Pastor Stepp

We have our new pastor! After 13 months of meetings, reading profiles, meetings and did I say meetings! We are so blessed to have found Pastor Stephen Stepp, a native of FonDuLac, WI., married with 4 grown children, just recently graduated from the Dubuque seminary. Formerly worked in the restaurant business in Wisconsin and even in Cedar Falls, IA. He will start the last Sunday in November; move into the parsonage the week before, be ordained at his home church in FonDuLac the day before starting at our church. We can hardly wait. We had to give Pastor Mark, our interim, 30 days notice, or Pastor Stepp could have started Monday as far as I'm concerned. He gave a great trial sermon. Even mother said she could hear him and thought he would be "fine". Our search committee sponsored a dessert reception Saturday afternoon after which we took Pastor Steve and his wife Jean to the 3-30 club for dinner. Sunday after church the search committee served a meal to the Stepps and the church council. Now we are ready to have one last meal (and party) together.

Caleb is home here for this week. He has been running the combine for the guys. The corn has to be trucked to Sunbury (because of some different gene in it or some such thing) so Caleb is combining, Ben is keeping the trucks full and Larry is driving the semi and Bill the straight trucks. I was told there were 48 rows left for today and they should be done combining. Just in time as the weather is changing back to fall/winter.

I was volunteered to go with the Pre-K and kindergarten classes on Halloween to the nursing home in Clarence to sing some songs. The music teacher and one of the teachers are unable to go so I was chosen! It should be fun and I'm looking forward to it. The kids are so adorable at that age.

Corn harvest

The guys started doing corn last week and I haven't had to help yet! The first fields they worked in had corn that was laid down, twisted and darn right hard to combine in that they couldn't see the rows ahead and had to only guess or try to look ahead and see a root system to help guide them down the rows. Larry has his fields at the hog farm, across the road from there done,the bin full at Grandma Elijah's and they started here yesterday. Only here, the rest of Grandma's and 112 acres at the Fisher place left to do. Larry said his dad must like the new combine; as he can't get him out of it! Ben has been good help; he is taking tests at the Kirkwood center in Tipton in conjuntion with his classes at DMAC early in the morning. I don't know when he has time to study, but hope it is going well for him.

At our Evening Circle meeting Monday night we put ribbons in our hymnals. We thought having ribbons to use as book marks would help. Do any of you use them at your church? Bonnie Kintzle and I worked together; did the first six wrong so had to re-do them. All the hymnals got finished in good time; but still didn't get home in time to watch Dancing With the Stars.

This weekend is our pastoral candidate weekend. Hope everyone votes yes and we have a new pastor starting the last Sunday in November. We are making desserts for the dessert reception Saturday evening; are taking Pastor Steve and Jean to the club for dinner after that; and are fixing a meal for Sunday noon to (Hopefully) celebrate Pastor Steve's acceptance. THEN soemtime later we are having one big bash (just our search committee) to celebrate being DONE!

Beans done!

We finished the bean harvest on Sunday. We finished ours on Saturday afternoon and then moved over to do Don Stolte's beans. He has been sick and we did his 107 acres with 3 combines, 2 semi's, 2 straight trucks, 2 dump carts and drivers in just six hours; some Saturday evening and then again Sunday. He brought sandwiches to the field for lunch and then had us over for beer and food after we got everything moved back home. Ben was pulling the grain platform home on the cart when he noticed the front tire on the cart was shredded! He pulled over to the side of the road; and when he came here with only the pickup we were very scared he had lost the cart with the expensive grain platform. We were glad it was just a flat tire! We pulled a tire off the other cart; changed the tire; and were good to go again. I was so glad I wasn't driving! The guys are doing some corn but it is slow going. The corn is down (from all the wind) and it is hard to see to keep the combine on the rows. Therefore, I haven't had to run the combine yet. There is a lot of ears dropping on the ground, either they have been blown off or when the combine hits the stalk the ears drop to the ground. Hopefully all the fields aren't as bad as the one they are in.

Friday night's Legion fish fry went very well. We fed over 220 people and thought that was good considering the weather was good and people were in the fields and the fact there was a football game.

Our search committee is busy making plans for the candidating weekend with Pastor Stepp. We will have a congregational dessert open house on Saturday (the 22nd) afternoon and after that the search committee will take Pastor and his wife to the country club for supper. Sunday after services we will have lunch with the Stepps and the church council. Can't wait for it to be all over!

Is it October?

Really, it is too warm outside for October! We have been combining beans for the past few days. It is really dusty in the fields and on the roads. Please be careful driving on the gravel roads! The beans are doing good; so far we have had only a couple break downs; and I don't have to start work till noon or so! All is well.

Tonight is Jay Weiland's visitation. He was only 47 and suffered two years with cancer. Although you could never see it in him; always upbeat and working. Jay was in Larry's class in school and a very hard worker. Lowden will miss him.

Our search committee has finished our work! We have a trial sermon Sunday set for October 23. We visited a neutral puplit in Ryan, Iowa; had a second interview and all of us on the search committee feel we have found the right person for our congregation. Hopefully they feel the same way and our new pastor will start with us for the first Sunday in Advent.

I finished typing the book from 1910. To find the bio on Christian Fehling go to iagenweb.org; then to IAGENWEB Project; then click on county projects on the left side; click on Cedar. On the Cedar county page click on Histories of Cedar Co. From there go to Volume II Biographical and you will find an index, go to Fehling and there it is. There are other names familiar to Lowden and also one of Bill's ancestors, Edmund Elijah.