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Yes, I know it\u2019s already into February, but it\u2019s taken me a few weeks to put my thoughts together about 2017.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to believe so much can be packed into one year, but 2017 will go down in our history of being a time when we know God\u00a0 went before us, behind and beside us, and often just plain ol\u2019 carried us.<\/p>\n
Coming into the winter of 2017, Milt and I knew we had a big year ahead of us.\u00a0 Planning had started for a new building and we were just a wee bit overwhelmed at the prospect of the Eclipse.\u00a0 As we are trying to get geared up to make that all happen, in February our daughter and fianc\u00e9 picked their wedding date\u2014July of 2017.<\/p>\n
As we launched into our long list of plans\u2014wedding, eclipse, building, gaga ball construction, new roof on the stage– we enlisted help and then we had the busiest Spring season we have had yet.\u00a0 Our now annual Easter Egg Hunt was lots of fun and then lots of school groups came to make tacos with us\u2014straight from the farm!\u00a0 Some teachers chose us as their \u201cfun field trip,\u201d without anything \u201ceducational\u201d on their visits and they played mini-golf, gaga ball, and enjoyed feeding animals and all that the farm has to offer.\u00a0 Those teachers who came for that field trip told us it was the best day ever for them\u2014watching their students just play and have fun together.\u00a0 We hope they might see that as an annual trip for their classrooms.\u00a0 How thankful we were to see them enjoying the fruits of our labors\u2014we love it when people just have fun!<\/p>\n
As Milt planted corn and managed the upkeep of the farm and Janie was in full swing wedding mode, our contractors started construction on the caf\u00e9 in late May.\u00a0 Customers continued to visit the farm and plans were ramping up for the Eclipse.\u00a0 Our phone rang constantly inquiring about the camping or viewing on the farm.\u00a0 We used Eventbrite for the first time and we couldn\u2019t have pulled that together without our staff.\u00a0 In fact, our staff continued to help us keep things pulled together as there was just a lot to do.<\/p>\n
As time just seemed to speed up as we got closer to a wedding (July 22) and the Eclipse (August 21), in early July, life took a very difficult turn.\u00a0 My (Janie\u2019s) Mama (Grandmom to most) was diagnosed with leukemia.\u00a0 She had been sick off and on since the first of the year and we finally had a diagnosis.\u00a0 We had great hope that she would make it to the wedding, but a hospital visit immediately prior to the wedding prevented her from being there.\u00a0 A beautiful day was a bittersweet day as we watched our precious daughter marry the love of her life, while Grandmom and Granddad couldn\u2019t be there.\u00a0 But God was there, and we love our new son-in-law.\u00a0 After the wedding we made a visit home to see my parents to visit and show pictures from the wedding and then we were back home to spend the next 4 weeks getting ready for the grand opening of the Caf\u00e9 and the Eclipse.<\/p>\n
The team from Hunt Brothers showed up and we trained with them in preparation for our grand opening\/ribbon cutting on August 8.\u00a0 Our community showed up in support and to enjoy free pizza given away all day by Hunt Brothers to celebrate our new Caf\u00e9, announcing to the community that they can now get Hunt Brothers Pizza and wings at Christian Way Cafe!\u00a0 It was a hit.\u00a0 People loved the pizza and \u00a0the Caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n
But now we only had a few short weeks to be ready for the Eclipse.\u00a0 The phone calls were non stop.\u00a0 People now were figuring out they best be getting their reservations.\u00a0 We recruited more help and soon Eclipse weekend was here!\u00a0 The campground was ready, the Caf\u00e9 was stocked, the extra porta-potties were in place and the phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing\u2026.oh how it rang non stop\u2026.<\/p>\n
