Let's see..  what to share?  Well, up here, we don't plan so much by weeks, but take each day as it comes. It'll either be a farm day, a Family Support Center day, a class day, a church day, or a free day.

Ah!  Last Wednesday, we got to experience our first rainy cold day at the farm.  We finally pulled out the rain gear (including bright pants, boots, jackets, and water-proof overalls for Hannah) and warm fleece shirts.  I learned that layering these really helps keep in warmth.  We fearlessly braved the rain and trellised the raspberry bushes, then took refuge inside the shack for lunch and practical lessons about ordering seed, and finally emerged and transplanted for another hour.  Farming seems to take a LOT of planning and organization.  Nick, the 'boss', has multiple intensive spreadsheets listing all the various crops we are to plant for the season by week.  It is so bizarrely complex to me.

More about the farm: It is certified organic, and so it is sustainable in as many ways as possible.  We practice crop rotation, so there is a zone that is currently fallow.  Also, there are special varieties of crops that have been chosen such as purple cauliflower and golden beets.  During the seed ordering lesson we got to look through a catalog with pictures and descriptions of a cornucopia of vegetables!  It's funny because they really talk each type up.  I saw things I've never seen before in that catalog.  I decided I'm going to give it to Marli when she's ready to flip through a book.

Something new- we have a bee hive (box) at the farm, and they recently opened it up and harvested some honeycomb.  It is incredible to see first hand.  The honey tastes the same as any other honey, but just trying to understand how these bees operate in their matriarchal society is fascinating.  The newborns are in charge of making the honeycomb, and the worker bees are all female.  If the queen dies, the bees will make another by choosing a newborn and feeding her until she is larger than the rest.  I haven't gone over with the crew when they check on the bees because I'm afraid of getting stung, but maybe someday I'll suit up in bee-gear and brave the hive.

On Friday we worked again, and it was a gorgeously sunny day.  Traded the heavy rain gear for a t-shirt, rolled up pants and bare feet.  It was a perfectly enjoyable day of weeding, planting, transplanting, and fertilizing, and along with that came plenty of conversation, jokes, riddles (which Salvio and Victoria like to tell), songs, and laughter.

Saturday was a day off, so Hannah and I read plenty, bought vegetables, rode bikes, made a picnic, made vegetable stock *for the first time* and went to a bonfire with Tierra Nueva friends.  We, again, entered a social circle where we didn't know most of the people, but it was absolutely wonderful to get to spend time delighting in the joy that ran through this hilarious group.  They fed us well (which is a pattern, I tell you), and the entertainment was pure and interesting.  Almost the whole group participated in a couple rounds of Ninja (this game is quite popular here, in Spanish it is Cinta Negra), and we just had good fun out in the country under the stars.  I came back from that with a feeling of just overwhelming love that I am experiencing here coming from the staff at Tierra Nueva.  They show us kindness upon kindness and involve us in every community gathering/event.  They are inviting us into their homes to cook and eat and play with them, which is how community, relationship, God's kingdom is built.  Nick said, "Community must be the means to an end, not the end itself, because we need to be working together towards something.  This builds the strongest kind of community".

I feel like really throwing ourselves out here into this completely new location and population, we let ourselves be vulnerable to however people decide to treat us.  I see that hospitality is so huge in building the Kingdom.  We threw ourselves into the arms of God's people, and they have reflected His love in every act, word, and patience.  Today Elizabeth spoke on Matthew 7:7 "Ask, Seek, Knock.   I asked God if this was the right place for me to come.  I seeked out a way to be here.  I knocked and they opened their arms and welcomed me in with the warmth of fellow believers.  I'm asking plenty of questions here of others, trying to learn and understand as much as possible.  I'm seeking friendships and truth about ministry and agriculture and ways of living life and seeking for it in the Word each day and trying to understand myself, and find peace, and contentment.

And in much of this, I am learning from Hannah.  Her continual patient heart, listening ear, slow, wise counsel, and genuine care is unlike anything I've ever seen.  She has learned how to be content and have peace.  She is seeking truth also, and it is beautiful.  Like I said, we've been spending a lot of time with our noses in books.  Already, she's read Huck Finn, Eating Animals, Walking Gently Upon the Earth, and is now reading Pride and Prejudice.  I read (incompletely) The Unsettling of America Culture and Agriculture, and now I'm working on Black Like Me.  Besides her sweet spirit, she is sharing her cooking skills with me.  I now can make a very satisfying dish of sauteed vegetables.  I never knew onions were so delicious and easy to prepare.  We just bought five more... =]

Also, I'd like to give a shout-out to Grocery Outlet, because I love her.  She has such good deals on really quality items like organic products.  Also, to the Food Co-op, because they're providing the general public with access to locally grown and organic products and produce.  They present hefty price tags more than not, but they allow locals to support their neighbors as their neighbors make healthy choices in their treatment of the rest of Creation.

Today was church, which was great.  I'd like to describe how they do communion here.  First, we stack all the chairs on the perimeter of the room, and then we stand in a circle and someone will lead us in a liturgy and he/she will break the bread and hold up the cup.  Then, each person, after receiving the bread, will offer it to the next person and tell him/her, "This is the body of Christ, broken for you".  Then the leader will come around with the cup and say, "This is the blood of Christ, poured out for you, Jamie" and we dip our bread in the juice and partake.  When all have partaken, we have a closing prayer liturgy and the leader/pastor blesses us to go out.  I think this is a beautiful communal, personal way to partake in communion.

As you can see, this is continuing to be a very sweet growing time for me, as God is teaching me new things each day.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.  Love you all.