Getting Caught Up

I must admit, I have taken some time off from the computer.  I apologize to those who find these ramblings so intriguing.  We will make some attempts to put some important information on this page on a routine basis.

The past few weeks have been extremely interesting.  As many of you know, I have enjoyed great fame.  That has led to some other opportunities.  Like this:

Glad to find ways to share my world with you.  You can follow all of the twitter road trip interviews here.

Then the next day after that interview…..

I was recently interviewed for a potential book on Social Media. It’s amazing how Twitter, Facebook, and social media have made the world smaller, and more interesting.

I have really had a great opportunity to make some great friends with the hail adjusters.  Did you know you are audited from the Federal Crop Insurance regulators when you receive a large check from them?  That ’s so nice!  The good news is, I know everything is up to date and not much to find.  That’s the value of a great insurance agent.

A week ago, we ventured to the Black Hills.  No, it wasn’t for the Sturgis Rally.  I don’t own a bike.  I was surprised at how few of bikes were present.  I hear they are getting upset with how much they are being taken advantage of.  Hotels more than double their rates.  People say that most places make a ton of profit during this week.  I can fully understand why they would want to stay away.

One story about the Sturgis Bike Rally participants.  We stopped for gas at a convenience store in Custer, SD.  It’s not easy for a car to fit in with a flock of bikers.  That didn’t deter me though, I desperately needed the gas.  When I went in to pay for the beverages, and snacks and gas I talked with the lady running the cash register.  She commented on how honest and nice these bikers were.  She had never had one problem with any of them.  That’s not what my prejudicial nature wants to think.  I’m still learning!

Things are back to normal on the farm.  The kids start school on Monday.  Michael starts 8th grade, Tyler is a 1st grader, and my daughter Kylie starts Kindergarten.  Tyler has informed Kylie that 1st graders are “the boss” of Kindergartners.  This should be interesting.  That leaves Trevyn home with me to do all the work.

Let’s keep in touch.  Leave a comment or say HI via twitter.

Thank You CNN.com

Wake up one day and your world can change.

I am just a simple man.  I live in a small community (ok, tiny).  This morning CNN.com decides to post a story about twittering farmers.  I was selected along with some of my agricultural twittering colleagues to be highlighted in this article.

Let me thank the author of the story, John Sutter.  He’s from Oklahoma.  He has a grasp of farming.  And he did a very good job.

But, that article wasn’t the end.  Countless numbers of new followers on twitter want to see what goes on here.  I don’t understand.  I hear many travellers going down I-80 who stop in Ogallala, Nebraska say, “Well, this is one boring spot.” or something similar.  My answer to that is, we make up our own fun!

Welcome to all the new contacts and twitter followers and whomever else wants to come by and woller around in my 15 minutes of fame.

It continues with a brief little Skype Interview on CNNlive.  Here is the link to that. I got a call asking if they could do that tomorrow if we could make the Skype connection.  I’m lucky to have internet, let alone bandwith to run Skype, but it went very well.  My internet connection goes wireless about 50 miles before it gets to the main internet tube!

It’s alright, I didn’t want to get much done today anyway.  My family of four children and I are taking my wife Rachel to Denver this afternoon to put her on a plane for Africa.  Pray for her safe travels and the work she will be doing with the orphaned children of Zambia.  Pray for me that I can handle four kids, of which one is still in diapers.  (Grandma will be moving in tomorrow!)

Thanks for stopping by.  I can always use a few more friends!

Neva Cooper Update

Many of my friends have inquired about Neva Cooper.  Friday, I made the 70 mile trek to North Platte to check on my good friend.  I took her a huge geranium that my wife put together and stopped in to see her at the Great Plains Regional Medical Center in North Platte.

Neva had just had her spleen removed on Thursday.  It was suspected that she might have cancer of the spleen and removing it might restore her health.  No word on that just yet, but Friday when I stopped in to see her, she was not looking her usual happy self.  In fact, she looked quite distressed.  She had a cough and an ear ache.  Just plain miserable.  She was trying not to rip out all of her fresh sutures.

Her husband Ned has been keeping me informed via the ol text message and he let me know Saturday that she had developed pneumonia.  This morning he let me know that she wasn’t doing any better.  This afternoon he assured me that once the pneumonia is in check, she will be fine.  Right now she just needs to get over the pneumonia.  I am sure it might have something to do with the fact that it took a lot longer to do the surgery than expected.

