A Thank You For My Sweet Pastor!

 

Our Pastor Tom is the sweetest man in the world!

Pastor Tom grew up on a farm here in Michigan, where his family raised sheep and dairy cows, along with crops. He has told us so many wonderful stories about farm life over the years. And seriously, how cool is it to have a pastor who shepherds the flock but has also LITERALLY shepherded flocks of sheep, too?

He collects a lot of really awesome vintage farm memorabilia, and for many years he had a small toy riding John Deere in his office. 

I told him how I had one as a child, too! But one day, when I was an adult, my Dad decided to clean out the garage and barn and he put that old riding tractor to the curb, where a woman driving by quickly snagged it, exclaiming "I found an antique!"

Ugh! I wanted that tractor!

Pastor heard my story and told me "I have one that I will bring over to you one day!"

And true to his word, that sweet man came by a few weeks ago with this beauty!

A tractor AND a trailer! Eeek! I love it so much!

He told me I could restore it, but I love it just as it is, rusty patina and all. He said now that he's retired, his wife is happy to see him getting rid of things in the barn. I feel so blessed to have this special gift to remember him by!

For now, I have this beauty in my garden, hauling some begonias.

The sentiment in this card really says it all.

I finally had a chance to play with this farm scene background from Hello Bluebird! I thought it worked perfectly with this farm girl from My Favorite Things. I don't have a tractor stamp, but I thought this wagon colored in John Deere's green and yellow would work just as well.

I decided to leave the background uncolored, and I think it made the girl and wagon stand out a bit more.

{Today's Brew: Farm Background stamp (Hello Bluebird), MFT stamps, MFT banner dies, Birdie Brown sentiment, MFT sentiment, COPIC markers}

Blessings on your day, café friends!