Responsibility for lives and is it a bat?

6/14/12 Thursday

        "I think we have a bat!" Cherie exclaimed as I walked around the corner. She turned on the porch light and hurried inside as I investigated.  It wasn't a bat but this moth. It's wingspan is as big as the barn swallows that also live on the veranda. If I spread my fingers apart they would not quite equal how big this baby is. Not sure what kind of moth or butterfly it is but it is quite impressive.

  It has been busy so let me catch you up on what has been happening. We have made the time to visit with and help the two widows that God has brought us to. Spent a good part of the weekend at Geneva’s doing some stuff around the house while Cherie took her shopping. They came home with a puppy that was being given away for free. Of course the puppy is cute, like all puppies are. This will be good for Geneva because it will give her something else to focus on other than problems with budget and family. It will also be a nuisance for her too as this puppy gets used to living in a new home and misses it’s litter and parents. Such is the way of new puppies.

          The other sweet little lady we have the privilege of visiting with I haven’t seen in two weeks or so. Unfortunately she had fallen last week and bruised her face pretty badly. That is a real concern for she has been having fainting spells or something where she gets dizzy and blacks out. At her age, the potential for serious injury is definitely a concern. I intend to spend some more time over there, now that much of the farm work has come to an impasse.

          There is still much to do on the farm but at this point I don’t see much of a benefit for planting more melons and the other areas are so overrun with sticker grass and weeds I don’t think I can do much. If I disc it under all I do is plant the sticker seeds, making things much worse I the future. I wonder if I can scrape all them into a pile with the back blade I got from Mary and burn it. Dealing with them by hand with a hoe is a daunting task.

          Right now I am focusing on harvesting wheat and rye grain. Spent a lot of time painstakingly cutting wheat stalks by hand with the sickle and then tying them into bundles. Later I will rig up a device to thresh the grain out of the heads. Meantime I will keep plugging away at it. I plan on getting the mower out and using it to harvest more rye grain. Unfortunately I have literally driven the wheel off that mower and it currently just wobbles on the axle with much of the plastic where it rides broken away. It smokes badly now and I must regularly pull the spark plug because it fouls up with the oil. This is the only mower I have that has a grass catcher on it, which is extremely valuable for this farm. Not only do I use it to harvest grain but also to collect grass clippings we use to make compost with.

          The tomatoes are just hanging on, not doing well at all. Most of my cantaloupe was eaten and destroyed by rabbits. I am not sure if it is worth the time to replant again because it is so late in the season. I must make more wire cages to protect plants from being ate by critters. I did get to pick 3 cayenne peppers yesterday. Cut them up and put them in my chili. Made it a nice and spicy meal but then rubbed my eye, not something you want to do after handling hot peppers.

          Went to the jail Tuesday. Two people there decided to turn their lives over to God. With that comes a serious responsibility for me. Neither one of them seem to have a background with church and have little or no knowledge of God or what it means to be a Christian. To lead someone into our faith and then abandon them, hoping it all works out, is a dangerous way to do things. It is like leading a horse to water but not allowing it to drink. This has been the way of many churches, more interested in bragging about numbers than caring for the children they make in Christ. “We got so many saved this day” type of talk. Jesus said to make disciples, not converts. To make a disciple requires you sacrifice your time and life to show them the way and carefully teach them about God. In the lazy convenient Christianity of today so many have no desire to sacrifice any time or effort for such things, and in doing reveal their true hearts and total lack of understanding regarding our faith. There is a price to pay for that, a price I desire to avoid at all costs. Jesus said that if someone causes the least of His little ones to stumble and fall, it would be better if they had a millstone tied around their neck and were flung into the sea. Jesus died a horrible death so that we can have life, and did it because He loves us. We are to love others as Jesus loved us, but that often is inconvenient and not a lot of fun so many find excuses to not get involved, failing to understand the cost of such an attitude.

          So I will spending more time at the jail teaching these men and will make myself available when they get out of jail. They are in there for tickets and stuff so won’t be in jail for long.

          I have much to do so must go now. Be good and take care folks, remember that God really does love you.