The Farmer Who Never Stopped Giving

When the 2011 tornado flattened half of Joplin, Missouri, Earl Schaffer lost his equipment barn, two grain bins, and most of his winter wheat crop. Neighbors expected him to finally slow down — he was seventy-three, after all. Instead, Earl drove his surviving truck to the church parking lot the next morning and started hauling debris for families who had lost everything.

A reporter asked him how he could help others when his own losses were so heavy. Earl just shrugged and said, "The Lord gave me fifty good harvests. A man who's been that blessed doesn't sit on his porch feeling sorry for himself."

That was Earl's whole philosophy. For decades he had quietly paid utility bills for struggling families in Jasper County, donated seed to young farmers who couldn't afford it, and kept an envelope of cash in his glovebox for anyone he met who looked hungry. His generosity wasn't a strategy — it was a reflex, the overflow of a heart that genuinely trusted God as Jehovah Jireh, the One who provides.

Earl died in 2019. Three hundred people came to his funeral. His grandson now runs the farm using the same envelope-in-the-glovebox method.

The psalmist wrote that the righteous person "has scattered abroad gifts to the poor" and "will never be shaken." Earl Schaffer didn't just read those words. He planted them in Joplin soil, and they are still bearing fruit.