RURAL BRYANT, SD, PRESENTS:
Reply: We would probably live on the farm eight months of the year, and go south for four months.
2. May I plan with you to develope a vegie garden next year?
Reply: I would like to have some vegetables for harvest at reunion and vacation time but the distance from the farm makes it hard to plant at the right time, also weeds might be a problem.
3. Does Ruthie bring out or suppress the "leader" in you?
Reply: I doubt if I have any "leader" in me.
4. What is the best part about being married?
Reply: Not being alone.
5. How can you put up with all these relatives?
Reply: Very easily.
6. Do you do most of the planning during the nite?
Reply: If I get a lot done during the day I sometimes find myself planning at night.
7. How do you accept such a lively bunch at PVFarm?
Reply: No problem. I am glad everyone likes to come "home".
8. What's your best way to relax?
Reply: By myself, watching television or working in the trees.
9. What's been of great satisfaction in your life?
Reply: Having Christ as Savior.
10. When are you going to move to the farm? And then invite us to visit???
Reply: Hard to say. Probably 1991-1994. You don't need an invitation to visit. The farm is to be thought of as home like it was in past years.
11. What is your next project on the farm?
Reply: BIG PROJECT: Water and sewer. SMALL PROJECTS: Clean up trees and old fence.
12. Are you a morning rooster or a night owl?
Reply: Mostly night owl but when I was working on my houses I would sometimes get up early, go to town to work on them, then come home to put on my uniform and go to work at nine.
13. Are you sorry you bought P.V.F.?
Reply: No!
14. What do you ask kids coming across the border?
Reply: If I know them I just ask where they are going, for how long, and what they have with them. If I don't know them there can be a lot of questions, record checks, etc., etc.
15. Does it ever bug you to have so many people on the place?
Reply: No!
16. What's a typical day like for you, working day, and "off day"?
Reply: WORKING DAY: Either 6, 7, or 13 hours. Go to work at either 9 a.m. or 3 p.m. Walk a short distance to work. Traffic can be light or very heavy. Possibly visiting at the Good Samaritan Home in Mohall. Thursday off means spending the day in Minot shopping, eating, going to rummage sales, and various other things. I have every other Sunday and Thursday off.
17. What do you like best about Ruthie?
Reply: Good cook; very clean about herself, food, and house; ETC., ETC., ETC.
18. What are your best characteristics?
Reply: Don't have any.
19. Tell us a little about your family, how many...where do they live...are you all close to each other in "feelings"? How often do you see them?
Reply: One brother, Bob, on Midway Island. Three nephews, six aunts, three uncles, fourteen cousins, and one "sister in law". The largest percentage live in N.E. North Dakota. "Feelings"? Most of us are close but not expressive.
20. How did you meet Ruthie and tell about when you two fell in love?
Reply: Get her to tell the story. She had told it quite a few times.
Ruth's Account of the Matchmaking: Tom and I met in Sioux Falls, where I was working at Augustana Lutheran Church. One night I attended the Presbyterian Church in east Sioux Falls, upon invitation, where Pastor (Missionary) Earl Gulbranson of Sisseton was preaching. Pastor Elmer King wsas the pastor at East Side Presbyterian Church. After church, the first evening, Mrs. King invited me over to the parsonage, so I gladly went. With my hand on the door latch, ready to go home after a lovely visit and lunch, I asked, "Have either of you pastors ever heard of the Christian Computers Match-making Service"? They chimed in "No," but Rev. Gulbranson said, "Why don't we all join hands and pray?" The 5 of us (that included their lovely wives) stood near the front door, forming a circle, holding hands while Rev. Gulbranson prayed. All I can remember of the beautiful prayer of faith is "Lord, find Ruth a Christian husband and do it real soon".
