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This week across Iowa, harvest is in full swing. After a long rainy September, our farmers can finally get into the fields. If you have been in Iowa a few years, you know what is involved. People are working long hours using large equipment. Our roads are having entirely different traffic patterns. Even the deer are more erratic as corn fields are leveled. Despite all of the September rain, there is even a risk of devastating field fires.
I grew up on a family farm in Greene County. As soon as I could walk, my parents and big brothers were telling me to stay away from the bull and to never go near a PTO (power take off shaft). Many of the families I grew up with had their own cautionary tales of someone who was injured one sad day when exhaustion made concentration hard.
My 4-H club made hand drawn farm safety posters to be displayed in the main street windows. My oldest brother went on to teach Vocational Agriculture to high school students, so the conversations continued around respecting the harvest season and keeping farmers safe.
I went to college in Missouri and then lived in St. Louis for several years.
Then I came back to Iowa to serve my first pastorate in the early 1990s. My deep immersion into life with hardworking farmers went full circle when I was called for my first funeral that summer. A young farmer was emptying a grain bin to prepare for fall harvest. A crust on top of the stored grain broke, revealing a huge air pocket. His family and the volunteer rescue squad did all that they could, but were not able to save him. Understandably, the whole town was heartbroken.
The people who harvest our crops and work in meat processing face risks that we don't like to think about. It is good for us to show gratitude and honor to those who cultivate our crops. Before supermarkets and delivery apps, people were dependent on whatever could be grown locally to feed their children and livestock.
In the UK Harvest Sunday was 10/4/26. In Canada Thanksgiving was observed on 10/12/26. That makes sense when you think about Canada being so much further north, the growing season is shorter. It also falls on a Monday, and it is early enough that Christmas shopping is not a part of the weekend observation.
Many cultures have had some versions of the Harvest Festival. We even find those stories in the Bible. Deuteronomy 26: verses 1-4 are instructions about taking some of the first of the harvest and presenting it to the priest. In verses 5-10, the farmer remembers what has brought them to this day.
Depending on your Bible translation, the farmer is described as a sojourner, foreigner, alien or pilgrim who left affliction in Egypt seeking a better life. The story wraps up at verse 11 like this: "Then you, together with the tribes and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house".
This fall let us lean into gratitude. Grateful for the folk who came to this land in the generations before us, who made sacrifices we will never fully understand.
For the people now who work long hours to provide us with food, shelter, education, utilities, transportation and healthcare. Thank the workers you encounter in coming weeks.
Be patient and be safe if you are following slow moving farm equipment.
The Bible tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from God.
"Lord, we thank you for all the good gifts you give to us. We thank you for your love and your patience with us. Amen"
Rev. Doresa Collogan has been the minister at Faith United Methodist Church for the past five years. She is currently the Chairman of the Webster City Ministerial Association. Each month, one of the members of the Ministerial Association provides the column for the Daily Freeman Journal.