
South Dakota's farmers and ranchers will be giving away free groceries for a year to two lucky consumers.
The 90-day sweepstake contest is part of the "South Dakota Farmers Feed US" program, which features a website where consumers can meet eight South Dakota farmers and take virtual tours of their farms.
The free groveries are worth $5,000 and will be awarded in gift cards to the winners' preferred stores.
The "Farmers Feed US" website
www.FarmersFeedUS.org
features beef, corn, dairy, egg, hot, soybean and wheat farmers from across the state, each sharing information about his farm and family. In addition to guiding visitors through their registration for free groveries, each farmer also offers a brief online tour of their farm.
[THIS SOUNDS MOST INTERESTING, AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SWEEPSTAKES CONTEST TOO!--Ed.]
WAGON TRAIN HEADING FOR STATE FAIR
Huron, S.D.--An old-fashioned wagon train traveling from Highmore to Huron will, kick off the 2010 South Dakota State Fair.
Wagon Train participants can register on-site for $20 per individual or $35 per family. Wagon train participants receive free gate admission to the State Fair on Thursday as well as half price tickets for the CBR Bull Bash.
The wagon train will gather in Highmore on Friday,Aug. 27 at the Highmore Rodeo Grounds Supper and entertainment will be provided by the Highmore Booster Club. The wagon train will leave Highmore on Saturday morning and travel to Ree Heights, where the group will camp for the farms [talk about photo ops for pioneer heritage enthusiasts!--Ed.].
The wagon train will leave Ree Heights the next morning and spend the evening in Miller. The Miller community has several activities lined up for Sunday night, including a supper provided by the Miller FFA Chapter, a Fast Draw Shooting demonstration, a traveling display by the South Dakota State Historical Society and community activities at the 4-H Center.
Monday, Aug. 30 will see the wagon train traveling from Miller to Wessington. Supper with a free will donation is being planned along with entertainment by Brian Bergeieen. The wagon train will head on to Wolsey on Tuesday, Aug. 31. On Tuesday night the Wolsey Business Association, Wolsey Firefighters and Onward Wolsey organization will provide supper for all wagon train participants.
The wagon train will arrive at the State Fair in Huron on Wednesday, Sept. 1. Participants will be treated to a supper sponsored by Farm Credit Services of America and will join the State Fair's 125th Anniversary parade at 4:00 pm, on Thurs., Sept. 2.
For more information on the wagon train contact Jeff Schneiderman at 261-3293.
Bryce Baker at 773-5436, or Dennis Klein at 360-3076. The wagon train is sponsored by Farm Credit Services of America.
The 125th South Dakota State Fair will run from Thursday, Sept. 2, through Monday, Sept. 6. Pannar Seeds preview night will be Wednesday. For more information on events at the 2010 State Fair, contact the Fair office at 800-529-0900, visit www.sdstatefair.com or follow the StateFair on Facebook.
Gloria Gaither quoted this on a Gaither video, "Precious Memories":
"You show me someone who doesn't know where he's been,and I'll show you someone who doesn't know where he's going."


Is this a real option for Christians, whom Christ, we know, just as he was ascending into heaven, commissioned all his true disciples to go into all the world, making disciples and teaching them to observe everything He had taught. So why not deal with the whole person, holistically, as the historic Christian faith has always done? Why make a change now?
Despite the Great Commission Christ gave us his disciples, we see increasingly comments and reports from people in Christian aid agencies and ministries and even churches that say they have gone to help people in distressed regions, not "judge and convert" people. So anti-conversion is gaining over evangelism, as you and I can see. Our own Stadem ministries are now reflecting this change, in the third and fourth generations particularly, which shows up at our reunions in the silence on the subject of evangelism (perhaps this can be addressed at some time in the future, by a good review of Stadem history and Atlee Svanoe's book on the ministry of the local church). Of course, the enemies of Christ strenuously do not accept the notion that Christians can go anywhere to help people without actively trying to "convert" them to Christianity, so they are killed. World Vision, the world's largest Christian agency bringing disaster relief supplies, food, medical aid, etc., lost aid people that way, killed when they sent workers with humanitarian aid to Indonesia's devastated, tsunami-hit communities. At that time a World Vision supervisor at my church told me that World Vision workers were killed and then stuffed into the same coffins they had brought to Indonesia to put the dead bodies of tsunami victims in to spare the survivors from disease! This is so serious and unpleasant to talk about, but it is life lived today, right in the news, is it not? Aid workers ought to know what they face, even the most temporary aid worker in any agency that helps people in foreign countries, including Mexico (where Christians are being killed for their faith).
The Taliban routinely charge Christian aid workers in Afghanistan, for example, with the "crime" of converting Muslims, so ten of them were killed recently, though they were only there to administer dental care. I recall other incidents too, as there is an on-going attack on Christian aid workers across the world, while missionaries (such as the New Tribes Mission's, of whom we have several dozen in the Stadem Relationship) have always been under attack and find nothing surprising about any of this. A children's nurse in Beirut was killed by a shot in the face when she answered her door, though she was in Lebanon helping Muslim chidren with their health needs. Her crime in the eyes of the killers? Helping Muslim Children, being a Christian, being a Westerner, she had at least three strokes against her in the eyes of her attackers!
Despite the history we have cited in part, many Christians (more all the time) reason that Christians in "sensitive areas" ought to be non-conversionary as possible, so that they will be accepted by the militants and left to do their humanitarian work. This tactic hasn't worked--both humanitarian aid workers and the traditional, evangelistic "converting-type" missionaries are killed, and will continue to be kidnapped and martyred.
Is there any light on this question that our Stadem heritage can shed?