The 2nd evening after church service Mrs. Gulbranson said, "The Kings want you to come over tonight for coffee"! I replied very emphatically, "I was just over there last night". Since she insisted, I went. During the course of the evening, Rev. King, sitting back in his chair said, "Ruth, how would you like to meet a Christian man from way up in N.D. His name is Tom Harrington. He was an elder in my church (being Presbyterian), at Langdon, and I'm quite sure he isn't married". I said, "Oh, that would be fine, but I imagine he's married". (I couldn't act too anxious--ha). Rev. King said, "Last night when Rev. Gulbranson prayed, Tom Harrington came to mind." (Incidentally, when Rev. King left Langdon, Tom had told him to look for a Christian wife for him). Ha!
I went home on Cloud 9. Since Rev. King said he'd write to Tom, I patiently waited to hear the result [that is a bald lie, Aunt Ruth, you were on pins and needles the whole time, admit it!--Ed.]. In a few days the phone rings and Rev. King said, "I received a letter from Tom and he wants to meet you". [At that point, you dropped the phone on your foot, for you had already pulled it from the wall, screws and all with plaster attached!--Ed.]. This we did, at Rev. King's home (a couple weeks later). When Tom took me home, I knew there was definitely something different about this gie [Norwegian spelling of "guy">--Ed.] that I liked more than any other dated. In 4 months I received my diamond and 3 months later we were married by bro. Pastor LeRoy Stadem at DeSmet, accompanied by my boss, Rev. Raymond Holm of Augustana Lutheran, Sioux Falls who gave a Christ-centered talk.
Prov. 3: 5-6 became a real reality to us. It says, "TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL THINE HEART AND LEAN NOT ON THINE OWN UNDERSTANDING. V. 6 IN ALL THY WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM AND HE SHALL DIRECT THY PATHS.
21. What would you really like help on, next year, when we all come, that would make you feel good, knowing you got a big job accomplished?
Reply: Three jobs I am hoping to complete this year are--cleaning up the west end of the grove, cleaning out the basement, and cleaning out the south bedroom closet upstairs. Idon't want anyone to feel they have to work. Just enjoy!
22. Finish this sentence..."Next year, at the reunion, it may help things to work better, if everyone would...
Reply: Get organized with the head cook to see if they could be of assistance.
23. Why don't we run the nice window air conditioner that you have in the dining room, in the window? Can we help with the electricity, or bills?
Reply: Ruth does not like the cold air, you will have to talk to her. Don't worry about electricity or bills!
He and Ruth also brought in good furniture (bought or from his mother Lilian's house which he inherited) to restock the house with better items than were there or had worn completely out, repairing he infrastructure (electric and sewer, water, etc.).
He and Ruth intended to retire there, but Tom, passing at 63, never got the chance. Ruth his beloved inherited the property, but understandably did not want to live an isolated life there alone as a widow--so she moved from Sherwood, ND to Sioux Falls and that was her last residence on this earth. The Farm she kept open for Reunions, in the tradition, thanks primarily to Bernice Schaefer, that had started years before Tom came on the scene and which he heartily subscribed to. When she passed to Glory, the Farmstead, according to her legal Will, went to brother Leroy and his grown family, and they took it up as a joint caretaking responsibility and ran it primarily for a venue for the yearly reunion.
This contined for a number of years until God decided to bring forth a Vision that he had first hinted at in the mind and soul of Alfred and Bergit's longtime friend and Christian colleague, Art Henrickson, the Stadem family attorney from Watertown.
We have Art Henrickson's comments recorded in his letter addressed and sent to the Stadem Descended Families, We know too that his prayerful suggestion was not followed up by the immediate family of Alfred and Bergit, as they all had developing lives and ministries elsewhere than Bryant, SD, to attend to, along with families to raise to maturity.
