Farming is dangerous but God is good!

I need to testify tonight, and it may be a long read but I post a lot about our way of life, and for the most part, it’s good and I mean everything I say. We love it. But, I rarely talk about the challenges of farming, the low commodity prices, the incredibly long hours, and the dangers involved in bringing crops to market. This may surprise you, but farming is one of the most dangerous occupations there is, ranking higher than many jobs you may think of as riskier, like mining, rig work, and security. As a matter of record, the fatality rate for farm workers is higher than these other other industries, which leads me into my story.

The corn field caught fire behind the combine this afternoon. There were some incredibly intense moments as we tried to contain it and keep the flames from reaching the standing grain. It was scary and we’re still processing all the things that kept it from being really bad. We’re listing them, recounting them, and adding to the record as more comes to mind— all to give our Savior God well deserved praise. We’re grateful for His Providential hand and we want to give Him all the glory, because we see Him in every detail.

I was on the combine with Phil mid afternoon. I had sent lunch with Phil this morning. Normally, I wouldn’t have been with him but he is working such late hours that I decided to take him a cup of pick-me-up coffee. He tried to talk me out of it on the phone because it was “too much trouble” for me but I insisted.

Phil had just unloaded on the grain cart Weston, our 11 year old grandson, was driving. We waved him off and headed down the field. Moments later, Weston called on the walkie. I heard him saying something but all I could make out was the word “fire”. Phil has a hard time hearing over the combine (all the years of heavy machinery have taken their toll). If I hadn’t been there to tell him Weston said something about a fire, it may have been another twenty or thirty seconds before Phil stopped and called Weston back. As it turns out, that would’ve been time we couldn’t have spared. And here’s a big one. If Weston hadn’t been paying attention and alerted us from the grain cart, we definitely wouldn’t have known about the fire until it was too late.

We jumped from the combine and Phil went into warrior gear, stomping the edges of the fire, trying to contain it. At one point I watched him fall in the fire, and get back up to keep stomping, while I was hollering, “What can I do!!?” Phil yelled for me to call Phillip, and take Weston to the shop to get the tractor and disc.

I was running for my car, parked a good ways away at the edge of the field, when I saw one of our truck drivers, Mo Taylor, running towards me with a fire extinguisher. He had made it back to the field and saw the flames. Mo said later that he thought I was running through the fire, but I wasn’t. It was his angle. Mo emptied this sole extinguisher quickly. There was a brief moment when we thought it was under control, but then the wind started swirling and it blew up again. I need to note here that the wind was swirling away from our standing grain. Thank you, Lord. Phil and Weston ran to move their machinery further from the fire as Mo kept stomping at the edges.

At some point during these early chaotic moments, I reached Phillip by phone. He was working up the road a piece. He immediately got in high gear to go for the tractor himself. There’s a point in the video where you can see him, minutes later, flying past us on the four-wheeler, headed to the shop. There’s so much more glory I need to stop and testify to here.

For starters, we were harvesting only a mile or so from the shop instead of far from it like we were last week when getting the tractor in time would’ve been impossible. Also, the disc was already hooked up to the tractor— not a normal circumstance— and Phillip had just yesterday taken that particular piece of equipment in for repairs, or it would’ve been out of commission and unavailable.

I was also able to get Carey on the phone. She had two fire extinguishers at their house and met us with them as quickly as she could. Phil and Mo emptied both of them while we all waited for Phillip to arrive with the tractor. In case you’re reading and you don’t know this, turning the ground over is the best way to extinguish the flames. Carey had been leaving her house to run an errand at the feed store when she decided she’d just stop and unload the dishwasher instead— or she wouldn’t have been at home. What’s more, yesterday, Carey had been walking when she saw Phillip doing a “controlled” burn on one of our harvested fields. She’d felt compelled to stop and pray for our men’s safety! God goes before us.

The flames ended up being less than one row from the uncut corn before it was all over— with the exception of a single stalk that caught fire, but Phil and Phillip saw it and were able to stomp it out before it traveled.

Still with me? I’m as surprised as you are that I pulled my phone up and caught some video here and there, but I’m glad I did. Despite everything you’ve read, the single “injury” to the corn, the men, or the machines is the hair singed on my husband’s arms. The Tomlinson family doesn’t count a single thing I’ve recounted here as a coincidence. We see our Father’s hand. We give Him all the glory, and we invite you to join us.

Hugs, Shellie

P.S. If things had turned out differently, we would still have reason to praise because God would still be worthy, and He would be providing for His own, whether that be comfort for our grieving hearts or provision for our bellies, because He is faithful. It’s who He is and He can’t be anything less.