{"id":569,"date":"2018-11-21T18:35:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T18:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/?p=569"},"modified":"2018-11-21T18:38:02","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T18:38:02","slug":"a-note-of-thanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/a-note-of-thanks\/","title":{"rendered":"A Note of Thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good.\u00a0 His loving kindness is everlasting.\u00a0 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he as redeemed from the hand of the adversary and gathered from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.<\/em>\u00a0 Psalm 107:1-3<\/p>\n

The farm is much quieter these days, just the howling of coyotes at night with Maggie and Jed barking from the backyard at them.\u00a0 In the daytime the animals get excited when they hear the sound of the Gator, believing Milt is on their way to feed them.\u00a0 In the garage is a cold-weather project, one of the tractors in need of repair and seasonal maintenance.\u00a0 The corn is all harvested and stored.\u00a0 The hay castle is in the stages of being torn down and fed to the animals.\u00a0 Pumpkins continue to disappear as they are tossed in for the animals to eat.\u00a0 The store looks a little forlorn as the product is stored for spring.\u00a0 (Christmas did come to the caf\u00e9 though as we moved the tree in there as we welcome those who still pick up pizza to go.) \u00a0And the stacks of papers on my desk are slowly decreasing as I finally have time to return to my office and catch up on all that necessary financial stuff.<\/p>\n

So now it\u2019s time to reflect on another year come and gone on the farm.\u00a0 Over the next 24-48 hours our children will appear to enjoy family time together and then head back to their homes and jobs.\u00a0 But tonight in the quiet of the house I am taking time to consider all that God has done.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to believe nineteen pumpkin patch seasons have passed and this will the 20th<\/sup> Thanksgiving celebrated in this home.\u00a0 I am amazed and grateful.<\/p>\n

We are so thankful for a God who loves us and gave us such an awesome job, allowing our family to spend the days welcoming people into our home from near and far, from the east and the west, the north and the south. Even though our children are grown and moved away, this farm is still very much a part of who they are, having been shaped by their years working alongside us.\u00a0 You have blessed us with your friendship, your time, your families and your special memories.\u00a0 Not once, but twice in this season, young men have knelt to ask their girl\u2019s hand in marriage.\u00a0 (Thankfully they both said yes.)\u00a0 We\u2019ve snuggled babies (or at least I did) and helped our elder guests find a great spot to watch grandchildren play.\u00a0 Our guests learned how the farmer grows breakfast, played lots of rounds of mini golf and gaga ball, and picked from an abundant pumpkin crop.\u00a0 The animals were well fed and so were our guests.<\/p>\n

Throughout it all, we\u2019ve heard one word over and over.\u00a0 You\u2019ve said it to us, we\u2019ve said it and we have felt it:\u00a0 PEACE.\u00a0 You\u2019ve told us you feel at peace here.\u00a0 Even when the days are busy, you told us your family had a peaceful day here.\u00a0 No phones ringing (at least not yours), no electronics, no TV, no traffic (except for the millionth round of the lawnmower train) and only the noise of people having fun (and Matthew the donkey).\u00a0 The menu in the caf\u00e9 is simple and the places to play are even simpler.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing magical about this place, but there is peace.\u00a0 We don\u2019t realize how much we miss peace in our lives until we actually experience it.\u00a0 Our blood pressure goes down and life is so just so much easier for those few hours of peace.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not magical, but it\u2019s mysterious.\u00a0 Milt and I don\u2019t go to lengths to create a \u201cpeaceful\u201d place for guests to visit, but it happens.\u00a0 We take what we have been given and just make it available.\u00a0 It\u2019s not our efforts that make it peaceful, it\u2019s His.\u00a0 It\u2019s God\u2019s lovingkindness, His redemption and His restoration that bring about peace.\u00a0 You see, we invited Him here when we invited you.\u00a0 You came and experienced His Peace.<\/p>\n

The farm will be quiet again for the next few weeks.\u00a0 Our children will leave and it will be spring before the farm is full of happy customers again, but the Peace:\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t leave.\u00a0 And we are so thankful He is here to stay.<\/p>\n

Thank you, friends, for coming to visit.\u00a0 Thank for giving us a reason to plan and prepare for a new season.\u00a0 Thank you for the chance to celebrate 20 years next year.\u00a0 And thank you Jesus for Your unfailing love and Your constant peace.\u00a0\u00a0 All praise and honor is Yours!<\/p>\n

Blessings to our friends\u2014we pray that yours is a grateful Thanksgiving and a Holy Christmas!<\/p>\n

– Milton and Janie Corley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good.\u00a0 His loving kindness is everlasting.\u00a0 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he as redeemed from the hand of the adversary and gathered from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.\u00a0 Psalm 107:1-3 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":572,"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":[7,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569"}],"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=569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":571,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions\/571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianwayfarm.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}