Our Community Farm Internship Opportunity
By Ken Wettig
New Creation through Cultivation is a new internship that is partnering with VMM, designed to provide a twelve-month “immersion experience” for those interested in the intersection of Christian discipleship, social justice and sustainable living.
The host organization for the internship is Our Community Farm located against the backdrop of the George Washington National forest in the Shenandoah Valley. Our Community Farm serves as both a residential drug and alcohol recovery community for up to eight male adults and a sustainable farm.
Friends enjoy planting seeds in the OCF greenhouse. Courtesy of Ken Wettig
This present year marked the first year for the internship, with two graduates of the recovery program returning to serve as mentors for those in recovery and as learners in the way of Christ from the farm’s leadership.
We know that for anything to grow, either physical or spiritual, there needs to be the correct calibration of invitation and challenge; this year, for our first-ever interns, was marked by both. Jonathan and Joel carried the reins for sustainable farming through many various responsibilities from managing our farmer’s market stand, raising and caring for our milk goat and laying hens, and managing our half-acre CSA (community-supported agriculture) garden.
In the recovery community, Jonathan and Joel provided much needed mentorship and lay counsel as brothers to those coming to the farm from broken histories of abuse, leading twelve-step meetings, book studies (Celebration of Discipline) as well as helping facilitate camping trips and other transformative experiences. In bi-weekly discipleship huddles and life transformation groups, we took time to process our experiences, encourage our strengths and confess our weaknesses.
New Creation through Cultivation 2014 begins the first week of March; we have openings for two individuals or one couple. Our eyes survey the church of Christ seeking those committed to holding together in marriage what both society and the church too often divorce; namely, the love of God, through deep personal commitment to faithfulness and the love of neighbor through a radical commitment to justice in a broken world.
Visit the Farm’s website or e-mail any questions you might have to [email protected]
Joel Dollarhite, a tranSend intern working at OCF, assembles the contents of a CSA (community supported agriculture) basket. Courtesy of Ken Wettig