Like this:

A moment to breath.  That is all.  For the inquiring minds , I apologize for being tardy on my writing.  Yes, Gabriel turned one on April 6th.  We celebrated him twice, once with family, once with all the students.  He still isn’t sure about Birthday’s, but he does love chocolate, and apple-blackberry pie.  Very discerning.

This term has been the busiest for me so far.  Our colleagues Clarke and Julia, have a new baby boy.  Samuel was born in January.  This term has been a major adjustment period for them, as these things tend to be.  So many new things, so many things that you must learn.  Throw 12-15 (for 8 weeks) on top of that, and well… crazy is appropriate.  As they are adjusting, I am doing more speaking, organizing, tutoring, property management, and spending time with the students, while still having a very young little fella to chase around and a bride to see.  And, it is full on chasing these days.  From three halting, but happy steps, to a week or two of immanent danger… Gabriel now runs around the house like a champ.  He still falls a lot, but he mostly knows how to fall now.  It has been a joy, but much more work.

We are down to the last week of the term, and I only have one more large speaking engagement – preaching at our church next Sunday.  It will be a large sigh of relief, at least for a week.  Then I have another sermon and three more lectures to prepare.  I’m speaking at a conference in Sacramento three days after our summer term, and since I won’t have time to do extra lectures in term, I have to get them done before the summer starts.  Plus the list of projects on this 22 acres is a mile long.  We are hoping to build a deck on the cedar house which would be just amazing for everyone.  Plus there is a cabin to make functional again, and another house to paint, another deck to redo, a garden to maintain, etc., etc.  We just finished converting one room of the barn into a full-on chicken coop.  We hope to have our own eggs in a  month or so.  We also felled five trees so that we could get more light into the orchard we are trying to restore.  Five very large trees makes for a lot of clean-up.  We had a work day yesterday complete with a raging bonfire, and everyone loved it.  Lots got done, we made special scones and coffee for tea break, and the weather was perfect.  It was a 16 hour day for me, because I had to get up at 6:30 and make breakfast for the students, tutor all morning (while organizing the work crew), and lead the work crew all afternoon, plus show a movie and lead a discussion afterward.  I showed a Swedish film called, As it is in Heaven.  I picked it to correspond with the lecture I gave on Friday night about the modern search for community.  I crawled into bed about 11:30pm.  A great day, but that is how the last 8 weeks has been.  Wonderfully tiring.  Again, God is moving in people’s lives.

We had a lovely Easter weekend with a silent walk through the woods to the beach on Saturday.  Stunning, and very powerful as we reflected on the silence of Christ in the tomb before Easter morning.  During that weekend we also lost power and water for about 31 hours.  It was of course a bit of a challenge, but we cooked everything on or in the wood stoves and it turned out well.  Jessica even baked bread right on top, and it was great.  It was like a visit to 1850.  We read, played music, had a lecture, and told stories by candle 0r fire light.  I now understand how people who worked all day, then tried to educate themselves by fire-light at night, often went blind.  Fun for a weekend only.  We also hosted a traditional Jewish Sader meal on Thursday for the students and some people from the community.  That was my first time, and the symbols, imagery, and meaning was very powerful.  22 people came (not including 6 kids) and our house was full.

I don’t have any reflections on the progress of conversations or my own thoughts, I’m just too tired, but it has been a good term.  In some ways my favorite, in many ways my hardest.  We are grateful, and we are going to apply to get our visa extended (it runs out in August).  So that is one more thing we have to get done before our next term starts in a month.  I’ll try to write a bit more often, I really want to, but no promises.  Reminders are good though:-)  Thanks Jen.  I’ve got to go, Gabriel is awake.

Jeff Adams

Cedar House, Bishops Hill

Canadian L’Abri

my first birthday shirt

preparing a sader meal for 22

My first birthday shirt

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