Our first day and a half has been a whirlwind! Our first full day we worked HARD at Hollinsworth farm, owned and run by Rachel and Ben. Our hosts were so gracious and full of joy! We started out going over the day, learning about the history behind how the farm got started, and in prayer. We quickly got to work hauling some logs they planned to use later to build a new structure. Then we split up into new jobs that consisted of more wood hauling and splitting, tearing down an old goat house, uncovering some electrical wires (under feet of wet, wet hay I might add), gardening, collecting chicken eggs, and probably much more. Our group worked harder than they have in a long time, but they also built some very tight bonds among themselves during all this teamwork.
The next morning we opted to help out the pastor of Crucified Church, Josh, work on some community clean up. Our team was weed-whacking, cutting bushes, mowing lawns and cleaning up garbage all on the streets and in abandoned Lots. Josh told us that even though it seems like a small task, it makes a big difference in this city. The work that we did there helped make the community look a little cleaner and showed the people that people care to grow their city and turn it around. Even though the team was exhausted from working so hard on the farm, we did our best to put all our efforts into community clean up, and it showed!
Through all this hard work, I got a chance to stop and talk with Rachel’s mom at the farm. She walked and talked with me a little bit about the farm. Her and her husband were the ones to originally buy the land where the farm is when they were moving up from the south. She told me that when she came here to this land, she felt like God was telling her it would be “a place of peace” for a lot of people. They host many people who come through and either need a new place to stay for a while, or might need to get away and learn a new skill, and for many other reasons. Even though they need a lot of help with the farm and tasks to be done there, their ultimate mission is for people who come through to have a good experience, and experience The Lord in a new way. They want people to bond in teams and learn something new about themselves. They want people like us, who they bring into their home, to find peace here. They care more about that than the work that gets done. While we thought we were coming to the farm, and to Johnstown, to serve, we learned in so many ways that our spirits can and will be served through the works that we do for others, and for God, and this was an amazing place to do that.
