<* Xio-LaneMter Farmi'ng.Saturdty, February 21. 1998 Um opmoN VI FFA A Vital Part Of Agriculture This is FFA week (February 21-28). FFA enables students to achieve success through educational endeavors, community ser vice and goal setting* One of the major positive aspects of an FFA education is the hands-on experience given students. FFA mem bers, working through local agricultural education programs, are building career skills, developing leadership initiative, and gain ing confidence to succeed in the future. “Students realize the importance agricultural education prog rams can play in building the skills they need to succeed in the future,” says Dr. Larry D. Case, national FFA advisor and coordi nator of agricultural and rural education, U.S. Department of Education. “Our members are from very diverse backgrounds, yet they all realize FFA provides a strong foundation of know ledge and skills essential for success in life.” This year the national theme is “Building the Future.” Right now, there is a move in Pennsylvania to begin planning the future of ag education. Certainly with the changing agricultural scene, ag education must move ahead with the times. We believe as FFA builds on the past and moves into the future with good intention to make ag education relevant in the next century, the FFA program will always be a necessary part of young people’s education. This FFA week again gives us an opportunity to congratulate all the FFA students and teachers who make the FFA program such a vital part of agriculture and agribusiness. Siiliirda\. I t'Wrtiai x 21 Beaver/Lawrence Counties Hols tein Association annual meet ing, Bingo’s Restaurant, New Castle, 7:15 p.m. No-Till Seminar. Dauphin County Ag Center, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sixth Annual Delmarva Pork For um, UMES, Princess Anne, Md. Wyoming County Sheep and Wool Producers Annual Lambing School, PDA Building, Tunk hannock, 9:30 a.m.-noon. Beekeeping Seminars, Beaver Co. Agricultural and Environmen tal Education Center, Beaver. PA, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Also Feb. 28, Lester Firth Learning Center, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Mid-Winter Lambing School, Dept of Ag Building, Rte. 92 South. Tunkhannock, 9:30 ajn.-Noon. Sheep Housing and Facilities Open House, Robert & Nancy Lced farm, Myers town, 12-4 Grazing Short Course, Pr\pce George’s County, Extension Office, Clinton, Mondays through March 23. Elk/Cameron Crops Day, St Mary’s Country Club, St. Mary’s. 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Pesdticide Update Meeting, Ven ango County Extension Office, Franklin, 7:30-9:30 p.m. Lambing Time and Sheep Man ' ville Pie- March 3. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Erosion and Sedimentation Con trol Workshop, Holiday Inn, ❖ Farm Calendar* Bethlehem, through Feb. 25. Franklin County Beekeepers - Association meeting, Franklin Couunty Extension Office, 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Winter Vegetable Meeting, Schuylkill Ag Center, Pottsvil le, 9 a.m.-3:30 pjn. Beef Producers Meeting. Augusta House Restaurant, S unbury, 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Pesticide Update, Keystone High School, Knox, PA, 7:30 pjn.-9:30 p.m. Dairy Steer 4-H Projects, Cecil County Extension Office, beef Prodeucer’s Winter Meet ing, Chester County Coopera- tive Extension, Government Services Cento'. Herb Workshop, Cooking and Medicating, Penn State Cooperative Extension, Smed ley Park, 1-3 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Tri-State Conservation Tillage Conference, Radisson Hotel, West Middlesex. 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Estate Planning, Best Western, Carlisle, 7 p.m.-lO p.m. Pesticide Test, Extension Office, Four Points Sheraton, Gteens burg, through Feb. 27. Family Heritage Restaurant, Veg etable Growers’ Meeting, Franconia. Lebanon County Dairy Day. Myers town Church of the Bre thren. 9:30 ajn.-3 p.m. Organic Day and Crops Work shop. Carriage Corners Restaurant, Mifflinburg, 9 ajn.-3 p.m. Landscape/Garden Center, Sha dowbrook Resort, Wyoming County, 9 ajn.-9:30 p.m. Industry Only Dairy Consultant To Manage Alfalfa Stands Persistence is important to alfalfa growers. The longer a field is productive, the less it costs to grow alfalfa, according to Robert Anderson, Lancaster County Extension Agronomy Agent. Many things affect the longevity of a stand including variety, weather conditions, soil fertility, harvest management and pests. Some variables affecting the alfalfa plant, the farmer cannot control. However, to help stands last as long as possible, farmers must control those variables which affect the stand within in their control. These include controlling weed and insect pests .selecting the right varieties, maintaining proper fertility and cutting at the correct harvest intervals. The Penn State Agronomy Guide gives recommendations on how to manage these variables. The Agronomy Guide is available at your county Penn State Cooperative Extension office. To Look At Feeds Glenn Shirk, Lancaster County Extension Dairy Agent, reminds us that dairy farmers are in the feed conversion business. Their goal is to add value to home grown and purchased feed by feeding it to cattle and converting it to milk. To accomplish this successfully, they need to have the right kind and quality of feeds and feeds that are digestible and affordable. Farmers need genetically superior cattle that are healthy and capable of digesting large quantities of feed and absorbing nutrients efficiently. These are the pieces to the puzzle of efficient milk production. Some tests that help farmers monitor how well rations are balanced and feed nutrients are being utilized are milk urea nitrogen (MUN), milk fat and milk protein tests To Attend Winter Meetings A lot of new technology is Hotel of Sharon, West Mid- dlesex, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Sweet Com School, Berks County Ag Center, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. NY Farm Show. NYS Fair grounds, Syracuse, NY, through Feb. 28. Annual Meeting of the Pa. Hols tein Assocation, Four Points Sheraton, Greensburg, 8:30 a.m. York Garden and Flower Show, York Fairgrounds. Cecil County Agricultural Update (Agronomy and Dairy Days), (Turn to Pag* A 39) being introduced to agriculture. These include precision agriculture, genetic engineering, bioengineering, computerization of equipment and new processing techniques. These technologies have introduced the development of Bt and brown midrib com hybrids and new integrated pest management strategies. Kernel and stalk processing techniques like rolling affect digestibility and the manor in which rations have to be reformulated to utilize these feeds and technology efficiently. This makes the winter meeting PERVERTING GOD'S GRACE February 22. 