wfn.org | Pastors discuss strategies for helping farmers

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Oct. 19, 1999  News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{547}

By Cathy Farmer*

BROWNSVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) --	The rough-hewn man in the plaid shirt sat
quietly through hours of talk about the farm crisis. 
	
He listened and watched as Chuck Danehower, a University of Tennessee
extension agent, used a laser pointer to walk the group through a grid,
which showed estimates of the average dollar loss per acre of corn, soybeans
and cotton. 
	
He nodded while Richard Jameson, a Brownsville farmer, talked about the
unbearable stress of farming and the effect it has on the family.
	
His hands became fists as the talk shifted to the number of family farms
expected to falter and fail under the heavy burdens of drought, low prices
and changing government policies. 
	
When he could stand it no longer, Sidney Talley Jr., a fifth-generation
farmer from Ripley, surged to his feet.
	
"I've farmed for 30 years," he told the room full of pastors, "and I always
made enough to pay my bills. But in the last three years, I've lost
$300,000. I've thought about killing myself. In fact, I figure I'm worth
more to my family dead than alive."
	
The room was quiet. The pastors, clergy from the Brownsville and Jackson
Districts, were gathered that day, Oct. 12, at Brownsville's First United
Methodist Church to learn more about the farm crisis and how to offer
pastoral care to the families in their area. Talley's pain gave the facts
and figures a human voice.
	
"I told my son to get a job," Talley continued, turning his red Durhamville
Gin cap over and over in his hard brown hands.  "I'm through." 

Talley and hundreds of farmers like him in West Tennessee and Western
Kentucky are suffering. Besides the farmers, people who work in
agribusiness, equipment dealers, lenders, merchants and even churches are
being rocked by the drought, low prices and poor overseas economy.
	
"We're here at this meeting to understand what the situation is and how we,
specifically, can help," explained the Rev. Stan Waldon, Brownsville First
pastor, to the 34 people present. The hearing was one of three organized by
the Memphis Conference Program Ministries office to alert clergy to the
seriousness of the crisis and give them handles on how to provide pastoral
care.
	
After a morning spent listening to Jameson and Danehower describe the
problems, the afternoon was devoted to what pastors can do to help. 

The Rev. Mike Campbell, chaplain with Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare,
discussed strategies.
	
"This is a pastoral care issue, not one for pastoral counseling," he
stressed. "Our mission is to be an interventionist."
	
Campbell told the group that it was important to remember that the causes of
the problem are global, that they would not be able to offer a "fix."

"But you can be physically present," he said. "You can go where they are, do
what they do, stay where they stay." 
	
He urged the pastors to spend time with the farmers and their families.
	
"Let them talk about what they do," he continued. "They have stories to tell
and they need to know that someone is interested in what's happening.
	
"But don't come with a whole lot of talk," he cautioned. "Come with a whole
lot of listening."
	
Campbell told the pastors to remember that their task is not to keep farmers
on the farm but to help them discover what their future will be. "Some may
be able to sustain their farm. For others, now may be the time to leave
farming. You'll help them discern what God's call is for them."

Jameson warned the pastors that farmers won't come to them for help.

"There's such a loss of self-esteem, such humiliation," Jameson said. "You
feel like such a failure, and when you're under all that stress, it's hard
to make good decisions. You can't even make yourself see what you've done
right."
	]
Campbell advised the group: "The better listener you are, the more likely
they can find the right answer. Don't dare to tell anyone what they should
do."
# # #
*Farmer is communications director of the United Methodist Church's Memphis
Annual Conference. This story first appeared in the conference edition of
the United Methodist Reporter.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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