What Faith Looks Like

It is a struggle to believe that it has finally happened! Talk about a leap of faith…I recently just got my first Brown Swiss heifer. This journey has been an epic one to say the least. It started a little over four years ago, when I had a very serious conviction laid on my heart that the Lord was calling me to start a small dairy.

That truly sounded nuts and I told the Lord about as much. “There is no way you are actually calling me to this! If this is real, you will have to open some big doors.” Yeah…that was the challenge I gave my God and he said game on. I’ve laughed because ever since I moved to the Blue Valley area, I have called this place the “Promised Land”. As a student at K-State I explored every possible backroad around Tuttle Lake, never believing that this would be the place I would teach and then subsequently call home. It was a place I found rest from the hustle and bustle of the Manhattan College life and could just get away to hear the lake shore birds and watch the peaceful sunsets.

The instances of God moments dotted in this story is almost too many to count! From the fact that our school secretary happened to have worked with a friend who runs a world-class Brown Swiss breeding herd in Southern Missouri where I got my heifer from. Then, the fact that 2.5 acres was available foot steps from my home to shelter my first heifer. The numerous connections I’ve made with those directly involved in small scale dairy farming with the most recent adventure being on a small Jersey dairy in Western Kansas. Let’s be real God had this all planned out. This journey in many ways has been a testing of my faith and inspiring the faith of others that God can do big and mighty things when we trust him!

One of those God moments hit me the hardest when coming to the realization that this thought and desire was planted in me much earlier in life than I had ever conceived. When I returned to Pennsylvania near Carlisle last Summer, I was driving on the country roads near where I grew up and there were small dairy farms dotted all over the place. As I started taking this all in, I shared with my Mom what I had observed in my travels. It was then my Mom shared that some of my earliest childhood experiences were interacting with dairy cows and on these small-scale creameries where my parents picked up bottled milk and cheese. My Mom laughed and shared that when I was a little boy I had a massive sprawling dairy farm set; where I would spend hours haying the fields of carpet and setting up my dairy parlor for all my little miniature Ayrshire and Holsteins!

Fast-forward almost 26 years and I was grappling with the heavy convictions that God was placing on my heart concerning this dairy project! I began researching deeply over the course of the next four years, learning about everything dairy, visiting diaries, talking to dairymen from all walks of life, and the more I learned the greater the excitement and the greater the confirmations that God wanted me to take this step of faith. It all came to head when last Spring Break I took the fateful trip to Ava, MO to visit with Ed Wittorff at Wittspride Dairy Farm. I’ll never forgot the utter summersaults my stomach took as I drove up to the farm and seeing these beautiful Brown Swiss cows craning their necks to investigate who the new person was. Ed and I spoke for a few hours and I knew that I’d be back with the full intent of purchasing one of his heifers.

Sure enough in August, Dale Hoch, our Ag Teacher, and I were in route back to Ava, MO and picked up my first dairy heifer. Since starting with my first heifer I’ve learned two powerful lessons concerning trusting my Lord:

Lesson #1: True Community is Hard to Find & I’ve Found It

This area of Northern Riley County is a pretty special place. I’ve known this for a long time, but my recent dairying adventure has only confirmed this further. I have been helped by so many people in getting started. Whether that was a neighbor helping me get my loose heifer and repair fence in the middle of night. Sitting and brainstorming with other area producers on my business plan and steps for moving forward. My friend and coworker spending the day hauling a trailer with me to Ava, MO to pick up the heifer. And honestly that’s just the start of my ever growing list.

In this day and age it is hard to find genuine community that cares for each other and helps each other at a moment’s notice. Truthfully, there were times I’ve wondered, “Why God? Why here, why Blue Valley?” Well come to find God has been answering a prayer I’ve held since my youth as a military-child who moved countless times. My prayer? That I may find a place I can call unequivocally home.

Lesson #2: Trust Takes Time & Consistency

I won’t forget the first few times I jumped in the pen to take care of my heifer. She had issues with flies so I would spray her down each day. Well the spray can made a hissing sound and definitely felt odd on her skin. She was skittish and would run away from me. Then, when I tried working out sand burs from her coat it was like the end of the world to her and she was not having it. Yet, I would show up each afternoon and work with her; over time I could tell she was beginning to trust me. I could tell that she was associating my presence with the end of the pesky fly bites and has come to love the brushing sessions of her coat.

Our constancy and consistency are crucial factors in any relationship we hope to nurture. Our Lord knows this best, he walks beside us each and every day; pouring out his blessings and graces even when we are far from deserving them. He desperately hopes we will connect that his presence in our lives offers relief from the pesky bites delivered by a broken and pain-filled world or that we will allow him to wash us clean each new day in our endeavors to be a living sacrifice for his glory.

Introducing Faith — This journey has been encapsulated by the word Faith…when I arrived in Ava, MO to pick up my heifer I sensed the Lord declare in the whispers of my heart when I first saw my little cream-colored heifer, “This is what Faith looks like.” It was only fitting that she would be named Faith; for it is by faith that I have endeavored to do all things through Christ!

Thank you friends for reading and sharing these reflections; may our walks of faith continue to grow together!