Hello friends:

In my last blog, I talked about my dad, whom I thought was the greatest man that ever lived. Not because he was strong, good-looking, or smart (because he was), but because of the man of God he had become in his life. I talked about how he quit his job because of religious convictions. Well, here is the rest of the story.

My father quit his job at Consolidated Blenders (which has now closed) because he wanted to work for a company that loved and followed the Lord. That was not to be found, so he decided to start his own company. He called it Faithway Feed Company. He went “faith’s way” with his life.

My father, Dale Rowe, went to twelve banks in and out of the county. No bank would give his vision a dime. At that time, you could only buy feed ingredients by truckload (24 tons). My father wanted to buy a compartmentalized auger truck to deliver small quantities of mixed feeds to farmers. It was a novel idea for the times. But he needed money.

He sold my mom’s car, his gun collection, her jewelry (except for the wedding ring), and many other valuables in our home. With that money he collected, he bought an unsellable load of feed blocks. Ralston Purina had come out with a new product: protein for cows in a molasses block form.

The farmers in the 1960s were old school. Your cattle got protein from feed, not a hard block! The product was a flop (at the time), so Ralston Purina sold the blocks for pennies on the dollar. My father gambled everything and bought 880 blocks (a full diesel truckload). It took all the money our family had. But Daddy could not sell the blocks either. He started at $10 each, then $8, then $6, then $4, then $2.

My family had lost everything. So what did he do? My father started to pray. And he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed. I remember him on his knees in his bedroom, praying and crying out.

Then God sent a torrential snowstorm. The roads were covered, all pastureland was covered and frozen, and the farmers did not have enough feed to get through this storm. The cattle were stressed (a real thing), and the feed stores were closed.

The people to whom Daddy had tried to sell the blocks started calling him. They asked if he could deliver blocks somehow in this storm. Having lived in Iowa for about five years, my father owned tire chains. So, he installed those chains and started delivering. My father sold the blocks for full price (no price gouging) and got his money back ten times over. With this money, he started Faithway Feed Company.

By the way, those blocks became a standard in the feed industry all over the United States because of my father and now sell for about $30 a block! Trust God, my friends; trust God!

Jeri Lynn Daniel
Lean into Jesus Ministries
#jerilynndanielblogs

 “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:2-4 NKJV