The story so far

The story of a personal journey - from Dunwedin

It’s just one year since I took a day out to think and pray about what God was saying. My husband had just finished renovating our house, and it looked beautiful. But it still backed onto a railway line, so that gave him 2 reasons to want to move: a new DIY project and somewhere peaceful, preferably the country. And he wanted a dog…

We had jokingly talked of moving to the country, to a house in need of some DIY, where there was also a barn which could be converted to a holiday let - or as a bolt hole for stressed clergy.

For my part, it was six months or so since I’d read Dave Bookless’ book Planetwise, which had inspired me in a way no previous reading or thinking had, into taking green issues more seriously. I’d followed that book with The Rough Guide to Ethical Living, and signed up to A Rocha’s ‘Living Lightly’ pledge – taking my own steps to live lightly. We’d been growing fruit in our garden for a while, but I felt drawn to grow more food – and that was not going to happen in our small, north-facing garden. We were both interested in all the experiments going on with eco-living, even though we’d probably only be able to make minor modifications to wherever we lived. I’d also had a (mad?) thought about keeping chickens, and booked us both in to a morning to learn how to keep chickens in a suburban back-garden.

With all that in mind, I sat down to pray and listen to God. Was there some way in which God was drawing all these things together?

As I prayed, I found myself drawn to some verses in Isaiah which had long resonated with me. I then found myself drawing a picture. I can’t draw, and I don’t normally draw pictures, but this one felt different. The picture was of a house with an open door. Around it there were lots of trees and birds, plus our cat, a dog, and some chickens. There was a loaf of bread, and some broken chains. Was God drawing us on to some new project, which would bring together all our aspirations, and take us on a new journey?

As the weeks went by and we pondered the picture and our combined dreams, we thought about moving house. The 3.30am goods train seemed to rumble even more loudly. So we decided to start looking. In the meantime I decided that 2009 would be a year of experiment with growing vegetables in pots and corners of the garden.

We soon discovered that it was hard to find a house which ticked all the boxes. We were tied by my need to commute to work. Some areas which we liked were way too expensive. An ordinary house in the country? We saw plenty of nice houses but we actually wanted a project.

Around this time, I read It’s not easy being green, and encountered the word ‘permaculture.’ When I’d found out what it was, I started to wonder why Christians were not talking about it – it seemed to me that if God had designed the world, then to run things the way he intended, and to work with nature the way it was, made perfect sense. I also read Seymour’s The Self-sufficiency handbook. I wasn’t sure we wanted to go that far, but if global warming was going to bring food shortages, and our consumption-driven economy was collapsing around our ears, there had to be some better answers. Recollections of living in the country a few years before sent me back to liturgy which was more in touch with the rhythms of the seasons, and with nature. If the biggest issue of the 21st century was going to be the environment, then why were Christians not making this the lynchpin of evangelistic initiatives? In Christian circles, why were green issues still regarded as the prerogative of odd or ‘new age’ people? Were there not connections to be made between this new passion to ‘grow your own’ and ‘escape to the country’ and the God who made it all? Could not liturgy which drew us back to the rhythm of the seasons resonate with those who thought that other forms of Christian expression had nothing of relevance to say to them? Was that the direction in which God was leading us? In the meantime, I also led a group doing an environmental audit at work.

The house search went on, and finally, just as we were thinking that we’d got it wrong, we found a house which sounded promising. A quirky house, south-facing, in need of some updating, and in the middle of a village (I wanted to live in a community). It came with an old barn and some other outbuildings, a ready-made vegetable garden, two greenhouses, a summerhouse, two ponds, and a garden laid out with lots of trees, shrubs, and small seating areas. The owners, we discovered, were keen supporters of wildlife (we drew the line at protecting the wasps!), who left numerous bird boxes and feeders, plus hibernating areas for hedgehogs and other animals. A perfect example of a wildlife garden…

We bought it, and moved in last September. We reaped the benefit of potatoes in the ground and tomatoes in the greenhouse and now have a plan for the year ahead. The dog arrived in October, and my husband finds that dog-walking is a good way to meet people in the village. We’ve been welcomed in the village and the church. The DIY on the house has begun.

So a year on from that ‘dream’ picture, I’m reflecting on where we are now. We’ve moved house, and live in a peaceful village, surrounded by trees and birds (the chickens are on hold). I’ve been following up some of the ideas and connections I’ve been given, and after Christmas I was praying about ‘what next?’ I picked up an issue of the Church Times, and read about EarthAbbey: other people thinking about how to make connections which might draw people closer to God through addressing environmental issues, growing food, and building community.  We live near the beautifully kept village church, where apart from a thriving monthly all-age service, there is a mainly ageing congregation. There are allotments just behind the church, there’s a garden club in the village, an annual produce show, and good sense of community: are these things on which Christian community can be built anew? Should we open our garden as a quiet garden and/or a wildlife haven?

At the moment I’m on a steep learning curve, as I hope to grow lots of veg this year. I want to learn more about permaculture, and about growing organically. We’re hoping to meet some like-minded people. At work, people are used to my ‘compost round’ as I take home all the compost from three bins at our coffee points.

Where is it all going? I’m not quite sure, but it feels like God.

Dunwedin

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