Sunday Evening Bits and Bytes

It's either the end of a week or the end of the beginning of a week. I've been out and preached again in Chapman, so it feels like the end, rather than the beginning of the week. The following is a compendium of reports and observations.

Flood reports
The trip home from Chapman led us through Salina by the old road, through much of Dickinson County. New Cambria is up and unflooded, but many of the fields along the way are still waterlogged, if not downright flooded. This is going to be a banner year for some farmers and a disaster for others. It certainly seems that the next two weeks of drying will make a major difference in crop conditions. Of course, that's pure speculation. I have no actual idea whether or not the next two weeks are crucial to crop conditions. It just sounds good.

But what do I know? I'm a city boy.

So are the folks who are commenting on India's shift from an agricultural to an industrial/technological/pharmaceutical economy. "How the World Works" on Salon.com, observed about India:

"The rich, industrial nations that have contributed the lion's share of greenhouse gas emissions are also, by virtue of their advanced, non-agriculturally dependent economies, the most well-positioned to adapt to climate change. While those who did the least, and are still largely agriculturally-based, stand to get hammered by adverse weather disruptions. And that poses a paradox: does it make sense to help the developing world cope with climate change by encouraging the kind of economic development that by its very industrial nature generates even more greenhouse gases?"
"How the World Works"

Perhaps the writer was joking. But it seems to me that we all need to eat, and the coming climate change is going to affect food supply for everyone, but the poorest nations will be hit the hardest.

Doris Swenson
We received a call from Maridene Lundstrom that Doris Swenson, wife of Pastor Vernon Swenson, has passed away today. Blessed be her memory.

I did not know this Doris Swenson, but I've come to know and admire Vernon Swenson as a man of great integrity and Pastoral wisdom. I now have five volumes of his in my library, including Brother Timothy's Practice of the Presence of God. He is much in my mind tonight and much in my prayers.