A Burial
10/15/06 - Lord's Day - Before Singing time. Yesterday was one of the more hectic Sabbaths. We received about 1/4 of an inch of rain, and more is expected today and tomorrow. We had also recieved 1 full inch of rain on Tuesday, so we are very happy about that.
I have been working with Pita, training her to respond to voice commands. She is doing well, though she is still learning. The last few days, since we have been working up in the front pasture, I have walked her up there to let her grace in the tall grass.
Ranchfest is effectively over, so we hope to begin to get back to "normal" pretty soon. The last of our out of town guests left yesterday. It will certainly be a Ranchfest to remember.
On Friday we figured we were ready to do the burial for Doug. Sarah had decided that it would be Doug's preference to be buried on the property, so we sat down and figured out where to put a community burial site on the land. We picked a nice copse of trees (oaks and mesquite) towards the front of the property. It is a beautiful spot. As I looked it over early on Friday morning, I couldn't believe that only 5 days earlier Doug, Sarah and I had driven right past this spot to go look at their land. We did a tour of the whole front pasture and looked at the acres they had chosen for their homestead. Doug was very excited about getting started and beginning on the Agrarian life. We discussed where to put a tank (small pond) on his land, and where they might put a house site. Within the week, I was standing only a few hundred yards away trying to figure out where to bury him. Anyway, we picked out a nice spot and David went to go rent an excavator from Coleman. When David arrived with the excavator, the guys began chopping down some mesquite trees and preparing the area that would become the cemetary.
Well... God's sovereignty is an interesting thing. Before we dug the first inch of ground, David showed up and told us that he had just received a call from the equipment rental company. The excavator had been reserved by another man, and the clerk had wrongly allowed David to take it. We were losing the machine. We had already checked and there was no other excavator or backhoe available. We had to get Doug buried that day, and it looked like we would be digging the grave by hand. David left to take the excavator back; Bill and Mark left to go to Fredericksburg to pick up Doug's casket, and Mihai and I started digging. It was 11 a.m. I suppose God knows that we want to live our lives like our Agrarian forefathers, and I suppose he wanted to give us a taste of it. The ground was rock hard, and likely had not been broken up for decades. When David rejoined us we had to take turns because only one man could fit in the hole at a time. Three hours into the job, we were about 3 feet down. The next foot took 4 hours. The fellas arrived with Doug's casket at around 6:30 and helped us dig for the last 4 hours or so. Eventually we were chiseling our way through solid bedrock, hewing the grave out of stone like in the old days; and all of this by flashlight and truck headlights. We finally reached an acceptable depth at 11 p.m., after 12 hours of solid digging with pick-ax, shovel and breaker bar. We had to figure out a good plan for lowering the casket, so we rigged some thick straps and the six of us lowered the casket into the hole before midnight. We filled in the first couple of feet of dirt as the sprinkles started and we finally called it a night and returned to the cabin. The guys had filled two half-gallon "growlers" (jugs) of Pioneer Porter at the Fredericksburg Brewery. Doug had tasted the Pioneer Porter on his first trip to Fredericksburg back in March, and he had told us that it was his favorite beer ever. When we finally retired to the new screened front porch, we pulled out the growlers and passed out the glasses and made a toast to our friend Doug and to what he had meant to all of us.
On the Sabbath Bill brought in 18 bags of cement and with the 7 bags that I already had, we figured we had enough to put a pretty good sized cement slab over the grave (about a foot down). We stacked the concrete and covered it with a tarp, then we all went to Santa Anna for breakfast. A week ago Sabbath, Doug had joined us for the opening breakfast of Ranchfest at the same location. I am certain that all minds were on Doug throughout breakfast. After breakfast we went back to the new cemetary and poured the 8" thick cement slab. The rains began to fall as we finished, and continued to fall on and off for the remainder of the Sabbath. We retired to the cabin and rested for the remainder of the day, doing our best to focus on the Lord and His workings in our life.
So today we gather for our regular Sunday fellowship. The skies are gray and the ground is muddy. This morning I made Longhorn Butter. We won't get any work done today, but we can comfort ourselves with communion with our brethren here on the land. We pray for Sarah, and continue to support her in this difficult time. Our brother Doug is buried, and the rest of us are still here struggling through this wicked world, trying our best to glorify God in whatever way we can.
I pray that our ways might edify some. I know that many of Doug's friends and family from Canada are visiting this blog for the latest news. You may not agree with our way of life, or with our theology, but we hope that you know that we loved Doug and we love Sarah and we would have had no greater joy than to have Doug join us on our pilgrimage of faith. Doug has gone before us, and he has crossed that river to which we now travel. All of us will enter eternity through death, and each of us must prepare for that day as the one thing that is inevitable for us. Doug sought to know the truth; not the truth as it was for him (as if truth is relative and individual), but the Truth as it truly is. He was not willing to live by lies.
I pray that we will all seek true Truth while there is time.