There is a divine time and a purpose for everything. Ecclesiastes tells us so. Now, 2014, we see it is time in God's plan to call a holy convocation on Plain View Farm for the express purpose Art Henrickson set forth in his seminal letter to the Families & Friends of Alfred and Bergit Stadem. God Almighty indeed has something to say to us all, to heed and obey, or choose not to heed and obey, with consequences for either choice, of course. It is as if we are all standing on Mt. Carmel, the divided, compromised, vacillating people of God, with Elijah the Prophet confronting the priests of Baal and King Ahab and Queen Jezebel! Please read that account. You will see that we, the Stadem Descendants, are exactly in the same valley of decision today.
As for Memorials to God's Glory, Tom did everything necessary to establish the venue for one on Plain View Farm. It is now up to us to follow in his footsteps and the footsteps of Alfred and Bergit, our grandparens and parents, and even our ancestors from Norway, Sjur and Oline, and not to mention, the Holbek line ancestors as well.
The following piece can be accessed on another page, but it is good to append it here as it ties right in prefectly:
From the Faith Chapter, Chapter 11 of Hebrews, we read:
"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."
Founder of the Reformation Church, Martin Luther was correct and right that Indulgences in the old Catholic system--by which paying for dead loved one's salvations ennabled those souls to spend less time in purgatorial torments that absolved them of their remaining sins and enter heaven sooner--was utterly wrong and wholly unscriptural.
Such indulgences did no good whatsoever, except maybe relieve some of the the worry and fear of survivors about their loved ones suffering millions of years perhaps in Purgatory, which does not exist, scripturally, but which they were taught existed by untrained and even illiterate priests who did not even know the Bible or have the Bible in their possession.
It is true the Devil creates nothing new, but can only counterfeit God's good things. So it is that he counterfeited the very means by which we can bless our loved ones after they have passed into heaven (not Purgatory) by the grace alone of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for them, which they had gained while alive by exercising faith in Jesus and choosing him to live in their hearts as Lord and Savior.
God repeatedly commanded His people to set up memorials (whether stones, or shrines, or altars with sacrifices on them) so that the coming generation would know the great things that God had done in the past for them (and by inference, would continue faithfully to do in the future provided they the younger generation would keep the faith of their fathers alive in their own lives and conduct).
We cannot read the Old Testament for many pages without encountering the numerous times God commanded these memorials, and the people obeyed, yet they did not continue telling about them, and the younger generations evenually knew nothing and then abandoned God and turned heathen, to suffer the terrible consequences God through his direct words and through Moses and Joshua his prophets warned them about from the very time they left Egypt under Moses's leadership.
Must we follow that woeful example of the Israelites? Certainly, not! Then why are we following them? We have no excuse whatsoever now, with the scriptures giving us such examples to avoid and godly examples to follow instead!
Here following are two godly examples for us to follow.
Creating memorials is always a godly and necessary thing to the people of God, Jewish or Gentile.
Hebrews 11:21-22: "By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on his staff. By faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel [from Egypt], and gave instruction concerning his bones."
These blessings did not end with the Patriarchs, nor did they end with their sons and children, but they continued on, as we know from the Bible history, to the later generations, extending thousands of years, and Israel was blessed so much it grew to become the greatest nation on earth under David and Solomon.
But whenever the Jewish people turned forgetful of God and turned to heathen gods, they lost all that greatness and became enslaved, beaten and oppressed by their many enemies.
But that was their bad choice, not God's, for them. If they had only heeded their memorials, heeded the Word of God they had written down for them, heeded the calls of the prophets, they could have been spared all those tribulations and continued to enjoy God's great blessings, first pronounced by their patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and confirmed by God Almighty himself in holy covenant with the Patriarchs.
Doesn't this give us a good idea how vital and safeguarding Memorials are, and what a great purpose they can serve to keep us faithful to God, and grateful to Him?
Gerald Rowlands, writing in Tough Love Newsletter, in his article "Speak Tenderly to Jerusalem," states: "The promises God made were to find fulfillment in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and also the Gentiles whom God would save, that His ultimate redemptive people might be 'not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles' (Rom. 9:24). "For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God; The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself above all people that are on the face of the earth" (Deut. 7:6).
