Rev. Peter J. Haugen St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church “‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the Glory to Him, for the Marriage of the Lamb has come and His Bride has made Herself ready. And it was given to Her to clothe Herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the Righteous Acts of the … [Read more...]
Fresh off the Farm
$28 in pennies please “$28 in pennies please.” Puzzled eyes met mine. I smiled...“I’m doing a project.” She paused… “I’ll ask my manager.” She leaves - and I do some fast calculating. Do I need all $28? Maybe I could do it with fewer. I ask Google how many weeks it has been since the birth dates of my three kids. My breath leaves me - pausing under the weight of … [Read more...]
The interest rate is high when you borrow trouble
We talked all afternoon and never ran out of things to say. It was a Mayberry moment on a front porch. A friend talked of his childhood experience of working for a farmer who offered him Copenhagen (smokeless tobacco) with the promise it would make him a man. He tried it and described the noteworthy event as the closest he has ever come to dying. One of life’s greatest … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotion Walking in the wilderness
By Pastor Nissa Peterson Chatfield and Root Prairie Lutheran Churches Once while I was working at a summer camp, I stayed at a campsite in a wooded area that didn’t have a lot of underbrush. The bathroom at this campsite was a trail walk away from the main camp area – but due to the open area, the trail was hard to follow – especially at night. One evening I was the last … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Horses and plows on winter ice kept butter cool in summer
It took a few weeks of hard work in the winter in order to keep perishable foods fresh and dairy products from spoiling through the summer. Before electricity reached rural southeast Minnesota and electric refrigerators became common in the mid- to late- 1930s, there were “ice boxes” in homes and grocery stores while meat markets and farms had “ice houses.” The ice itself was … [Read more...]
Have you ever misspelled your name?
It’s nice to have a name you can remember. I live a mile from where I was born. I had no choice. My mother said nuts didn’t fall far from the tree. I grew up amid people named Nelson, Olson, Hanson, Sorenson, Knutson, Gulbrandson, Jacobson, Peterson, Madson, Thompson, Hendrickson, Larson, Jenson, Erickson, Swenson, Christenson, etc., and I still have difficulty pronouncing … [Read more...]
A little of this, A little of that
Fabulous fall is finally here. I can’t stand the heat; I can’’t stand the cold. This weather is Goldilocks right for me. The color of fall leaves makes me feel like I live in a fairytale book. Even without a fairy godmother I can finish many chores because of the cool mornings. Getting a good night’s sleep really helps with the fresh air from an open window. I even got … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotion – Good, very good, and supremely good
By Pastor Pam Seebach Harmony, Mabel, and Newburg United Methodist Churches “When God began to create the heavens and the earth – the earth was without shape or form, … God said, “Let the earth produce every kind of living thing: livestock, crawling things and wildlife.” And that’s what happened. God made every kind of wildlife, every kind of livestock and every kind of … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Townships, county, provided medicine, food, grave digging
Part two, 1800s epidemics From the 1850s through the 1870s, the first three decades of Anglo settlement of Houston County, settlers – especially children and women – were ravaged by contagious diseases. In the 1880s, township and county officials attempted to prevent uncontrollable epidemics of small pox, diphtheria, cholera, measles, influenza, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, … [Read more...]
A Goodly Heritage
Time out with the kids Grandpas and grandmas can find it a challenge to get time with their grandchildren. Time and distance take a toll on how often and how deep their relationships can go. Our children’s families are not unlike many others. Their homes are not situated close to the farm. So we are faced with making the times we have together something special. One … [Read more...]