Home Again

Home Again,

When we moved to Winchester almost 4 years ago I am not sure we ever felt at home.  We came here for several reasons and have had our share of ups and downs along the way.  It has always felt as though we were here for the time being, but not necessarily for the duration.  I believe this made it easy to move away to go down to the farm.  We left behind most of our possessions and packed up the essentials and lived in a small cottage.  It was a tremendous learning experience-we learned more then we could have ever imagined, for God is a great and merciful teacher.

Now we are back home and it feels more like home to us.  I write this as we race to prepare our home for sale.  It may sound ironic-but it makes perfect sense.  After our experiences in Amelia we feel we are now ready to progress forward in our calling to have some land and animals of our own.  Our experiences have given us a new perspective on farm life, the providence of God, the richness of whole “real” food, and the beauty of purposeful work.  We met some wonderful people, and left behind some new friends, who we pray for daily and hope to see again Lord willing.

We left Winchester on a whim and a prayer.  We had no idea how long it would be for and what God’s plan was for our experiences.  Reflecting back on our time I am amazed at how much we experienced and how we were able to witness the providence of God at work in everything we did.  He is truly merciful indeed.

We are now back among our friends and family.  Funny, before we left we had many acquaintances here in Winchester, and a few friends.  Returning home we feel more connected to the friends we have and have found our family (brothers and sisters in Christ) have grown as well.  We are truly blessed.

God humbled us through this journey.  When Alison went down with Cancer it changed our lives forever.  It stopped us in our tracks and placed us securely in the arms of God himself.  It was a rough couple of months for Alison and our family-but through God’s grace we pulled together and in many ways it has strengthen us.  Our family motto has always been “stick together” and we have a whole new perspective on this today. 

We left hoping to synergize as a family and grow in grace.  We come home having been strengthened by the experience and more humble as we understand God’s calling for our lives and how truly thankful we are to be His.  We also know that to whom much is given, much is expected (Luke 12:48) and we are readying ourselves to be used in whatever way God chooses.

So now we are about the work God calls us to do.  We are baking our bread for those around us with all organic ingredients.  TJ and I have our first customer to build a chicken coop for and we are looking to build some for our own chickens (both laying hens and meat chickens).  We have reconnected with our farm family here in Winchester and have been introduced to a local family who raise grass fed beef and poultry.  We are readying our house for the sale so we can find that special piece of land God has set aside for us to continue our journey into the farm life.  We come back energized and ready to serve as called.

Of course-these are our plans.  We continue to study scripture and praying to God that he directs us down the path He wants us to take.  We will keep you posted . . .