1998 Background Scripture: Jude 3-4, 17-25 Devotional Reading: Isaiah 55:6-13 A few months ago. my wife, Valere, and I led a tour to Tuilcey, following in the footsteps of the Apostles Paul and John. In pre paration, I did some research on the history of the Byzantine Empire and its capital. Con stantinople, today’s Istanbul. For more than 1,000 years Constanti nople was the capital not only of the empire, but also Eastern Orthodox Christianity. It was here that Christianity first became a legal religion. One of the greatest Christian churches, Hagia Sophia, also known as St Sophia, was built as the mother church for Orthodox Christianity. 1 was shocked to find that when Constantinople first fell to a for eign army in 1202, it was not to the Islamics, as I had assumed, but an army of Christian Crusaders. The Fourth Crusade was organ ized with the goal of recapturing the Holy Land and invading Egypt, but once launched, the Crusaders from Western Europe decided that Christian Constanti nople was a far mote lucrative prize which, unfortunately, is what the crusades were mostly about Worst of all, I discovered that their sack of Constantinople is vir tually without parallel. The Cru saders stormed into St Sophia, looting, pillaging and seriously damaging it Seizing the sacred vessels, they pried the valuable stones from them and used the vessels in their drunken orgy. They even forced a prostitute to dance lewdly before the altar. They so weakened the city that two centuries later it was unable to withstand the forces erf the Islamic Ottoman Empire. History records that the Ottomans were much less rapacious than the Christian ar mies of Crusaders. BELYING OUR FAITH So, what does all of that have to do with the Epistle of Jude and the perversion of God’s grace? An swer. it is simply a historic illus tration that professing Christians have often grossly perverted the grace of God, giving themselves over to a licentiousness which be lied their Christian profession. It can lead us to examine ourselves and our society to determine how the grace of God might still be perverted by people who claim to follow Christ Jude, the writer of this oft-for- season very important. Come and learn about these new technologies and begin thinking which ones you need to adapt to your farming operations. On top of these technologies, farmers also need to learn about the changing economic and business environment they are working in. Do not forget you have 6 weeks to obtain your pesticide credits if your license expires on March 31, 1998. Feather Prof, 's Footnote: "Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there." gotten New Testament letter, pen ned to warn Christians against “false teachers” whose blatant im morality was leading many astray and corrupting some churches. In their midst, he is saying there are “ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentious ness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ (v. 4b). What did he mean by “pervert the grace of our God?” We do not know exactly who there “ungodly persons” were. We do know that during this period there were some who believed that Jesus was not really human, but just appeared to be. If Jesus was not really human, it was assumed that he had little to do with the earthly lives that we lead. Therefore, you could believe in Christ but still live as if he has little or no significance for the way that we live on earth. So these people could claim Christ for their spirits without involving him in their minds and bodies. DEPRAVED UVES They thus claimed allegiance to Christ, but lived depraved lives in sexual, drunken and violent de bauchery a virtual rejection of the Good News of Jesus Christ. We do not know if the “ungodly persons” consciously and vocally denied Christ, but, even if not, the lives they led denied the true meaning of our Lord. I suspect that the “ungodly per sons” did not recognize them selves in Jude’s letter. They prob ably considered themselves “good Christians,” strong supporters of the church and perfectly in step with the morals of the times just as the Crusaders would cen turies later. Despite the depreda tions they committed, they were greatly admired by Western socie ty and honored by the churches. These people whose lives denied what they professed concerning Christ were more harmful to the gospel than those who openly and publicly denied Christ. The late theologian Emil Brun ner, has written: The scandal of Christianity exists as a scandal only so long as we are full of our selves. To believe in the cross of Christ is no scandal for those who have seen how perverted is their own wisdom.. .It is the very cor rective for this perversion of our sight, it makes us look straight again, who by sin have become cross-eyed. Nothing is moe insidi ous, nothing perverts more the grace of God than when talking Christianity becomes a substitute for living it. Lancaster Farming Established 1955 Published Every Saturday Ephrata Review Building I E. Main St Ephrata, PA 17522 -by- Lancaster Farming, Inc. A Stelnman Enterprise Robert 0. Campbell General Manager Everett R. Newawanger Managing Editor Copyright 199* by Lancuur Fannin*