If you love God, you will love what God loves. God doesn't drum things into you--it is love that motivates all he does and all we should do. If you love God, you will love what God loves. God loves the Gospel, God loves righteousness, God loves godly heritage, God loves Israel, God loves the souls he has created to be his sons and daughters. That's what God loves. Do you love what God loves? Then you love God! It is that simple.
Now here is a recent tribute to our golden heritage. You don't see rocking chairs on their porches, if they have porches at all. The tradition used to be a very strong one--and perhaps should be revived if possible, due to all the benefits to children that are involved. Ron Ginther has a new poem describing this great past tradition, inspired by the little rocking chair, which has been retired for the most part to fond memories or years ago to the attic in some old house or barn.

We have something very special. Today, July 27, 2010, my Uncle Joseph's Patriarchal Blessing turned up, after a year of being lost in the shuffle of papers at the website "office." The Lord has a time and a season for everything, so obviously this must be the time and season for it to come forth, for we have prayed much for the Lord to bring it to light. Here it is (and be blessed):
Joseph Rangen's Words of Blessing for the Stadem Family
"Philippians 4:6-7. Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything: tell God your needs and don't forget to thank Him for His answers. If you do this you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus."
Note by Rangen family to Joseph Rangen's words of blessing: "These are the verses Joe Rangen said to share when asked for a prayer or word of "blessing" for the Stadem family."
Were you blessed? I was! But also check out the "in honor of tributes" for Joseph Rangen and Estelle Rangen too we already have on hand on this website:

Porches were wonderful places, the old-fashioned kind, screened or not. They make a house look beautiful and inviting and friendly. They were places of protection, conversation (private or not) rest, food and refreshment, hospitality, fun and games, sleeping during hot, humid nights, and...the list goes on and on. Here is a fresh new poem about porches as an American invention that surpasses many others you can name for usefulness and increasing human welfare and happiness.
Directory to God's Little Acres by Daughter Estelle



Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through the snow.
There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.
"Did you know?" in "Uptown Hayti Coffee News":
Some animals, such as jackrabbits and mule deer, have built-in air conditioning--through their large, floppy ears. Their ears are full of blood vessels, and as their blood passes t hrough them, the heat radiates out, cooling the animal off.
When you have a group of frogs, it's called a "chorus." When it's toads that have formed a crowd, you have a "knot." [note: I once came upon a chorus of frogs in a pond in Israel, and they were all singing in a synchopated rhythm that was immediately hushed when they heard my feet approaching. It had been an enchanting experience, but how quickly it cut off! I waited and waited, but they wouldn't start up their wonderful chorusing again, but I will never forget that absolutely magical moment. I saw one of the frogs, but he wasn't anything big or impressive, so it wasn't their size but the shape of the pond and its Carnegie-like echoing chamber-like acoustics that the frogs in the pond used to full advantage to produce that most incredible frog-melody.--Ron Ginther].
"Quotable Quotes" in "Uptown DeSmet Coffee News":
"Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit."--Aristotle
Is Norwegian the language of heaven? That is a good possibility, as we can tell that many good Scandinavian customs were observed by Jesus and His Disciples--fishing, eating fish, selling fish, and smelling like fish! Then they lived by the water, built boats, spent most of their time in boats, were expert about the weather, knew sails and tackle, and also knew how to tell when the boat was sinking in a big bad storm on the Sea of Galilee.
By the way, they also knew when to call on the Lord for help, as they did on one occasion when they were about to see themselves dunked, and Christ awoke out of a nice nap at their pleadings, the Gospels tell us, and said, "Peace be still!" and the storm went dead calm in a moment. No wonder the utterly amazed disciples exclaimed that the Lord Jesus was someone beyond an ordinary Scandinavian seaman, as he could just speak to a storm and it would shut down immediately.
Miracles aside, is coffee the approved beverage in heaven? Another good question, which also assumes as its premise: all coffee drinkers go to heaven, but tea drinkers of course are problematic. We might have to get the theologians and seminarians to deal with the second question and its ramifications. They probably have the time to spend on such important questions. But history tells us busy, working people the handy facts about coffee in Scandinavian: At one time in Norway, certain beverage merchants in Bergen were upset when the new-fangled drink of coffee was introduced. Those selling traditional mead made from fermented honey, tea, Dragonade, and Viking power drinks felt threatened when coffee became more popular than all of its rivals combined. They even launched a campaign to persuade Haakon XVII to issue an order to close down all coffeehouses. Fortunately, public outcry (and the fervent prayers of his subjects who had tasted a good thing and knew it) forced the order to be retracted. Besides, the king's wife loved coffee and loathed tea, Dragonade, etc., and that may have had something to do with the king's coming out publicly in favor of coffee. Since then it has become a national pastime and a patriotic duty for Scandinavians to drink coffee, and even their sacred duty, some hold.








