By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
November 13, 2003

ROCKWELL CITY - A priest of the Diocese of Sioux City uses the gift of his hobby to relate to his parishioners.

Father Dennis Sefcik was welcomed with a tractorcade after saying his first Mass as the new pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Rockwell City.

Father Sefcik collects tractors, so his parishioners decided to greet him with a tractorcade, a tractor parade, of 10 tractors lined up in front of the church.

The Shade Tree Farmers, an informal group of residents who restore old equipment to working condition, came up with the idea after discovering Father Sefcik's interest in tractors. After the group restores the equipment, it is used to plow, plant and harvest small fields in the Rockwell City area.

"After Mass I went out and visited with the men, and I blessed each of their tractors," said Father Sefcik. "They are just personally composed blessings, asking God's safety and blessing upon the driver of that tractor - that no injuries may come to them and that they will always be safe in using this piece of equipment.

"I do the same whether it is a Lutheran, a Catholic, a Methodist or whatever. I did have different religions that were in the tractorcade here, and I went down the line and blessed them all."

Father Sefcik commented that it is important to "always keep our roots established, not only with equipment, but with the one who is in charge of all equipment - that's God himself."

He has found that people appreciate the time that he takes to not only bless the equipment but also the people that run the equipment.

"It's not so much what I get out of the tractor restoration program," said Father Sefcik. "It really makes an ideal conversation topic for Catholics and non-Catholics to mingle together and talk very freely about something they're all familiar with and that's farm equipment."

Father Sefcik grew up on a farm southwest of Pocahontas. He currently owns 14 tractors that he keeps at different locations. He stores some at his mother's place and other farm places around for security.

"Because of my farm background, I have always been interested in them," said Father Sefcik. "I suppose as I started restoring my dad's original tractor, it just kind of gradually became more and more interesting to me. That was a 1937 F-20 Farmall."

His interest in tractors gives him another topic to talk to his parishioners about. It is a way for them to relate. Father Sefcik feels it is a blessing that he can make things a little easier and nicer for them as part of his job.

Father Sefcik will continue to bless tractors and their operators because he said there is a need to keep those people safe as they provide for their families and community.