Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

     Well here we are again friends, another week has come and gone and we join each other with a cup of coffee and a few moments to reflect on life around us.

     It’s been a somewhat sad week. Deaths are hard to take and seem to always come in three’s. This past week I’ve lost three dear people who made a definite impact on my life. Tom Orewiler was a funny young man who I remember well from school and church. A talented singer and all around prankster, he was taken too soon from us.

     Joining him at Peter’s book was Gene Daugherty. I could probably write volumes upon volumes about Gene. It was because of him that I wanted to be an auctioneer, and to wear a white cowboy hat cocked to one side. I always enjoyed how Gene would be more than happy to let you run the bid up against your wife when you were standing next to each other. He was a class act, and a good man.

     Finally, my friend Richard Harris passed away earlier this week. Richard lived simply and was best known as “The bait guy”. He lived life smiling, and always had a good joke or just a tip on where to catch fish for me, every time I walked into his bait shop. He cared about the community he lived in, and other people, probably a lot more than any of us truly realized. I will miss him, but imagine he is having a grand time sitting on a bank with a fishing pole in his hands.

     It has also been a happy week. The Dexter Methodists celebrated their 150^th Anniversary this past weekend. Months of planning and work lead up to an amazing worship service where the guest speaker surprised many of us. It isn’t often when Van Harden from WHO comes to give your sermon. He reminisced about his time in Redfield and Dexter, telling a story about going to Adkins Cash Foods and also one time into the Weesner Pharmacy to get what must have been a mustard plaster for a bad cold. His sermon talked about the purple wedge in ones life when they find Christ. A great message.

     I’m not going to lie here, and I’m sure this won’t make me any friends, but our church ladies who work so hard to put together meals are far and above better than the catered meal we had. Oh sure, it is nice to sit back from time to time and let others do the work, but I sure will be glad to get back to the regular good eating that I’ve come to expect.

     The afternoon service was capped off with the congregation and guests getting a chance to share with each other stories of those days. Rev. Bob and Helen Farr, who were staples in the Dexter community for most of my growing years were back and had members laughing and crying as they shared their time here. What I remember the most from Bob’s comments was something when I reflect back on the loss this past week, means the most to me. He said that his hope was in that all his time here as our pastor, that he always hoped that we learned one thing from him. That God loved each of us, very much.

    It’s true, Bob was right, and God does…we need to remind ourselves and each other that every once in a while don’t we?

See you next week….remember, we’re all in this together.