Did Alfred's godly, Bible-believing parents send him to this humble school of the Bible? Probably. But he probably had a desire to learn, which he showed all through his life in fact, as he was a man open to truth and the knowledge of the wide world--not content with a narrow experience and outlook on life that centered on just farming and a small town of Canton. A broad-minded man, but with a focus on the Narrow Gate of Salvation, he walked the straight and narrow path to the Kingdom of God, unwaveringly. His parents no doubt had a lot to do with that course he set, for they walked the same path themselves before him as his examples. But Alfred had to resolve to commit his heart and life to the task, lest he fall aside into worldly ways like so many of his generation did, something he knew and observed, as he was a keen observer of the worldly society around him. Alfred Stadem was always a man of high principles and firm resolve in God, obeying his commandments and seeking always to please God in all his ways and affairs of life. Starting off with this Bible School, it no doubt reinforced what he had already learned in faithful attendance in Sunday School at the Canton Lutheran church his family attended and where his father was custodian up to his early homegoing. Do we have parents today who would move their children in the same way to cultivate God and knowledge of the Scriptures early on as Alfred's parents did? God knows. But it is surveyed already, that the younger generation today is appallingly ignorant of the Bible and even the simplest facts and truths of the Gospel. One religion is as good as another, they are being led to believe in their schools and by their peers and also the media that influences them greatly along with entertainment and films and music. That is not true, however, for Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man comes to the Father but by Me." He meant what He said. He is the Truth, and there is none other truth that can save a human soul from sin and death and the Devil--he is the only way to God the Father and to life eternal in heaven. Alfred Stadem learned this very early on, indeed. This was constantly reinforced by all his training at church and in Sunday School and later on at the rural Bible School in the country barn. He also studied the Bible on his own. He taught Sunday School in years to come, and was Sunday School superintendent. he grew in the knowledge of the Lord, in other words, he did not stagnate or fall back on the knowledge of others, who may or may not have known the Lord personally. No, he had to increase his own knowledge, experience, and grasp of God and the things of God, which we can only access through prayer and the reading of the Scriptures and whatever God teaches us through guiding us through various experiences in life as he tests and corrects and instructs and chastens us--pruning the "vine" so it will grow and later produce fruit for the Kingdom of God, not just pretty blossoms that come and go without any fruit. Alfred Stadem produced real spiritual fruit, a whole tree of fruit, did he not? He was not a barren vine or a tree that produced merely glossy leaves. His tree continues to produce fruit today in many descendants who are right now carrying the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ, as Christ commanded his disciples to do, to the uttermost parts of the earth and to every tribe and nation too--if the Lord tarries. The Great Commission, it is called, was taken seriously by Alfred Stadem his entire life, and his devoted, born-again, godly wife upheld it too with all her might and spiritual wisdom, and Alfred has many descendants who take it seriously, and would even lay down their lives for it if necessary--though they already sacrifice comfort and convenience and the pleasures of a worldly life for the Cross of Christ now in their missionary endeavors and callings.
As a grandson, I thank God for Alfred's early training in the Bible and the inerrant Word of God, and for the Salvation which the Scriptures make known to us when the message of salvation is preached faithfully by Bible-based preachers and ministers, teachers, parents, and whoever else the Lord chooses to use.
I was not raised ignorant of Salvation, and when the time came I went to Christ and He saved me without fail. How about you? Perhaps today, this moment, is your time. If you are not sure yourself about your place in heaven, whether or not you have done enough good things to get there, you can make sure right now by going to Jesus in prayer and simply asking him into your heart as Savior and Lord and to forgive you of all your sins. No amount of good works or human merit will ever get you to heaven--only the free Gift of Grace will, which was earned by Christ's own blood shed for you on the Cross! That is all your saving requires, for salvation is the free gift of God, it is pure grace, not to be earned by our good works or merited by human goodness. This must be repeated, not often enough too, for people to grasp the truth of it--as we are all trained to think we must earn everything we want and value, whereas Salvation, the gift of a holy God, cannot ever be earned, it is priceless, and only Christ the Son of God could pay a price that would satisfy the Father and turn away his wrath from our sinning soul.
Alfred Stadem came to understand Christ's Grace later in life than some, but he did learn it, and was saved; some people live entire lives and never learn Grace, though they can sing "Amazing Grace" with everyone and seem to know what it means. Alfred Stadem came to learn by hard experience that he could not merit Grace through keeping his Baptismal Covenant, however hard he tried, however righteous he seemed to be in his own estimation when compared with his fellows in the Canton and later the Bryant community. When he finally came to an end of his own righteousness and standing on that for salvation, he accepted the Grace of Jesus Christ who died for him on the Cross making full payment for all his sins forever, yes, he accepted it whole-heartedly, unconditionally, and that transformed him from the inside out and made him a true child of God forever. What a blessed inheritance we have as his Stadem descendants! Our grandfather and great-grandfather Alfred Stadem was not just a godly or highly moral man (for there are plenty such, in every religion you can name), he was born again by the Spirit of God, according to the very same word of salvation Jesus spoke to the Sanhedrin leader, Nicodemus.
This great prairie was a kingdom of grass and wild flowers roamed by buffalo, coyotes, wolves, rabbits and deer and other animals. There was no Farm visible at all--it had to be started "by scratch," a mountain of "by scratch"! But after that initial phase was concluded, this was the way things looked in the earliest days, so you can see there was a lot of change and improvement, largely produced not by happenstance and "luck" but by hard work and much love and even some tears and laughter--not to mention, God's blessing, year after year, to bring things to fruition.





I know a man, sold-out, committed;
he practiced ALL he preached and said.
He didn't act this way, then that--
he wore just one Christian's hat.
A pilgrim aimed for the Promised Land,
you never found him slack in hand.
Determined, fruitfulness to seek,
His Goal, Christ alone, his flesh made weak.
The Cross and Gospel were his strength,
he lived for them his whole life length.
We'll miss his witness, Norskie humor too,
but just think of what he has in view:
Heaven's glory spreads out far,
and heaven's sky gained one more star.












1. "How Pearl Found Honey for the Family"
2. "Rooster in the Well"
3. "How Pearl Got Home in the Dark"
4. "How Pearl Stopped a Runaway Windmill"
5. "How God Provided Pearl Popcorn"
6. "How Pearl and Her Mama Made Ice Cream"
7. "How Little Pearl Got Rid of Rats on the Farm"
8. "How Pearl Got Minnows for Papa's Pool"
9. "How My Horse, King, Got the Wrong Message!"The true stories are:
"Giving is living," the angel said to me. "Go feed the hungry sweet charity's bread."
"And must I keep giving and giving again?" my selfish and querulous question ran.
"Oh, no," replied the angel, his eyes pierced me through.
"Just give until the Master stops giving to you."