Your servant in Christ Jesus,
Michael Bunker
I have been working with Pita, training her to respond to voice commands. She is doing well, though she is still learning. The last few days, since we have been working up in the front pasture, I have walked her up there to let her grace in the tall grass.
Ranchfest is effectively over, so we hope to begin to get back to "normal" pretty soon. The last of our out of town guests left yesterday. It will certainly be a Ranchfest to remember.
On Friday we figured we were ready to do the burial for Doug. Sarah had decided that it would be Doug's preference to be buried on the property, so we sat down and figured out where to put a community burial site on the land. We picked a nice copse of trees (oaks and mesquite) towards the front of the property. It is a beautiful spot. As I looked it over early on Friday morning, I couldn't believe that only 5 days earlier Doug, Sarah and I had driven right past this spot to go look at their land. We did a tour of the whole front pasture and looked at the acres they had chosen for their homestead. Doug was very excited about getting started and beginning on the Agrarian life. We discussed where to put a tank (small pond) on his land, and where they might put a house site. Within the week, I was standing only a few hundred yards away trying to figure out where to bury him. Anyway, we picked out a nice spot and David went to go rent an excavator from Coleman. When David arrived with the excavator, the guys began chopping down some mesquite trees and preparing the area that would become the cemetary.
Well... God's sovereignty is an interesting thing. Before we dug the first inch of ground, David showed up and told us that he had just received a call from the equipment rental company. The excavator had been reserved by another man, and the clerk had wrongly allowed David to take it. We were losing the machine. We had already checked and there was no other excavator or backhoe available. We had to get Doug buried that day, and it looked like we would be digging the grave by hand. David left to take the excavator back; Bill and Mark left to go to Fredericksburg to pick up Doug's casket, and Mihai and I started digging. It was 11 a.m. I suppose God knows that we want to live our lives like our Agrarian forefathers, and I suppose he wanted to give us a taste of it. The ground was rock hard, and likely had not been broken up for decades. When David rejoined us we had to take turns because only one man could fit in the hole at a time. Three hours into the job, we were about 3 feet down. The next foot took 4 hours. The fellas arrived with Doug's casket at around 6:30 and helped us dig for the last 4 hours or so. Eventually we were chiseling our way through solid bedrock, hewing the grave out of stone like in the old days; and all of this by flashlight and truck headlights. We finally reached an acceptable depth at 11 p.m., after 12 hours of solid digging with pick-ax, shovel and breaker bar. We had to figure out a good plan for lowering the casket, so we rigged some thick straps and the six of us lowered the casket into the hole before midnight. We filled in the first couple of feet of dirt as the sprinkles started and we finally called it a night and returned to the cabin. The guys had filled two half-gallon "growlers" (jugs) of Pioneer Porter at the Fredericksburg Brewery. Doug had tasted the Pioneer Porter on his first trip to Fredericksburg back in March, and he had told us that it was his favorite beer ever. When we finally retired to the new screened front porch, we pulled out the growlers and passed out the glasses and made a toast to our friend Doug and to what he had meant to all of us.
On the Sabbath Bill brought in 18 bags of cement and with the 7 bags that I already had, we figured we had enough to put a pretty good sized cement slab over the grave (about a foot down). We stacked the concrete and covered it with a tarp, then we all went to Santa Anna for breakfast. A week ago Sabbath, Doug had joined us for the opening breakfast of Ranchfest at the same location. I am certain that all minds were on Doug throughout breakfast. After breakfast we went back to the new cemetary and poured the 8" thick cement slab. The rains began to fall as we finished, and continued to fall on and off for the remainder of the Sabbath. We retired to the cabin and rested for the remainder of the day, doing our best to focus on the Lord and His workings in our life.
So today we gather for our regular Sunday fellowship. The skies are gray and the ground is muddy. This morning I made Longhorn Butter. We won't get any work done today, but we can comfort ourselves with communion with our brethren here on the land. We pray for Sarah, and continue to support her in this difficult time. Our brother Doug is buried, and the rest of us are still here struggling through this wicked world, trying our best to glorify God in whatever way we can.
I pray that our ways might edify some. I know that many of Doug's friends and family from Canada are visiting this blog for the latest news. You may not agree with our way of life, or with our theology, but we hope that you know that we loved Doug and we love Sarah and we would have had no greater joy than to have Doug join us on our pilgrimage of faith. Doug has gone before us, and he has crossed that river to which we now travel. All of us will enter eternity through death, and each of us must prepare for that day as the one thing that is inevitable for us. Doug sought to know the truth; not the truth as it was for him (as if truth is relative and individual), but the Truth as it truly is. He was not willing to live by lies.
I pray that we will all seek true Truth while there is time.
Your servant in Christ Jesus,
Michael Bunker
posted by Michael Bunker at 10/15/2006 06:46:00 AM
1 Comments:
What a Fine example of the love That God's elect have for each other. Doug sounded like a obedient and Godly man; it would have made me a better man if I could have known him. Tell Sarah the prayers of Saints in Tennessee are with her. My wife and I hope to meet her and all the saints in Texas in the future.
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