Thank a Farmer - Florida Urban meets Iowa Rural

This fall, young people in the St. Petersburg, Florida area were introduced to the Vince and Steve Dolch families and learned something about Iowa farmers.  Peggy Paxton, sister to Villisca resident Roxanna Sieber, is the director of their church’s tutoring program.

    Peggy writes [I’ve added some comments to what she wrote for clarity – RTS]:

“G. K. Chesterton once said,  'When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.'  

“A part of our Church's "Can-Do Mentoring/Tutoring Program" is to incorporate the teaching of certain character qualities into the sessions.  The character quality we focus on in Nov. is "thankfulness".  I wanted to help our kids have a deeper understanding of the season of Thanksgiving.  Knowing that my sister's community [Villisca] was in a large part made up of farms [okay – I have not portrayed our community well – we certainly are a farming community – but I’m not sure the “large part” is valid] I decided to ask her about the possibility of connecting with a farmer in some way that would give our kids from the city real live people we could use to guide our Can-Do kids and our Children's Church kids into a fresh understanding of Thanksgiving.

“The Vince Dolch family agreed to partner with us and our communication developed into a plan which we began with the Children's Church Program in September.  The children were taught the importance to just "Say Thank You" with the story of the ten lepers.

“The end of September marked the beginning of the Can-Do Program with an emphasis on helping the children to know they are special and loved.  So both programs showed the children what an amazing creation their body is in such ways as having them compare a grain of rice to the size of the ear's stirrup and making a picture from their own distinct fingerprint.  They were encouraged to live in such a way that thanked God for having a plan for their whole life.  They considered all of the different people God placed in their lives to give them security, happiness and to meet their needs.

“It was our hope that all of these lessons would lead into introducing the Dolch families to the children [By this time it was a project of both the Vince and Steve Dolch families because it was Matt Dolch who had a good assortment of photos to furnish to my sis.] and that it was God's plan that they had become farmers who in turn God used to meet their physical needs.  For four weeks the children learned about the importance of the American farmer in general and the work of the Dolch families in particular. [I had to educate my sister early on that corn and beans are not corn on the cob and green beans.] 

“The Dolches sent approximately 90 photos of crops, scenes with farm machinery, family members and FFA experiences.  These photos were incorporated into two farm books to which also were added farm pictures taken from country magazines.  Matt Dolch's photos of FFA butchered cows brought the expected "ughs" and the machinery, curiosity. They sent newly harvested soybeans so that each child could take a sample home.  A different type of soybeans than those the Dolches farm were found in the frozen food department at Publix, tasted by most, liked by very few and expressive relief that there are many other uses for that little bean.  Thank you notes were written to the Dolches.  And finally a wall hanging of thanks was made to be sent to Iowa.

“Throughout the whole experience the children were led to understand and be thankful for the role of the American farmer in our lives. The continued use of I Thessalonians 1:2 was a constant reminder to the children to pray for the Dolches, especially for safety during harvest.  The children made place mats using pictures of favorite fresh foods and a copy of the well known prayer, 'God is great...' with the added line, 'And God bless the farmers.'

“The rest of the Church Family was also acquainted with the families by means of a power point presentation of the photos on Thanksgiving Sunday and the addition of the "Dolch families from Iowa"  being added to the weekly prayer requests.  

“One adult was heard to comment, 'Sounds like a field trip is in order.'  How fun would that be - we city folk piling into a bus to visit the Dolches' Farm.  But, since that isn't going to happen maybe this year's Thanksgiving meals will take on a deeper dimension of thanks for the adults as well as our children for God's provisions.  And perhaps these children will have grown a deeper trait of thankfulness."

Here is a photo of the kids in the Dolch families:

And here are some of the pictures of the Florida kids - some kids looking at the photo album of the farming operation on the Dolch farms, of kids finding out what a soy bean is and then some of the kids with the thank you banner the kids made for the Dolch's.