--Contributed by Ronald Ginther, son of Pearl A. Ginther"

Foundation Principles:
1. to involve ALL Stadem descendants and friends and "honorary" members of the PVF fellowship who wish to take part;
2. To glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in everything, with the leading of the Holy Spirit in reality, not in lip service only;
3. To cultivate, restore, and share with the SD community, with the nation, with the world ultimately, the rich godly pioneer and Scandinavian heritage of this farm and the Stadem-Holbek family lines, immigrants to America in the 19th and 20th centuries (called the Second Wave of Stadems, as the First Wave came over in the 1790s or so, soon after the nation was declared independent of Britain);
4. To instill the values and beliefs of the Christian faith and the godly pioneering farm family on the Dakota prairie to the younger generation, for this is our future as a people of God and a nation and as families and individuals;
5. To provide a Scandinavian style barn venue and attractive, multi-function center either at the Farm homestead or nearby in the Bryant area, or possibly elsewhere, for the ministry and outreach of the Gospel of Jesus Christ;
6. to provide outreach to the physical, cultural, and spiritual needs of people both in the family and in the wider community and nation
WEBSITES FOR PLAIN VIEW FARM GOT STARTED:
As we have already stated in various places, the Praire Farm website on Angelfire, for one, it was my Grandpa Alfred Stadem's mid-life spiritual crisis that nearly cost him his marriage and his family's spiritual development that cost me my dad and uncle, two deaths that turned this strong Viking into a true lamb, a true child of God leaning only on the grace of Christ for salvation, not his own work's righteousness based on his keeping his Baptismal Covenant. We have his own words about these things, as well as Pearl Ginther his daughter's testimony recorded in detail. You can find both on the websites. Learning of the way God used two deaths (God did not cause them, he allowed and used them to save Grandpa), I joined with my younger brother to produce the record on-line for God's glory--for the story truly glorifies God and his marvelous working of grace in the life of Alfred Stadem and all he impacted with his life. We wanted this record to bless others, and it has blessed all who have been open in their hearts to receive it. Some family and some relatives have not proven open, and have missed the blessing, while influencing their own families not to accept the account too. They take it as our unfair criticism of our Grandfather, which it certainly is not, as it is the record of Grandpa, testified to by our beloved Grandmother Bergit in her own words given to Pearl her daughter, as well as by the testimony of their grown daughters Pearl Stadem Ginther and Cora Stadem Taylor, and also affirmed by Estelle Stadem Rangen and Bernice Stadem Schaefer and Myrtle Stadem Svanoe. We did not make any of it up, as we were but faithfully recording what our elders testified about Grandpa's crisis and how God turned it all to good. God is still turning it to good, over 50 years later. There is still strong opposition to the account, of course, among those who were youngest when these events took place and did not know what was going on with Grandpa. They would be blessed if they would hearken to the ample testimony of their own elder sisters, and Mama Bergit Stadem as well. When they do that, is anyone's guess! Until then, we will share the wonderful account to all who are open to listen.
But the third reason for the promoting PVF and the Heritage Center as well as the Plain View Farm's major narrative of Grandpa Stadem's redemption is that my own father, not to mention my uncle, lost his life. God allowed a crooked aircraft salesman to be the means. The aircraft was defective, taking an inordinate amount of oil and not running smoothly when being tested on the ground. The salesman knew the plane was a risky proposition, but pressed my father to take it up anyway, assuring him he had seen to the fixing of whatever ailed it. My dad took it up again on the strength of the seller's word and character and handshake--and a little more than 10 minutes later perished in a fiery crash along with his young brother-in-law Arthur Donald Stadem.
The plane salesman who did this to them was Mr. Cecil Shupe, owner/operator of an aircraft sales company in Sioux Falls. Since he was all about getting money, even from a dead man's estate and the living widow, he took lawyers to sue the widow immediately for the total price of the aircraft as well as his lawyers' fees, then left SD and moved, not giving the widow his forwarding address. But he inadvertently but providentially moved right to her hometown in Washington State and within a couple miles of her residence. While at a church camp, she heard Mr. Shupe's name, inquired of the lady who had named him, and found out she was her niece, and she was glad to give my mother his address. What a miracle that was! My mother was now able to go directly to the runaway Shupe and settle up, paying the full price for the plane and his lawyers rather than go to court and risk losing the case. This is Biblical, by the way, to do it this way. Though he took her check for a plane that he had no business selling in its poor condition, he subsequently was turned radically around in his life by the loving and forgiving treatment of him by the widow, my mother. He had left his wife and gone to Washington State to get away from his terrible guilt, but could not escape God's conviction, when Christ's love through the widow was shown to him despite his leading role in the death of two innocent men, one, my dad, with a large family of young children. We expect to see him in heaven!
When you look now below this writing at the various artifacts handed Pearl Ginther the widow after the crash, retrieved from her husband's partly burned wallet, please try not to view them as grisly items (for we are not to grieve as the world grieves, the Scriptures tell us, or view events with the unredeemed world's mindset)--they are actually glorious evidence of the workings of God's redemptive grace in the lives of Alfred Stadem (to deliver him from his own self-righteousness, his bitterness and judgmental spirit that had mastered him and threatened to destroy his marriage) and Mr. Cecil Shupe.
God worked in miraculous ways, not only to redeem many souls besides these two men's but those of hundreds of people across the State of South Dakota and the Midwest, for thousands heard about the tragic crash on the radio and read about it in the papers and thus were reminded that life could be cut short at any time--so that they had better settle up with the Lord now concerning their eternal destiny.
The double funeral was thronged with over 1,000 people, and had to be moved to the City Auditorium of Bryant, after the church proved too small. Gospel signs paid for by memorial gifts were also erected, and these were set alongside highways, and no doubt brought other souls to Christ for salvation and assurance of spending eternity with God. Many, many ministries were given funds from the money gifts and memorials. We shall only know in eternity how far reaching were their effects.
Do you get the picture now, friend? Some still resist, who pride themselves on being descendants of Alfred and Bergit Stadem, while Alfred and Bergit Stadem are in heaven strenuously approving of everything we have shared with you and thousands of others through these websites already. Pearl A. Ginther, matriarch of the line of Alfred and Bergit Stadem, also approves of every word and has told this account many times to sundry individuals in Washington her home state and SD and elsewhere she has traveled. She is now over 100 years old, and the events described on these websites are still yesterday's events, to her thinking. She glorifies God in her testimony, how God turned these dreadful losses all to good. She does not opine or sorrow--never! She could never give way to grief, knowing that God's hand was with her through it all and would be with her through her entire life, long as it has proved to be.
Now you know pretty much the reasons for this website and the others in the Plain View Heritage family. Now you also know why we pressed all these years for a Heritage Center to be built to be used to glorify God on Plain View Farm, not content to see the Farm used only 4 days a year for reunions while being neglected, silent and forlorn the entire rest of the year (with sometimes a visit or two in hunting season by a few individuals). We believed God intended the Farmstead for a wonderful ministry site, and it shall be a ministry site, for the propagation of the liberating, saving Gospel of Jesus Christ--if God still be Almighty, and He certainly is, though many today claim He isn't relevant to American society, doing it while in high government positions or in black robes of court judges. We strongly believe Jesus is not a hate crime against Tolerance and a politically correct philosophy of this Satan-ruled world. Jesus is exactly what He claimed to be, what He was right up to his death on the Cross as payment for our sins, and beyond that to His resurrection from the dead. We can celebrate Him as the only Son of God, the only Savior of sinful men that God has provided mankind. Jesus still is the God of the Bible and a Saving Lord to all of us, if we would only surrender to Him and confess our sin and be forgiven! To God be the glory!--Ronald Ginther