Our first campers arrived Friday morning\u2014a dad and son from Louisville and they began to set up their tent.\u00a0 Then here came a massive motor home up the driveway.\u00a0 It was the test\u2014would it make it across that field, now a campground, to its home for the weekend?\u00a0 Jim got his rig backed into his spot and he and his mom stayed there until Tuesday.\u00a0 The day brought back such memories for me.\u00a0 As a child\/teenager my family camped all over the US.\u00a0 What fun it was to be the campground director as I showed people to their campsites.\u00a0 Flashbacks of all the campsites we had stayed came rolling in\u2026.<\/p>\n
I could get really sidetracked talking about the Eclipse weekend, but that may just need to be another blog\u2026<\/p>\n
Eclipse weekend was wonderful. So many great people.\u00a0 Wonderful employees and friends who came to help us.\u00a0 A beautiful worship service and flag retirement ceremonies by the Boy Scout troop who came to help us for the weekend.\u00a0 Then on Monday\u2014the incredible experience of a full solar eclipse.\u00a0 The wonders of God and His majesty were in full force that day!\u00a0 Listening to the crowd react to that event was so beautiful: \u00a0One thousand people on our farm\u2014all looking in one direction\u2014up.\u00a0 Watching the same miracle together and being amazed.\u00a0 Truly a spiritual moment\u2014truly a great moment for mankind.\u00a0 Unified in one focus.\u00a0 Oh, if only we could remain that way!<\/p>\n
Immediately after our guests departed, we made a trip back to East Tennessee to see Mama.\u00a0 The doctors had determined that the leukemia was so advanced that treatments would have to be quite aggressive and Mama chose not to have them.\u00a0 She wanted her last days to be as good as possible.\u00a0 That visit was hard because in my spirit, I knew it would be my last time home while Mama was still here.\u00a0 It was a good visit, but that good bye was so very hard\u2026<\/p>\n
I struggled to come back and to try to be \u201cbusiness as usual.\u201d\u00a0 I was here but it wasn\u2019t easy. \u00a0I called home often and yet each call just was harder and harder.\u00a0 I struggled with guilt about not going home to be there with Mama but she kept saying, \u201cYou all have a job to do.\u00a0 Your Dad and your sister are taking great care of me.\u00a0 You need to keep making people happy.\u201d\u00a0 But happy just didn\u2019t seem to be that important.<\/p>\n
Until God\u2026.until God shared something with me that helped me understand what this was all about.\u00a0 You see someone shared a story with me of a woman who had visited the farm.\u00a0 She had heard me share the Gospel message with the pumpkin and realized she needed to change her life.\u00a0 This mother got herself in church and found a relationship with Jesus.\u00a0 And it was just in time, because just a few weeks prior to my hearing this story\u2014this young mother died.\u00a0 And now (just maybe because she heard me tell the Gospel), she found a saving relationship with Jesus and is worshipping at His feet for all of eternity.\u00a0 Praise Him!<\/p>\n
And then the whisper came, \u201cThis My child, is My plan for you.\u00a0 Your Mama is fine.\u00a0 She\u2019s Mine.\u00a0 And soon she will be in eternity with Me, but my sheep\u2014many of them are still lost and you need to tell them about Me\u2026I\u2019ve got your Mama safe.\u00a0 Please tell My sheep\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Every day I had to remind myself of that whisper.\u00a0 Every day I called home and listened as the days drew closer for Mama to go Home.\u00a0 And every day I watched for chances to tell others about Jesus.\u00a0 How He died for our sins.\u00a0 And then He rose again to give us Hope. To give us Life.\u00a0 To give us Abundant Life.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about rules, it\u2019s about a relationship.\u00a0 And just like He will with you, He walked beside me.\u00a0 In front of me and sometimes He just carried me.<\/p>\n
Another milestone occurred in September as I flew to Texas to pin pilot wings on our son, Craig, an officer in the Air Force.\u00a0 Milt stayed home to keep the farm going and I truly enjoyed my time with my son.\u00a0 I am so proud of his choice to service our country, but it wasn\u2019t easy to fly home and leave him there.<\/p>\n
