There Used To Be An Egg Farm About 5 Miles From ...

There used to be an egg farm about 5 miles from here, out on Reed Ellis Road. From time to time, when I was growing up, we used to take one of our 2 ton trucks down there to the chicken farm and pick up a couple of loads of chicken manure to put on our pastures to help the grass grow.

I remember one Saturday we went down and got several truck loads of that chicken manure and took it out behind where the pavilion now is on the church property. After we dumped those piles on manure, we cleaned up the truck and filled it with hay because we were having a youth hayride that night, with the youth from our church.

Now, during the time we were gone to pick up the youth, there was a short rain out at the house. How many of you grew up around chickens? Tell me, are there many things in the world that smell worse than wet chicken manure?

We pick up the youth in Orange City, and bring them out to the house. One of those young guys, recently moved to the area from the big city, stepped out of the truck, sucked in a lung full of air and said, “MMM, smell that country air!” I didn’t smell any country air. All I smelt was chicken manure.

My friends, I am afraid that when we are supposed to be smelling like country air, that we sometimes smell more like chicken manure. I am afraid that when we are supposed to carrying the perfume of Jesus Christ, that we are sometimes carrying the stench of the world instead.