Ron Ginther and his mother and sisters are going ahead with a cookbook for Plain View Farm, tentatively titled, "The Flavor of Plain View Farm." It will feature Scandinavian dishes and foods and culture, and a farm setting too. We have "guess-timated" 135 recipes in the following sections, and will receive a book kit from Morris Press Cook Books of Nebraska. We have a sample copy of a Morris cook book to work with before the kit arrives. We will feature receipes from the Stadems. We have some already from Mama Bergit Stadem, Bernice, and Myrtle. We will need some from other family members if descendants will share them with us. We are asking them to, via this home page, and through the Samtaleren too. The cost will be paid by us, but we are looking to sell the 150 copies we have "guess-timated" we will order made, and the proceeds will go to the PVF Heritage Center fund and also to missions.
The categories, which will help you submit a recipe, are:
Appetizers and Beverages
Soups and Salads
Vegetables and Side Dishes (Potatoes, Beans and Rice dishes)
Main Dishes (Beef, Pork, Poultry, Fish, and Meatless)
Bread and Rolls
Desserts (Bars, Pies, Cakes, Misc.)
Cookies and Candy
This and That
This is not just to raise money for PVF and missions, worthy as that is, but to get young people cooking again, even Scandinavian again. We certainly need, for health sake, to cook full course meals again--not just use the microwave to pop in ready-made pizzas or TV meals and call that a wholesome meal. Our Scandinavian heritage is rich and deep, and cooking is a large part of it, so if we let this part go, we will truly let a treasure be lost to the coming generation. But we can make this effort now to bring it back and make it a part of our lives and the next generation's. Is that worth-while doing? You decide. We here already think it is well worth it.
"Dear Cousin Ronnie,
I can see you are eagerly awaiting a response from us. Well, I enjoyed a chuckle after reading your letter and a radiant warmth from your thoughtful donation. I am believing God for you to multiply your seed 1000 times... [that would be $100,000, which we have asked for the Heritage Center to provide the basics of it]. We will continue to work on the house and dream big things for the farm, the barn and all its outbuildings, and after the Lord has restored and rebuilt, until the last brick is in place and the last nail drive in then will the glory of the Lord fill the house and there will be rejoicing that can be heard all the way to Bryant. Yes, I see the vision for the Heritage farm. A place of meeting, remembrance but more than that a place of blessing, and a harvest of souls. I love you Ronnie, you are a spokesman for what is good."
[My thanks and gratitude go to Cousin Naomi! With Christ's help, guidance, and strength, I truly hope from the bottom of my heart to be someday that "spokesman or what is good."--Ed.].