These are a couple of my favoritist people.  They just spew joy and love all over the place!  Many have asked how can I send her a card or get in touch with her.  The hospital does not have email to the room or a way to send ecards.  However, if you would like to send a note of encouragement, let me give you a couple of avenues. 

You can send cards to the church building where Ned is the minister.  Here is the link to the church website and the address.  Ned also said that if you want to send her something electronically, you can email him here.  NedWCooper@hotmail.com.

This internet world wide web thing is pretty amazing.  It amazes me that people whom we never met could be praying for somebody they don’t know.  Look me up when we get to heaven, I’ll buy the coffee!

Jesus would never be on Facebook!

Can you imagine if Jesus took on Social Media?

It might be nice to hear his thoughts and teachings.  But then it might be a little condemning too.

He might be so swamped with followers no one would get any personal attention….or would we?

Jesus would never be on Facebook.  It only allows 5000 friends.  One thing that Jesus definitely wants is to be our friend.  He wouldn’t be confined to the limits of Facebook.

How’s your relationship?

Comment to Post

One of my favorite people just stopped by and left a comment. As I read it, I thought this would make a great blog post. So, here it is!

Meet Erica Berry. A woman after Gods own Heart. Here is her comment that now is one of my Posts! Thanks for sharing E!

This is a great blog, Steve! Thanks for sharing. This is right up my alley of things I’m interested in. Like “preacherman”, I also think it’s so important for Christians to step out of our comfort zones, and then to be aware of our surroundings. There’s probably a lot more “God” in places like Vegas than we are aware of, since he’s so close to the broken hearted. It’s comfortable and easy for us to emphasize not being “of” the world, but we can easily forget what it means to still be “in” the world.

Ben and I were also at 6th Street in Austin, TX last weekend (a smaller version of Vegas and it was life changing for me. As you know, that’s totally not my world either. I definitely did not fit in with the crowd. But, what God helped me to learn is that each of those people have a story behind who they are now, and sometimes we might come to find out that our stories cross paths somewhere, if we’d take a minute to talk to them.

I learned that God is especially fond of Donald, the homeless man that I met, and of Wanda who works as a waitress and raises her teenage son alone. I also learned that I’m not so different from the two of them, except that they’ve seen a lot tougher things than I’ve ever seen. I was able to have an hour-long conversation with each of them, and as it turned out, they richly blessed my life. Ironic.

I think I’ll write a blog about my experience in Austin, too. Thanks for the inspiration. I miss you guys!! See you at the wedding in a few weeks!

The view from the Casino

My wife and I are in Las Vegas.  We left our home Tuesday morning, leaving Grandma in charge with the kids.  Who got the better end of this deal?

Wednesday morning, we awoke to clouds, snow flurries, and then rain.  It was very cold and the tv stations were just in shock that there was a brief moment of snow.  However, it turned to rain and then the sun came out, and the forecast is for 90 by the weekend.  I heard one weatherman say he never had seen snow and 90 degrees in one week.

As I have been making my way around the strip, I just feel odd.  This is not where I belong.  Many of the dudes here are like vultures looking for a dead carcass.  Some of the females are begging to be hunted.  People are feeding the one armed bandits and gaming tables looking for their fortune.  It’s just a different environment, and one that I fail to see any glory of God in.

Before you wonder, well why did you choose to vacation in Vegas?  I didn’t.  My wife and I are down here for a convention.  This was not my choice of destinations.  However, it is a fascinating place to people watch.  You have to walk through the Casino to get anywhere.  I have yet to gamble one penny.  I farm why should I gambe here?  But watching people is interesting.

For example, this street performer is interesting. 

But, later that night, I saw something I didn’t think existed down here on the Las Vegas strip.  I had heard of “Hookers for Jesus” working here to help get ladies out of that lifestyle.  I didn’t think I would see much of Jesus’ representatives  here.

But as we were walking to supper last night, there was a group of college kids in a huddle.  They were getting ready to spread out and just see who they could impact.  A couple of them were holding crosses.  I didn’t ask what church or affiliation they were with.  Frankly, I didn’t care because I was just amazed that someone was daring to battle on these grounds.  I was thinking, “you kids ain’t got a chance in this environment”.  But then they did something that proved to me, they have something bigger on their side.

It may be hard to tell, but I snapped this right after they were done praying.  Who ever heard of praying in the Devils own front lawn?  Right on the grounds of the MGM, right out in public. I admire their faith.

And sometimes we’re afraid to talk to our neighbor…