Fall was hard.\u00a0 Soon into the season we learned that our pumpkins had multiple diseases and were quickly rotting in the field.\u00a0 So we began the hard task of buying pumpkins.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t hard to buy in the sense that we have great sources of produce auctions in Fairview, but it\u2019s hard to lay out the cash again to buy a crop you have already paid to grow.\u00a0 But in faith we persevered.\u00a0 Looking back it almost is a blur.\u00a0 And more often than not when someone asked me how I was, the tears came.\u00a0 It all seemed too much.<\/p>\n
But God\u2014He stayed so very close.\u00a0 Customers came.\u00a0 Not quite as many as in years past, but I\u2019m sure God sent what we could handle.\u00a0 Our staff was supportive.\u00a0 They carried things when we weren\u2019t so focused.\u00a0 And then the call came.\u00a0 Wednesday, October 18, in the wee hours of the morning, when the phone rang, I knew my daddy would be on the other end of that call.\u00a0 \u201cShe\u2019s not suffering any more, sweetheart.\u201d\u00a0 No, she wasn\u2019t, because Mama went Home\u2014to be at the feet of her precious Savior.<\/p>\n
I called our children and asked God for the strength to get thru the day.\u00a0 We knew we had a busy day and Jesus whispered once again,\u00a0 \u201ctell My sheep\u2026\u201d\u00a0 The school buses rolled in and I walked to greet the teachers like I do everyday.\u00a0 She knew my Mama was sick, but I knew the teacher wasn\u2019t ready for my words, \u201cMama went Home this morning.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cOh, Janie, I wish we had known.\u00a0 How can we do things differently today?\u201d\u00a0 I heard the whisper and I said\u2026.\u201dBut you don\u2019t understand, Suzanne, I have to tell them.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t going to let the enemy win this one.\u00a0 It\u2019s exactly where my Mama would want me to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those four days Jesus carried me.\u00a0 I shared the Gospel.\u00a0 With school groups, with a young couple sitting on the front porch.\u00a0 With the grandmother hurting because she had lost her adult child and was trying to raise the grandchild.\u00a0 On Harvest Praise, as we used that day to honor Mom, the Lord gave me the strength to share the Gospel in hopes that someone heard the Truth that eternity with Jesus could be theirs too.<\/p>\n
Jennifer, Garth and Rachael came home and helped the day of Harvest Praise and we left before the day was over to head home to Kingsport.\u00a0 Craig flew in to Tennessee from Texas and we gathered to honor our Mother, Grandmom, wife and friend.\u00a0 And again God carried us.<\/p>\n
If I had known on January 1, 2017 what was coming for that year, I would have been like a groundhog looking for my hole on Groundhog Day.\u00a0 Never mind my shadow, I just want to hide and skip the year.\u00a0 But God\u2026 but the promises of God are not available only on the good days or the easy days.\u00a0 They are available every day.\u00a0 And there is no mistake, that in one of the most difficult years our family has walked thru, we have been strengthened.\u00a0 We have heard His Words of comfort.\u00a0 His promises to never leave nor forsake us are true.\u00a0 We have come through the fire.\u00a0 Your prayers have made a difference.\u00a0 Your kind words, your acts of kindness have made a difference.<\/p>\n
Many years ago the Lord gave us a purpose\u2014we are to \u201csow seeds for tomorrow\u2019s Harvest.\u201d\u00a0 That might look like a farmer\u2019s motto, but it\u2019s also a Shepherd\u2019s.\u00a0 His seeds are His Words and He wants us to tell His sheep about Him.\u00a0 And then somebody has to water those seeds, those baby sheep need tending.\u00a0 We all have a job to do.<\/p>\n
So our prayer as we look forward from 2017?\u00a0 We want 2018 to be another year of telling His sheep, and we hope you will join us\u2014to tell His sheep, or water the seeds or tend those baby sheep.\u00a0 And no matter the year we have ahead of us\u2026He\u2019s got this.\u00a0 And for that we are so very thankful. To Him be all the praise!\u00a0 AMEN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yes, I know it\u2019s already into February, but it\u2019s taken me a few weeks to put my thoughts together about 2017.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to believe so much can be packed into one year, but 2017 will go down in our history of being a time when we know God\u00a0 went before us, behind and beside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions\/392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}