Saturday, October 17, 1998

A farm family finds shelter in the Bible

By DAVID WATERS

Scripps Howard News Service

Inside a fenced yard behind a ranch house on a dirt road miles off a four-lane Mississippi highway, a tree blooms.

The Hagel girls like to stand under the tree and shake it.

The soft pink and purple petals fall gently like confetti on their sun hats and sweet faces. The girls catch the petals in long floral jumpers their mother made for them.

"Mama, I like to get rained on by flowers," Charisa, age 5, says as she dances on lavender dirt.

"I know, love," her mother replies. "After you're done with that, Mama needs you to dust for me."

This is a working ranch. Chores aren't negotiable. But Julie and Steve Hagel don't want their eight children to rush past those glorious moments when life is pure sunshine.

That's one reason they left the city and their hectic, automated, instamatic middle-class existence six years ago. They realized each moment, like each petal on the tree, is a gift from God.

Each moment is sacred, at work or play.

There's a time to dust and a time to dance.

On the surface, there seems to be nothing that unusual about the Hagels.

They live on 10 acres near Byhalia, Miss. Their three-bedroom house is heated, air-conditioned and equipped with many modern conveniences.

Steve, 42, is a senior reliability analyst for Federal Express in Memphis. Julie, 40, home-schools their eight children, ages 16 to six months.

They raise goats, chickens and rabbits for milk, eggs and meat, but they also shop at the local grocery.

They go to church twice a week. They eat out once a week, usually on 29-cent hamburger Tuesdays at McDonald's.

They have two dogs, a few cats and a big van.

They also have a TV, a VCR and a CD player.

But the Hagels don't live like most folks. They didn't leave suburbia to simplify their lives. They left to sanctify their lives.

For the Hagels, faith isn't an aspect of life. It's a lifestyle.

"We're not Mother Earthers, we're not survivalists," Julie Hagel said. "We just decided to listen to God and obey. We had no idea how good life could be. It's just so much better than it was."

Friends had their doubts at first.

"I thought they were nice but kind of strange," said Karen Russo, who has known the Hagels since their days in suburban Montgomery, Ala.

"But they really do walk the talk. I've learned about trusting God by watching them."

Rev. Ed Hall was pastor of the Salem Road Baptist Church in Montgomery when the Hagels changed their lives.

"They sincerely wanted to follow the leadership of the Bible, and they've done what other people just talk about," he said. "They are an outstanding family."

They lived like anybody else in suburban Montgomery.

Public schools educated and socialized their children. Television entertained them.

The parents worked, made lists, followed schedules, paid bills. The kids played with friends, argued with siblings.

Land was what they built their 2,400-square-foot dream house on. Home was where they went when they weren't working, shopping, learning, playing or praying.

They grew grass and hedges. They raised pets. They lived on credit and looked forward -- some days more than others -- to retirement.

The Bible was something they read at church. Life was something they all managed to get through each day.

"God really saved us," Julie said as the kids filed into the living room for morning Bible study.

Each child has a Bible. Each Bible is turned to Proverbs.

Proverbs is the book Steve and Julie turned to when they began looking for a better way to live.

Proverbs has 31 chapters. They read and discuss a chapter a day. This was the fifth day of the month.

"My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen well to my words of insight," begins the warning against adultery.

"All knowledge and wisdom comes from?" Julie asks.

"God," says Sethany, age 8.

"She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths are crooked, but she knows it not," the Proverb says of the adulteress.

"How do you know if something is straight or crooked?" Julie asks.

"By the fruit it bears," replies Adam, age 15.

Julie goes on:

"You won't know what crooked is if you don't know what straight is. And if we don't teach you God's ways, you won't know what wrong is."

"We know, Mama," Sethany says.

The Bible isn't just their daily devotional.

It's their primary textbook, their farmer's almanac, their parenting manual, their practical guide to everyday living.

Before they changed their lives, family dynamics were difficult, Steve and Julie said. They consulted the Bible and reordered the chain of command.

"Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife ... Children, obey your parents ..." it says in Ephesians.

Steve, a former Air Force captain, is the captain of this family. Julie is a rank below. The kids are ranked by gender and age.

God is in charge of all.

"We had to let Daddy be Daddy," Julie said.

"I know God is over Steve, and so I know that even if Steve is wrong, God will protect me.

"By submitting to Steve, I'm also submitting to God. As the kids submit to their parents, they also submit to God.

"Everyone's got a boss, and it goes all the way up to God."

Under the new arrangements, Julie said the family members stopped struggling for control. Each member has a place, a role assigned -- they believe -- by God.

The Bible also was the basis for the family's code of conduct.

"Before, Dad was at work, and Mom was at home, so we used Mom's rules," Julie said.

"Those rules were changing all the time, according to my desires and whims. We had to flush those rules and use God's rules. Now we can show the kids that it's not just because Mom or Dad say so, it's because God says so. His rules never change.

"There's even more authority behind them."

Steve prays over the children each morning before he goes to work. Then Julie and the kids fix and serve breakfast.

After Steve leaves, Julie spends a half-hour in prayer in her room while the kids clean up and prepare for morning worship.

In worship, the children take turns at the piano while the others sing or dance.

Two-year-old Judah pecks the tune to "Row Row Row Your Boat" with his index fingers.

"We love, love, love you Lord, love you every day," they sing.

"We walk with you and talk with you, you listen when we pray."

Morning chores follow. The children take turns feeding animals, milking goats and gathering eggs, dusting, sweeping and washing dishes or clothes inside.

