworking and a … [Read more...]

I have been looking for an interesting recipe to share with you this month.  Since I happen to live on a farm that has been in our family since 1856, I have several historic assets in which to look.  I spent time yesterday looking at a bunch of recipe books I inherited from our parents and, perhaps, our grandparents.  They range from how to cure bacon to making liver cakes, … [Read more...]

I was playing the part of me. I’d spoken at a thing in Alaska. My wife had accompanied me. I’d had a swell time. We flew home and landed at MSP Airport at a reasonable time. I remembered where our car was parked and we headed home. Because we’d been gone for a spell, my wife said we needed things. We stopped at a large mall in the Twin Cities because they had things … [Read more...]