That means the Memorials are for us Gentiles, just as they were for Jewish believers in God-- no difference! They can do for us Gentiles what they were designed to do for the Jews-- keep us on track with God Almighty!
Jesus our Lord and Savior himself spoke about memorials in the most positive way. As we read of the incident in the New Testament, Jesus had gone to a dinner at the house of Simon the Leper. Nobody washed his feet or gave him a salutary kiss (which was customary to be done for honored guests in that day). But a woman came in that the Pharisees present deeply despised, recognizing her as a "sinner." Though not welcome to the others, Jesus allowed her to anoint his feet with the perfume from the alabaster box she brought. After she did that, she wiped his feet with her long hair. The perfume was so expensive the whole house was filled with the wonderful fragrance. The disciples rebuked the woman for "wasting" such costly perfume on Jesus' feet, and Jesus said, "Let her alone. What she did was anoint me for my burial, and this will be a memorial to her, wherever the Gospel is preached." She had freely received, and she freely gave. The ointment was worth at least the salary of a workman's wages for an entire year. Her memorial is a lasting one, known to this very day, and will be known to all eternity as well. She followed directly from the Patriarchs in what she did for Christ, whom they revered and worshipped as the promised Seed, the Messiah to come.
This shows both men and women of God establish memorials, it is not just for men. How about you women of the Stadem Descendants? What memorials are you establishing? And the men--what memorials are you establishing for your families and the Relationship? We are hearers of the word, but are we become non-doers. Faith is action, faith is godly works, faith is not fruitless.
People of faith are grateful, good givers, it has always been so, and it still is. People who have received much from God, will give much.
Memorials can be given with joy and gratitude toward the Heritage Center, knowing that it is of God, from God, and will produce much spiritual fruit for His kingdom.
Loved ones in heaven, who are memorialized by us on earth, WILL BE BLESSED too. They will hear of it, they will know of it, they will be greatly blessed, when they see the fruits become visible even in heaven.
Those who give gratefully as children of God in memoriam of their loved ones who have passed or in honor of them that are still with us, will be blessed in turn by God.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, then Joseph following did not bless their present survivors only, but all successive generations of their descendants, and New Testament scripture says that Abraham is the father of all who believe in the Lord Jesus, whether Jew or Gentle, so we are all children of Abraham, his blessed descendants, forever and ever.
Do you want to share in this blessing of Abraham and the Lord? Accept Jesus in your heart now, ask his forgiveness of all your sins by grace, on the basis of his shed blood, shed for you by His dying on the Cross, and you become a child of Abraham, by faith, receiving all the promises connected with Father Abraham.
A grateful receiver is a generous giver. Here is a way to express your thankfulness to God for his grace and salvation, and his gift of life eternal in Heaven with Him and all the saints of God--the Heritage Center on Plain View Farm.
Not one memorial will be wasted, not if God has anything to say about it it! It will have an eternal consequence, and its fruit will be visible, both now and in heaven. Know that God will mark it down with a golden pen on a tablet of gold, and your loved ones will receive the blessing along with yourself.
That is truly something to rejoice in! God is truly such a GO0D God. The Lord God commanded memorials, not for His sake, but for ours.
WE NEEDED THEM. God never forgets, but we frail human beings and sheep of His flock are always tending to forget God's mighty deeds and his innumerable acts of goodness toward us.
That congenital forgetfulness leads to dire consequences eventually for us. So memorials are chiefly for our sake and the honor of God's Holy Name in the midst of His people, and he instituted them for that very reason and purpose.
So, Brethren, Friends of this family and God, all Descendants by faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob whether Jew or Gentile, let us offer up our gifts for His work with grateful hearts, full of joy! When we do that, we will be truly blessed, now and forever.
This is so, because the Holy Scriptures promise affirm this truth from the Bible, cover to cover.
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