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Page 12
The Wabaunsee County Signal-Enterprise, Thursday, November 7, 2002
A message from
members of the
Wabaunsee
County
Ministerial
Alliance
November 10 is a special
date in history - it is the birth
date of one of the most
influential men ever born•
According to Time magazine,
the man born on this date was
second only to Sir Isaac
Newton in the importance of
the learning, civilization and
progress of the previous
millennium• There are more
books written about this man
than any other in history,
except the Lord Jesus Christ,
for he is regarded as the
founder of the modem age.
November 10 is the birth-
day of Martin Luther: priest,
reformer, Bible scholar and
professor, and doctor of phi-
losophy. He is most well
known for his part in laying
the foundation of the Protes-
tant Reformation, which be-
gan as he posted 95 theses
(statements) onto the church
door in Wittenburg, Germany
on October 31, 1517. He spoke
against abuses that were tak-
ing place within the church,
and sought to return the
church to a more Biblical un-
derstanding of salvation and
righteousness before God•
Luther wrote incessantly.
He translated the Latin and
Greek versions of the Bible
into German, the language of
his motherland. He permed
two major doctrinal books for
teaching, one for homes and
the other for pastors in the
church, these are Luther's
Large and Small Catechisms.
He authored the Augsburg Con-
fession, which became the
foundation for the Church
that l~ears his name. (In fact,
if you come to the Lutheran
church office in Alma, and as
you enter the door, you will
see the cornerstone of the pre-
vious stone church, which has
the inscription: Ev. Luth.
Kirche {Church}, UAC, and the
year 1878. UAC is the acronym
for Unaltered Augsburg Con-
fession, which Luther wrote in
1530.) As a professor, he wrote
Bible commentaries, of which
Romans and Genesis are so
scholarly and informative
that they are still used today•
He wrote On the Bondage of the
Will to explain the depravity
of the natural human condi-
tion and On the Freedom of a
Christian Man, which speaks
clearly of how we are set free
from sin and condemnation
before God. In all we have over
300 volumes of his material,
of which approximately half
have been translated into En-
glish.
Luther wanted to bring re-
form, not division. He wanted
to see a general council of the
Church, but that did not begin
until 1545, just months before
his death. Luther wanted Jus-
tice, personal and civil, in all
the world, so he spoke out
concerning abuses of his day.
Luther offended everyone at
some point, and yet, he was
deeply loved by leaders, peas-
ants and churchmen for his
honest speech and forthright
arguments. Luther was in-
strumental in checking civil
disobedience when peasants
revolted, advising princes in
proper administration, and
providing education for the
common man so the truth
could be evaluated by every
individual in society.
There are several times in
Luther's life where he was
willing to make peace, but his
opponents pushed him to be-
tray his conscience, and, so.
being true to his beliefs, he
would not compromise the
message of Scripture. When
given the choice of taking
back what he had said or fac-
ing death by execution, Luther
boldly declared before Em-
peror Charles V, 2'My con-
science is captive to the Word
of God. I neither can nor will
recant anything, since it is
neither right nor safe to act
against conscience. Here I
stand, I can do no other. God
help me. Amen." Although he
did not want to begin a new
church, and actually disliked
it when his followers were re-
ferred to as "Lutherans," he
sought to be faithful to God to
lead these followers with God's
Word, The three solas, (by
grace alone, by faith alone, by
Scripture alone) became the
motto of his followers.
Luther wanted the love of
Jesus Christ to permeate life.
He brought congregational
singing back to the church. He
was an ardent educator and an
outspoken churchman. He
sought out God's revealed will
and was willing to follow His
will, even to death, and re-
mains an inspiration for
Christians 500 years after his
death.
Openings fo elect
House l'arents
]'he Omaha Home for Boys offers a unique opportunity
for married couples to care for boys, average age 12-16.
• Nationally recognized training
• $35,200 starting salary
• Free housing & meals
• Beautiful, modern facility a. ~.q..l
Opportumty
• Excellent benefits E,.p~
The view from
Rural Route #8
by Jim Suber
phil.
Places like Phil Thompson's
machine shop used to dot the
rural landscape, fixing or even
making parts for farmers'
equipment and machinery.
Despite a geometric con-
solidation of farm businesses
over the past several decades,
Thompson has grown slowly
by turning out work for non-
farm industries.
He and his wife, Luann,
own T.W.&M., Inc., which is
housed in the buildings of a
converted hog operation be-
hind their house a few miles
east of Valley Fails along K-16
in Jefferson County.
He says Luann likes to joke
that he hasn't had a job since
1986, and not a full time one
for another 10 before that. The
initials stand for Thompson
Welding and Machine.
Actually, he's pretty busy,
and now four men -- three
full-time and one part-time,
other than Thompson -- work
for the company. Thompson
also keeps the books, which is
not his favorite task. His busi-
ness is what he terms a '~iob
shop," or one that will "take
anything that comes in from
the general public."
Thompson likes his trade
and has since being intro-
duced to it formally in shop at
Valley Falls High School,
where he was graduated in the
late 19b0s. Elton Spena, then
a young instructor there, was
building an early American
cherry dining room table and
assigned Thompson to turn
the legs for it. Thompson was
building a set of early Ameri-
can native walnut end tables
for his folks, who still have
them. It was his first real in-
troduction to lathe work. Of
Spena, he said, "He made a
large impression on me." Such
high regard expressed after 35
years is probably priceless to a
teacher.