Then it's time for school. After the daily proverb, the kids gather at the kitchen table, pull out their textbooks and go to work. Julie instructs and assesses. She also keeps up with baby Abigail and Judah.

The morning unfolds smoothly, quietly. Judah and Moriah, 4, are coloring. Suddenly, Judah grabs a piece of paper from Moriah.

"Judah, hands behind your back," Julie says, the signal she uses to make a grabby child stop and ask for what he just grabbed.

Judah sticks out his lower lip and stares. He won't let go of the paper. Julie picks him up and takes him into her bedroom. A minute later, they're back.

Judah puts his hands behind his back and asks Moriah for a piece of paper. She hands him one. Judah says thank you and starts coloring.

"He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him," it says in Proverbs.

Discipline, Julie says, is about changing a child's heart, not just a child's behavior.

"Before, we'd let something like that go, or try to explain why they shouldn't act that way, give them a reason," she said.

"We felt like we were trying to give them some grace, but we were really giving them the freedom to do wrong.

"I took Judah back there, gave him two little swats and told him he did wrong. He crawled in my lap and gave me love, and I loved him back.

"Look at him now. His eyes are clear again. His heart is good again. It's not a head problem, it's a heart problem."

Steve grabs the shotgun, and Adam follows him with the saw.

The freezer needs stocking. It's time to "harvest" a goat. Goats are practical animals. They provide milk, cheese and, occasionally, meat.

The Hagel kids know food doesn't come from a grocery store or a fast-food window. They know something dies so they can eat.

They also know there's a direct connection between working and eating.

When the Hagels first moved from the suburbs, they lived in a trailer. Electricity and running water were memories. They chopped wood for heat. They hauled water to cook, clean and drink.

Steve and Adam dug a well and ran a line to the trailer. They built a barn, put up fences. When something broke, they figured out how to fix it or do without.

They learned to rely on one another. They also learned to rely on their neighbors.

"We took so much for granted in the city," Steve said.

"We'd have a problem, like how do you bathe without running water. We'd be looking in books for some novel solution. We're college-educated folks. Then we realized people lived like this for centuries, and not that long ago."

So they asked older folks for help.

Older folks knew. Put down lime to control the flies. Let the chickens loose to get the bugs. Let the animals chew tobacco to kill the worms.

Want a warm bath? Get a big aluminum tub. Fill it in the morning. Let the sun warm the water for you.

"When we first started ranching it was fun," said Adam, 15. "Then it became a chore. And as we did it longer, it became a life."

The men in the Hagel family keep their hair short. The women wear their hair long and their dresses longer.

There are Biblical reasons.

"Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory?" it says in I Corinthians 11.

There also are practical reasons.

"Dresses protect the modesty of men and women," Julie said.

"And because they wear loose-fitting dresses, my daughters are not overly body-conscious. They're not obsessed by their weight, like they would be if they wore skin-tight jeans or halter tops."

The Hagel kids can have friends over, but there are no sleepovers. The older kids don't go off to the mall or the movies with other kids.

Friends are fine, but they are not nearly as important as God-given brothers and sisters, the parents say.

"Some kids think we're missing out on something," said Audra, 13.

"What we're missing out on is trouble. You look at most kids, their parents can't wait to get them out of the house. Our parents like having us here."

All the kids sit with Steve and Julie at church. They don't join other kids for the children's sermon. They don't go to the nursery.

"We don't always understand their ways, but I'll tell you they must be working," said Tim Wetzell, pastor of New Covenent Fellowship Church in Olive Branch.

"I've never met a finer family or a finer group of children."

The children won't be allowed to date, at any age. They will be allowed to court. They won't be allowed to seek a partner to court. God will provide one, if and when He desires.

When each child turns 15, they get a covenant to sign. Elaina, 16, signed hers. Adam got his last month.

In the agreement, Steve agrees to the following:

"I will protect you from unqualified men (strange women). I will teach you God's provision. I will prepare for you and for God's choice of your life partner."

The child agrees to this:

"I will keep myself pure for my husband (wife). I will obtain your blessing on my courtship. I will wait for your full release before entering into marriage."

Elaina said she's thankful for the arrangement.

"I'm glad my father is protecting me," she said.

"I want his protection."

It was 1992 when Steve decided to take an early-out deal after nearly 14 years with the military.

He and Julie sold their suburban house, paid off their debts and moved to the country.

Audra was anxious.

"How are we going to make it, if Dad doesn't work?" she asked.

Steve sat down and apologized to her.

"I've been raising you wrong," Steve said. "It's not your dad who provides for you. God provides."

Friends sometimes worry Steve and Julie have withdrawn too much from the world. Julie has had their last three children at home, the last two without a midwife.

"She didn't even know when Judah was due," said Russo, their friend from Montgomery.

"I got angry and asked them if they were willing to trust God to the death. Then I thought about it. Who else would you trust to the death but God?"

Steve and Julie say their parents also worry the kids are too sheltered.

"Yes, I suppose they are sheltered," Steve said.

"Sheltered from things that are watered-down and distorted and destructive."

The Hagels have more faith in Proverbs than private schools or public television.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight," they read in Proverbs the third day of each month.

In other words, the Hagels tell their children, we're not self-reliant or self-sufficient.

We help each other.

We trust God.

"We've been without an income, we've been without insurance and medicine and running water, but here we are," Steve said.

"We've never lost hope and God has never failed us."

(David Waters is a reporter at The News-Sentinel in Knoxville, Tenn.)