Mark Kasten State Farm

actually a flight instructor at SDSU for a year. When I was 20 years old, I was on the faculty at South Dakota State University. It was pretty weird.” The head instructor at SDSU told Mark he’d need a four-year degree if he wanted to move up the chain quickly and fly for one of the major airlines. Since he was already there and had an interest in business education, he decided to take some classes at SDSU.

“During the next two years in Brookings, God changed my heart about what’s important in life. I was involved in intervarsity Christian fellowship and also some Bible studies. I saw people’s lives get changed and I couldn’t shake that.” He chose to receive training from Tentmakers, a national youth ministry program. The mission of Tentmakers is to equip and empower disciples to live out their calling while transforming culture through Christ, one relationship at a time. “I had just started dating Sharla when I went off to Minneapolis and got trained in youth ministry. I hooked up with Central United Methodist Church in Milbank, S.D. Although the Tentmakers commitment was only for two years, I ended up being there four years. During that time we got married,” he said. Sharla added, “We lived on love.”

In the late 1990s, Mark and Sharla started visiting with his parents, Dennis and Florence Miller, about returning to the farm. “Being married and knowing you’re having kids, the farm family life was important to me. I always try to pray about major life decisions, to seek God’s path. There seemed to be certain things that were lining up for me to come back here,” Mark said. The couple moved to Freeman in 1999 and began farming. (Like a competent pilot doing his pre-flight safety review, Mark had now checked off all three of his childhood career choices – pilot, pastor and farmer.) Mark and Sharla lived in Freeman for almost 10 years before purchasing Dennis and Florence’s house on the farm in 2009. “I like the change and variety on a farm. I like learning about growing crops and the intricacies of it. Then you get to see the fruit of your decisions at harvest. I even enjoy the bookkeeping side of it during wintertime,” Mark said. “But it all really goes back to being with family. It was so important for us to be able to do devotions every night with our kids until they were old enough to do it on their own. Reading books, going through the Bible, working in nature, being so close and present with family members … farming is a great family life.”

The Millers on a family ski trip.

180 N Main Ave. Parker, SD 57053 Bus: 605-297-4747

368 N Main St. Freeman, SD 57029 Bus: 605-925-7353

mark@markkasten.com

205 10th St, Rock Valley 712-476-5419

209 S Main St, Inwood 712-753-2200

Kate and Emily Miller with their grandparents, Florence and Dennis, after a volleyball game.

Sharla also grew up on a farm. Her Waldner ancestors had lived west of Freeman many years ago before moving north in search of more affordable land around Carpenter which is in the Huron area. Mark joked, “What’s scary is when I married her and brought her back to Freeman, all of sudden I start talking to local people who know everybody’s relatives – I began to get worried that maybe I’d married my second cousin.” Sharla said, “My dad never hired men or boys to work for us on the farm. He had his daughters do field work, including the combining, because we’d never break anything. I’m glad I did that because now I can help here. Dennis and I actually fight over the combine. He says he can’t do the grain cart, just like I don’t want to truck.” Florence interjected: “I don’t see any competition for weed spraying, though.” Sharla said, “Mark is trying to get Luke interested in the spraying. Luke started in-line ripping at 11 years old because it’s so boring and no one else wants to do it. But he loves it.” Luke will be a sixth grader at Freeman public in the fall. Basketball is his number one sport. “We’re not sure if Luke keeps us young or makes us feel older. He’s active. You name it, he’s in it. He’s got a great class. A lot of his classmates are first-borns, so Mark and I seem like the old people among the parents,” she said. Middle child Kate will be a high school junior. She plays basketball and volleyball, helps on the farm, plus works at the Salem Mennonite Home in Freeman. Oldest daughter Emily will be a sophomore at Northwestern College in Orange City where she majors in nursing and plays on the college volleyball team. During the summer, she works at Oakview Terrace Nursing Home in Freeman. Sharla said, “They both have a heart for caring for the elderly.” Like Sharla, Luke and Kate, Dennis continues to help Mark in the field. “I help in the spring and fall,” Dennis said. “It’s been a real blessing in my life that I can be a part of that.” His parents purchased the farm in 1936 during the Great Depression. “They’d just gotten married. My mother frequently told us about how tough it was. One time, she and my dad went out to the mailbox and there were some bills they couldn’t pay. They sat under one of the pine trees and cried. That story always stuck with me because it wasn’t easy for them, but they pulled it together and got it bought.” In his early days, Dennis said it was a typical diversified farm. “We had pigs and chickens; maybe a dozen milk cows. I had sheep for a while. We had beef cattle until 1977 or ’78.”

Dennis enjoyed having livestock, but didn’t like the veterinary side, such as giving shots to calves or de-worming; and he would become deeply troubled by calves lost during a snowstorm. “Where we live now, we have pasture which somebody else rents. I still go out and check those cows every day. I enjoy that. I just didn’t like the pressure of being responsible for all of it,” he said. “God’s been really good to us. We’ve lost crops to hail and other things, but still God has blessed us. We feel fortunate that we have children and children-inlaw who love the Lord and love the land and are doing a good job at raising their kids.” In addition to growing corn and soybeans, Mark and Sharla also try to cultivate the faith experience among local families. They are active members of First Baptist Church in Parker and Mark also helps fill the pulpit at area churches