Thompson is a tall, friendly
and open man. He and Luann
have reared five children. A big
furnace warms the shop for
neighbors dropping in out of
the cold. Sometimes it's diffi-
cult to distinguish the cus-
tomers from the visitors from
the employees. Everyone is
treated respectfully. A gentle
black dog hangs out. On
Thompson's office walls are
snapshots of various string
bands. He plays the upright
bass for the band, "New Addi-
tion."
He takes pride in his work
and thinks of himself in terms
of the pure Webster's defmi-
t_ion of 'mechanic,'; that is, "a
worker skilled in using tools or
in making, operating and re-
/ pairing machines."
He showed me around the
big machines, which he is
converting to computer-aided
systems. Here was a hydraulic
lift cylinder refurbished for a
1963 two-ton International
truck for an older farmer 60
miles away. Closer to home
were some worn splines from a
big shaft and a heavy hydro-
static drive wheel from a red
combine. Near that job was a
stack of stainless steel round
plates with four holes drilled
in them and beveled at precise
angles. They were part of foot
valves for a de-icer for a com-
pany at Eudora. An Overland
Park firm was getting some
bell housings and a Salin~
firm had ordered casters for its
electric pianos. They were
building several other non-
farm items, including a part
for a rubber products ingredi-
ents mixer, and a fuel line
adapter/coupler With both
standard and metric threads.
Thompson misses his, the
smaller family farms, noting
that when he started, the av-
erage acreage in the territory
was about 250. Today he fig-
ures the average has grown to
1,500, and several he knows
are operating 5,000 acres-
plus.
But business has been
growing steadily through
word-of-mouth advertising,
Thompson's favorite approach
and one that fits his style,
which is: '%Ve'll work on about
anything."
His "can-do" attitude and
solid business ethics are truly
products of the best of our old
rural culture.
mixed.
The desk looks as if a cy-
clone hit. Many random bits of
information left there created
the clutter. Some deserve
mention, so here goes.
The Arbor Day Founda-
tion's national tree vote, in
case you hadn't heard, wound
up with the oak on top with a
plurality of more than 100,000
votes of the 444,628 cast.
In my opinion, the oak was
a fine choice. For once I agree
with the masses. The oak is
really a modern tree in that it
is so diverse. It even has an
evergreen in its clan. There are
about 80 oak species, actually.
Most states have an oak of one
kind or another.
I'm partial to oaks because
my last name means cork from
the cork oak found in the
climes of France and southern
Germany.
Oak is good. They say the
USS Constitution, built in
1797 and floating now in
Boston Harbor, has a keel of
white oak and sides of south-
ern live oak. The latter was so
tough they called the ship "Old
Ironsides." One of my first
carpentry jobs as a small boy
was helping my Dad nail down
Wide oak planking for a roof
underlayment on an addition
to our house.
Oak makes dandy firewood
and beautiful flooring and
handsome furniture...
A friend in agricultural
publishing and I visited the
other day and agreed that
people seem more contentious
and divisive than usual And
while agricultural interests
argue and battle -- often along
partisan lines, but also fie-
quentJy within political camps
-- the non-farming public
drifts further away. While
unity isn't necessarily desir-
able, neither are chaos and
deep antipathy toward one's
kindred souls in what has be-
come a beleaguered farm and
ranch complex. My friend said
a lot of the discussions and
debates often degenerate into
narne-calling and hardening of
attitudes toward one another.
Those caught in the middle
with friends on either side of
an issue feel helpless and fear
losing friendships.
Large portions of agricul-
ture as we know it could well
wind up overseas if farming
and feeding livestock
too expensive to do
higher land and labor
chinery costs and
higher costs driven
tory restrictions.
could pack up and
friend and I agree
be a tragedy. We
learn to speak
and Portuguese,
trying to make
humor out of a dire
Oh, that desk
a Kansas and U.S.
• and a rankings list.
farmers led the natioa
categories and were
five...There's a price
news releases fronl
places on a wide
subjects. An old copy
American Farm
has two main
ries -- one about
prospects for disaster
another
Another release tells
changes in the
pensation program...
Say, I almost
about oaks. I cut a
down on my place
ago and regret
probably no more
feet in diameter but
back to 1865.
ones certainly are
200 years. Oaks
where the prairie
the Plains. It was a
tree. According to
t.ion, the bur oaks
thick bark were able to
the wild prairie fire~
the Morton Oak
foundation's farm at
City, and they're
tings from its acorns
money.
Cheese Facts
It takes 10
milk to make 1
cheese. That's
gallons of milk.
Thomas
the first "Big Chee
phrase was
cheese maker gave
pound cheese
President
1801. Passers-bY
pmazed by the Sl
and dubbed it
cheese."
The most
ican natural
cheddar.
The most
Jan natural cheese
the United States
zarella. The most
hard Italian cheese
volone.
The United
largest market for
exports is Latin
eating up 40 t
cheese exports.
Potatoes aren't
food that has
holes in Swiss
called "eyes," too.
Oak
11=/28
Free