We know what sort of nation our forefathers founded and intended for us to live in, though an entirely different type of nation is being propounded by secularists and humanists in high position and in colleges and schools and the media. We must not be fooled by this "other America" of "hope and change" they claim is so grand. As an experiment, it cannot suceed. We have a proven success, built on the truths of the Bible--so why give it up for something that a radical few have endorsed, a society without morals, without the Ten Commandments, without church, without God, without the marriage of one man with one woman--which is a veritable jungle, where anything goes and where people act any way they choose, no matter how it affects others? Where children are totally defenceless, since no life is protected in the womb, and children can be disposed of in the womb from mere convenience to the pregnant woman or girl? Where women cannot count on being married and treated lovingly with respect, but only used in a live-in "relationship" built on lust and convenience that can only be temporary until someone more attractive in the eyes of the "partner" in this "civil union" comes along? Where people are taught they are animals, not made in in the image of God for a purpose God created specially for each individual, man, woman, and child? Where there is no ultimate meaning to human life, as everything is considered an accident, or a happening of random forces?
Where man is just another animal species, without any claim to a Loving God as His Creator and Guide and Savior and Fulfilment? Where there is no Savior and Lord Jesus Christ--only man and the tyrants who rule society by force and decide for the masses how they are to live and what they will possess and where they will work and what kind of car they will drive or not drive and what health insurance they will be able to get, and when and how much of they get of it too? Where life is meaningless, and where suicide is the viable alternative offered everyone in "assisted suicide," so as to get rid of elderly people and offer more services to younger people instead?
No one in his right mind would want to live in such a society, yet this is the one being promoted today by the government, and the one based on the Biblical standards and divine laws, the one bequeathed us by Judaeo-Christian civilization and the Bible, is being torn away and destroyed as something worthless, hateful, and intolerant, bigoted, racist and backward. No one could live in such a society that is being promoted as the ideal paradise for man the Darwinians' so-called higher primates. We know how higher primates get along in the jungle--they murder each other, they indulge in immoral behavior without any sanction of law, they share mates with multiple partners, they cannot create civilization, or speak or write a book or build a house or a car or an airplane or a church, or worship God or do anything beyond the animal level except eat, sleep, and reproduce until they die and go back into the ground--is that what we must accept as our way of life too? Never! It will not work. God did not design us as animals to live as animals do--and for the most part it suits even these fallen species. No, HUMAN society will not survive animalistic chaos and anarchy and savage violence unleased when all laws of God are suspended and banned and overturned by radical judges on the courts and legislatures turned totally secularist and anti-Christian.
Darkness is coming for this nation founded by the godly Pilgrims and Puritans and the godly, Christian (not Deist in any real sense of the definition of Deism) Framers of the Constitution, if this society ever supersedes the Biblical, Constitutional society that we inherited in America from our forefathers. But we can turn that coming catastrophe around now, through prayer, sincere repentance, and surrender to the loving, forgiving God of the Bible.


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