Pecans and Goats and Beards, oh my!

Super-Bowl Sunday. Day 2 at the Koinonia Farm. Before I go into detail about the farm, let me catch you up on what’s transpired since my last blog:

I finished up my hospitality weekend at Church of the Sojourners (and I really really liked it there a lot). I got to attend a “Community Discernment Meeting” with them and see a process of bringing up points of interest, discussion, and got a better general sense of how they stay healthy and in dialogue as a community. It was a huge blessing. It makes my heart sing a little bit to see people moving toward each other with Grace and love (and not in a fake way) and being intentional about continuing to do so. Great Great stuff there. God is good and i really hope I get to be a part of that community for a while.

After leaving Sojourners and swinging back by Long Beach to pick up all my things (witch is all crammed into 3 heavy heavy suit-cases), I flew back to St. Louis to see my family for a week. Or at least that’s what they plan was. My old friend Kristin was going to pick me up from the airport and I was to spend a day with her, then I’d go to my family’s place and surprise them (they didn’t know I was going to come this week). 

I ended up getting snowed in at Kristin’s place for 5 days and I only saw my family for about a day and half. 3 inches of ice and 5 of snow will really keep you in one place for a bit. I had a lot of fun with Kristin and her family, but I missed my fam a bit. Oh blah dee oh blah da.

My family took me back to the St. Louis airport yesterday and I flew to Atlanta, took a shuttle from Atlanta to Columbus, and was picked up form Columbus by two of the members of the Koinonia community- Brin (the internship coordinator) and Amanda. They were very nice ladies. We grabbed some taco bell and I slept most of the way to the Farm.

We got here and they showed me to my room and then let me be alone for a bit. I’m staying in one of many houses on the farm campus. It’s called the Jubilee House. There are 4 seperate apartments and 1 studio in this house and I’m in one of them. It’s a one bedroom 1 bath and I have my own kitchen, but the dining space is what connects all the apartments. 

About an hour after arriving one of my worst fears was realized. I had been sitting on the floor of the living room checking my email and my phone rang, so I got up to answer it and, as i usually do on the phone, I started pacing around as I spoke to my friend Gretchen. I glanced over to where I’d been sitting a moment before and THE BIGGEST SPIDER I’VE EVER SEEN IN REAL LIFE was crawling out from the couch I’d been leaning against. It was AT LEAST the size of the palm of my hand. 

I freaked out. 

I have really bad arachniphobia (or some other spelled way). My first instict was apparently to scream the F-word at the top of my lungs repeatedly and jump on top of chair in the kitchen. I guess the spider had seen this move before because it (very slowly and very deliberately)  crawled from its position under the couch right up to the leg of the chair that I was jumping up an down and screaming on. I had no shoes on and there was nothing in reach to hit it with.

After a round of hyperventillation and asking myself if this was really happening, I jumped from the chair into my bedroom and grabbed a shoe. After catching my breath and cussing out the spider for being so big and freaky, I got close enough to it to swing my shoe. I hit the thing, but it did not squish. It exploded. All of its legs went everywhere and goo was all over the floor. I had to clean it up. It was as if I’d run over a small mammal with a car. this thing was huge. Then I found a live lizard under my computer desk. had I not gone out for drinks last night with some of the people here I would not have been able to sleep. Thank God for Blue Moon and Guinness.

So I woke up around 11 this morning and went for a walk around the farm. I made friends with goats here already. There are about 10 of them, and two can’t be more than a couple of weeks old. I realized today that I really want to own a goat someday. Anway, I found some old paths back in the woods and roamed around. The woods here are beautiful.

Every male I’ve met here has beard. The kind that they just forgot that was there apparently. I’ll be bathing frequently but i may end up forgetting to groom myself until i return to civilization. so If the next time we meet i have a fat beard and much longer hair, just know that the company I’m living with presently inspired me to stop being so damn vain.

There’s so much more i could say. I’d like to tell you about some of the people I’ve met and some of the more interesting conversations I’ve had thus far, but I’m really tired of blogging.

Til next time.
 

2 Cor. 13:14.

I miss the crap out of you guys. Christ is with us.
Drew

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