How did we get here?  

How did our journey lead us to this place and this moment?  

I am sure Moses asked these same questions that day in the desert when God called to him.  A misplaced, misunderstood, murderer on the run living a simple shepherd’s life in a country far from home.  Moses saw the bush burning with flames that drew him to come closer.  As he came close God spoke and Moses knew that he had been found.  “ ’Here I am’ he said (as if God did not already know all about exactly where he was and exactly where he was going) Then God said to Moses, ‘Do not come any closer.  Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ ” (Ex 3:4-5)  I am sure Moses had walked his sheep all over this desert and maybe he had even been on this mountainside before but today was different.  Today this place became holy, it became sacred, it became divine because God Himself was in that place.  In their culture taking off your sandals was a sign of respect and humility.  Only in humility can we come closer to God, only in humility can we discover His plans and purposes for our lives.  So Moses took off his sandals and he also hid his face.  I cannot imagine the fear and the awe in that moment.  Then God spoke again, “I have seen the misery of my people…so I have come down to rescue them…and to bring them up out of Egypt into a good and spacious land…” (Ex 3:7-8)  God revealed His plans for Moses and just like us Moses had some major doubts.   “Moses replied ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ And God said ‘I will be with you.’ “ (Ex 3:11-12)  God’s response had nothing to do with who Moses was but everything to do with who HE is because that is all that matters.  Moses asked God what he should say if the Israelites had the same doubts that were in his own heart.  “God said, ‘I AM WHO I AM…this is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.’ “ (Ex 3:14-15)  This day was the day that Moses truly met God and from that day forward God used Moses to do amazing and wonderful things: to save His people from Egypt and to lead them to the edge of the promised land.  Moses found himself barefoot in the desert, fully aware of the holiness of God and the power of His presence.  This day was the beginning of a great journey for Moses.  I too find myself barefoot before the Lord, humbled and surrendered to His plan for my life and excited for the journey that lies ahead. I pray that in my life God will be seen as the great I AM and that my children and their children, and all the generations after them will come to know Him and will give their lives to follow Him.   

Ultimately our journey has been a journey of coming closer.  God is always calling us closer and closer, deeper and deeper into His love. When Eric and I got married almost eight years ago, we had no idea where God would take us or what He would call us to do with our life together.  I was in college for the first three years so that kept us grounded in Toccoa, Georgia where we made some amazing friendships and discovered so much of God’s heart for the least, the poor, the broken.  This season was so rich and full.   During these first few years of marriage we were also exploring new ideas about the church and what it really means to live as God's set apart people in this world.  His Word was so alive and we were being challenged in all our traditional thoughts and ideas.  God really placed a passion within our hearts to see His family fulfill our true calling and purpose to love God and to love one another.  After I finished school we had our eyes set on going somewhere new and exciting, using Eric’s music to share the gospel, sharing our lives closely with other believers,  and finding ways to bring hope and healing to families living in poverty.  Then God surprised us and blessed us with our first little one.  Although we did not understand His timing we knew it was Him redirecting us and calling us to stay.  He made wonderful provision for us to move back to the Cornelia, GA area with our family to share the birth of our first child.

Jubilee Noel captured our hearts from the moment we saw her.  God chose to use her to do the most miraculous transformation in our lives.  Our new life as parents opened up a whole new part of God the Father’s heart to us.  We had no idea just how much Jubilee would be used to redirect our focus and vision for our journey.  God truly overwhelmed us with a passion for family and seeing God’s people embrace their calling to raise their little ones to know and love the Lord.  God began speaking so much to us through His Word and connecting us with so many wonderful people to model for us Godly family life.  Only nine short months later we were pregnant with our next little one.  Mercy Jade came into our lives and we were overcome with joy.  Again God used her to bring about so much change and transformation within us.  

As a mom, having two sweet little girls to care for and shepherd each day, I became profoundly aware of my desperate need for Christ and His Spirit to guide and direct me in every area of life.  This struggle with myself and my own sinfulness brought about deep and true repentance in my heart and a desire to know the resurrection power of Christ.   At the same time God was moving deeply in my husband Eric’s heart as well.   He was operating our recycling business so he spent lots of time in his truck listening to sermons and teaching and spending time in prayer.   This time was such a gift and a blessing.  The Word of the Lord is so powerful and so effective and it cuts to the heart.  I watched as the Lord truly broke my husband, leading him to genuine repentance, and then filled him with a genuine humility and love unlike I have ever seen.  Watching God transform my husband was the most wonderful and amazing experience.  Not that we have obtained the prize or reached the goal but we have found that only in surrendering our own wills and recognizing our need for God can we find the abundant life that Christ has promised us.  Every day we must surrender our will for His will and every day we will find His grace sufficient and His joy abundant for the journey.

During this season God was also cultivating in us a passion for farming and gardening and living a simplistic and quiet life that could be used to show His love to the world.  We have always known we are called to be different in this world and to shine His light into the darkness that surrounds us but He was speaking more specifically to our hearts and revealing more of His calling for our family.  He gave us vision for a self-sufficient homestead where our family could live and work and grow together.  We felt Him speaking to us that this was the environment where we were called to live and invite others onto our homestead in order to share our work, our faith, and our hearts with one another. We desired to have a place for people to come and rest, to slow down and see beauty, and more than anything to listen to God speak to them and give them His vision for their own lives and families.  

