Only in Visalia...

Last night, Rob was ushered in to his new ministry position in a very unusual way: a cow crisis. About 8:00 last night, Rob received a call from Mark (the pastor at Sierra Baptist) who was at a Bible study with a number of church people. The owners of the house have a few beef cows, and one of the cows was having a difficult time calving. They called Rob, knowing Rob's father-in-law is a dairy buff, and asked if he knew of a vet who could come and help. My dad didn't think his vet would be able to get out there, so he and Robby went over there to assess the situation. They stopped by our dairy, picked up some supplies needed to help deliver the calf, and went on their way. (Note: Robby knows nothing about delivering a baby cow. Just in case you were wondering.)

When they got out to the house, they had a hard time getting the cow in a place where my dad could pull the calf, but finally they did. But then, the cow jumped through the fence and got away. After finally getting the cow back in a corner, my dad began straightening out the calf so they could begin pulling it. They got the rope around the calf's legs and everyone (including Robby!) began pulling. When the calf finally came out, it was dead (probably for a number of hours), but the mother's life was saved.

And that marked the beginning of Rob's ministry in Visalia. It is probably very safe to say that something like that would never have happened in Lakewood.

To finish the update, Rob officially began his position today, July 1st. He had a very good day of moving furniture around in his office (that's right--more moving!), running errands, and getting to know Mark a little better.