Going outside
The loud voice intrigued me. It was a booming, hearty voice. Both happy and strong. He was laughing and talking and carrying on a good conversation with someone. I couldn't hear another voice so I decided to venture out of the cabin to see who this mysterious voice belonged to.

I stepped out onto the porch of this wonderful cabin and into the majesty of this farm. It was a cool morning with a gentle breeze and a crystal clear blue sky. It felt like an October morning back home in Georgia but it also had a feeling of spring. I couldn't quite put my finger on it as it seemed like it was the best of both seasons in that one moment. As I had said, the cabin was surrounded by a manicured garden framed by a massive pecan grove. I had only seen it through the windows of the cabin but once I stepped outside into the garden, I was amazed at the depth and breadth of its beauty. I could have spent an entire day right here on this hilltop in this garden. As I was taking in the beauty of this place, the man whose voice I must have heard came around the corner of cabin.

"Mornin'. How'd you sleep?" He was a big black man. He looked a bit like James Earl Jones in the face. He must have been in his 60's but he also had a very youthful face. He was fit and muscular - much more so than most any man I'd ever seen this age. His smile covered his entire face and he walked up and gave me a big hug. "I must have startled you with all my talking and laughing out here. I was talking with God and just enjoying him this morning. I hope I didn't wake you." My mind - for some reason - wasn't full of hundreds of questions which struck me as curious. I didn't need to ask anything of this man rather I was just content to be in this moment. All of this was very surreal to me. The place was perfect, this complete stranger felt like a life-long friend, I had no fear, no hesitation, no doubts...I just was in the moment and was perfectly content to go wherever this story took me.

"Come 'round the corner with me. Let's sit and enjoy the majesty of his day." I followed him around the corner and on the side porch we both slid into big rocking chairs to soak in the west side of the farm. From this side of the cabin, you looked down a hill towards a big lake. The lake was 30-40 acres in size and was framed by some small hills on the other side. I would guess the cabin sat a couple of hundred feet above the lake. Once you got beyond the edge of the pecan grove, there was a huge pasture leading down to the lake. A few hundred feet from the edge of the lake sat a pristine old wooden chapel. The white wood seemed to glow in the morning sun light like a lighthouse beacon guiding the lost home. The pasture was bordered on one side by a huge field of wildflowers and on the other by a tree-lined dirt road leading from the cabin, down past the lake and around the foothills on the other side of the lake. The trees that lined the road were huge, stately maples that canopied the road. I can only imagine the colors they would display in the fall.

"Pretty stunning isn't it?" my new friend said with a hearty laugh and a shake of his head. "This is one of my favorite places around these parts" he continued. "Lots of folks have worked mighty hard to make this place what it is and everyone that works here is ministered to by this land. This is holy ground to all of us. You will be blessed to spend your time here."

He went on to talk to me about the farm. It was a huge place spanning thousands of acres. He couldn't really tell me just how big and that actual size didn't seem to matter to him. It was a working farm with cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat. It also had several small farms within it dedicated to vegetables. "The sisters from town work those vegetable gardens" he explained. "There are a series of vegetable gardens all along these farms surrounding the town. The sisters tend to these gardens as a service to the community. Everything in this community is share and share alike. They'll come out just about every day to tend to your gardens and when it is time for the harvest, the men from round these parts will come help them take in the bounty. There's a farmers market in town and during the harvest, everyone loads up the bounty and wagons it into town to the market. Everyone pitches in to help and usually takes a good many days to get all the crops in, clean them up, get them to market and store up the rest for the off season. It is an amazing them to watch happen and you're going to love seeing it come to pass. It is incredible what folks can do together when they don't care who gets the credit and when they's all servin' and takin' care rather than thinkin' of themselves. Its a hoot. You're going to love it."

He kept on describing the farm to me. I was captivated by him and his words. It was like I was with my father or grandfather and they were telling me this great story from their childhood. I was hanging on every word. "That fish you had for breakfast came out of that pond down there. The farm has a half-dozen of those ponds spread all across it. Streams come down out of the hills to feed the ponds or else they are spring fed. You and the other men will harvest out an amazing crop of fish from those ponds and that is part of the process too. Every few weeks, they harvest up fish and take them into market. Everyone pitches in to help and they clean them up and get them ready to eat or ready to be stored up. The same process works with the deer and turkey around these parts...with the cheese you had for breakfast, with the wine you'll enjoy with dinner tonight. God gave us the land to work and nuture and enjoy. He gives us the incredible bounty and when we all work together and no one is selfish the bounty grows exponentially. Every single soul in these parts are fed by these series of farms that circle the town. No one wants for anything. Everyone works to meet everyone else's needs. You'll be building a barn for a neighbor one week, hanging a fence for a friend the next, shooting quail in the afternoons or a turkey in the morning and whatever you harvest, goes into the community at large. It is amazing how it works and you will blessed in ways you've never experienced."

more to come....(Soar!)