We are truly the least qualified and the most unlikely to end up as farmers in the mountains but God has a way of calling those who wiIl need Him the most.  SO in that case we are the perfect choice.  Although we do love the outdoors and eating delicious organic food we know that these things are just an added blessing of the calling we have received.  So although we enjoy learning about gardening, permaculture, and self-sufficient life skills our hearts are completely captivated with Chirst and His Kingdom first.  Oh that we can stay steadfast with our gaze set on His kingdom until He comes for us.

In order to accomplish the vision God had given us, we knew we would have to rely fully on God for provision, for wisdom, and for grace.  He has been faithful in every single way.  To summarize the whole story is challenging because it seemed that God was using a million small details to confirm and direct our path.  We had our third little one in November of 2012, our first son.  He has filled our hearts with the sweetest love.  Nehemiah Oakes has been such a gift and a blessing and God has spoken so many things to us through his little life.  Now as a family of five we were becoming more and more proactive in our search for property and a place to live out God’s calling for our family.  We looked and looked some more but God never opened the door completely for any of the places we found.  Some almost worked and then God would stop us and although it was challenging we trusted in His goodness and knew His timing would be best.  In the summer of last year some friends of ours kept telling us that we should meet a family they knew who lived on a farm in North Carolina.  Finally through a variety of events Eric talked to John Lee on the phone.  The conversation was such a confirmation and an encouragement to our hearts because their family was living out so many of the things we felt the Lord leading us into.  John and Eric were both amazed by the likemindedness they shared and the unity of the Spirit between their hearts after only one conversation.  Most amazingly we knew that God had birthed the same vision in both of our hearts.  We both desired to know Christ deeper through sharing our hearts and  life more closely with other believers for the purpose of learning to really love each other, bear one another’s burdens, share one another’s joys, and encourage one another daily.  We were total strangers but the Spirit of God had led us on such a similar journey and now He had orchestrated us coming together to move ahead in our calling.  Again, our conversations with them just continually confirmed that God had a Kingdom purpose in mind.  We knew in our hearts that God was inviting our families to work together to build a Christian community in a farming context where we could all learn more about God together and be a light of love and life to the dark world around us.   

Immediately things have moved into fast gear.  Eric joined John on a short trip to Texas to visit a large farming community where our vision was confirmed and enriched by the great example of agrarian Christian community there.   Next we went to NC to spend a weekend with John’s family.  As we drove home from the farm God spoke straight to our hearts that He was calling us to sell our recycling business, pack up everything, and move to join the Lee family in North Carolina.  We had been praying about property and starting our family homestead for almost three years and in the months leading up to our visit to the Lee’s farm we had begun to pray specifically for an older and wiser family to teach us and help us walk in God’s calling for our life.  We believe that He hears us and that He answers but sometimes in a moment of total clarity we just can’t believe His goodness.  We were in awe of His faithfulness to answer us in such a wonderful way.  All we could do was give thanks.  Our hearts were truly overcome with the peace of His Spirit and that has been our guide.  It made absolutely no sense but we knew it was His voice and we knew we had to obey.  So against all odds we were able to sell our business, buy a camper and a yurt, pack up all our things, and make plans to move in just three short months.  On October 14th 2013 we drove out of our driveway in Cornelia, leaving EVERYTHING familiar behind us and depending on God alone.  It was truly the hardest and the best day of our life so far.  In moving we knew that NC was just the starting point of our families’ journey together and all of us continued our search for the farm where God desired to do His work and call more families together.  The first few months were filled with building our little yamper home (a camper connected to a yurt by a wooden hallway that holds our wood burning stove)  We were all just getting to know one another and enjoying the newness of sharing daily life.  We were cooking together, working together, and spending times with the Lord in prayer and worship - shared life is truly rich.  All the while we were still seeking the Lord about where He was going to take us.  Obviously this was a process but eventually we found a farm in the beautiful mountains of southwest Virginia.  The men went and prayed and explored all around the 250 acres and they came home with the peace to pursue it.  Literally within a week God had provided all the money that was needed and our bid was accepted.  It would be ours in February…what?!?!  This was so fast and so incredible.  We truly rejoice at the goodness of the Lord and his kindness to allow us to walk on this journey of faith.

So that catches us up to today.  Both of our families just returned from our first official trip all together to see the farm.  It was literally more than I could have ever asked for, or imagined, or dreamed.  As we spent the day walking around through fields, across meadows, beside streams, and on the ridges of mountain tops I was truly aware of how small I am and how GREAT our God is.  

It had rained a lot previous to our visit so down in the meadow the creek had overflowed and it became somewhat of a muddy paradise.  This of course instantly become the highlight of the trip for our children.  Boots came flying off and little faces lit up with unrestrained joy and delight.  As I watched my three little ones playing, running, jumping - totally free to delight in God’s creation - my own heart was reminded of the sweet freedom I have found in surrendering to God and delighting myself in His ways.  So much of our lives are spent on worry and fear and frustrations over the things of this life, but God is calling us to freedom.  He is calling us to have hearts free from worry, free from fear, free from shame, and free from all the lesser loves of this world.  He has set us free so that we can truly LIVE!  I think in so many ways I am beginning to understand what that actually means.  I want to take my shoes off, to feel the ground under my feet and to experience the reality of God with me.  I want to recognize the holiness of every place and moment in which He is present.  Everywhere, everything, all of the mundane and all of the amazing moments…if I AM is with us then we have all that we need to truly LIVE.

So wherever you are, may you find yourself barefoot, acknowledging His presence and delighting yourself in His nearness.

-Sarah