A Taste of the New Creation: Farm Camp at Saint Nicholas House
Our earliest days and months at Saint Nicholas House were a time of holy imagination. Though we had few relationships in the community, little experience in agriculture, and a fairly run-down property, we could see what this place could become. We imagined a home where children—many children— would come and find joy and delight. Whether they came for worship or catechesis, for an after-school karate class, to work on the farm, or simply to visit the animals, they would experience some taste of God’s peace and presence. We imagined it as a child-scaled working model of the new creation.
Fast forward to this summer. We hosted our third annual Farm Camp. From Monday through Friday, we spent our mornings together in Scripture and song, telling stories, offering hands-on farming experiences, playing games, preparing food, doing crafts, and giving children free time to play and enjoy. This year, our focus was on the Gift of Water. On the first day, we invited children to lower a bucket and draw water from our well. This simple act, new to almost everybody present, delighted children and adults alike, as we reflected on this amazing gift that literally comes up from the ground and falls from the sky. On the final day, as children harvested from our garden and prepared a farm-to-table snack, we thought about the joy of sharing God’s good gifts with others, and shared with children about ADNE’s water projects in East Africa. Only afterward did I realize that Bishop Andrew and our diocesan mission team were in fact visiting the site of one of those projects on that very day.
Around 40 youth and children participated in Farm Camp. All sorts of relationships were represented in this group. There were children from our own congregation, youth assistants visiting for the week from Christ the Redeemer in Danvers, children from two other ADNE congregations, members of my after-school karate club, children from the school where I work, Christian homeschooling friends, a child from down the street who we had never met before, friends of friends, and more.
I sat down at the end of one day and just looked around. Kids were playing in the woods, visiting goats, chasing chickens, enjoying hay rides, etc. The joy and delight was palpable, offered to these children as a free gift of grace. The vision of these early days was coming true before my eyes. This is not to say that the vision is fully-grown. Rather, this one special week in the year brought all the disparate threads of relationships and work together into one short but beautiful expression of grace, a glimpse of what God is creating among us.
