Community Lives Here…

Four years ago Becca and I spent two years working at Cono Christian Boarding School in the corn fields north of Cedar Rapids, IA. Even though we were only there for two years and were completely ready to move on when we left it is an experience/occupation that I will never regret. We learned so much while we lived and worked on the campus of the boarding school (we had a boys dorm in our basement that I was in charge of), but I believe one of the biggest things that we were taught while living there was what real community looks like.

Frequently we long for the intense community that we were able to experience while we lived and worked with our friends in such close proximety (even though the thought of working at the school again doesn’t thrill us). During the school year at Cono we at dinner and supper together with the students and staff most nights, spent time working together on work crews, enjoyed free time together on the soccer field or around the state, and supported each other through many … many … many difficult things! It really was community at it’s finest, and possibly a glimpse of what life may have been like in some areas a hundred years ago or more.

But, I say all that only to say that recently we have experienced the wonders of community. Eariler this week while I was working in my office at the church a member stopped in and began asking about the progress of our house. I gave him a quick run down of the progress we had made and what we were hoping to accomplish in the coming days … well, it didn’t take him long to realize that we weren’t going to have much done by the time we needed to move in (Sept. 26th).

To make a long story short … yesterday he gathered up a crew of men from the church to go out to our place and checkout what needed to be done. Then they sort of made up a “Help Ethan, Becca, and the Kids Out” plan and are hoping to have way more done on the house by move in day than we could ever have imagined. Somebody mentioned that we can call it an old fashinoned barn raising (expect this barn is our house)!

This is a blessing beyond our belief and comprehession and we are so thankful for such a wonderful community. Hopefully I can share some updated building progress pictures soon with quite a bit more work done!