Oblate Ministry at Spring Forest

By Melissa Yosua-Davis

Every April for the past three years, we’ve packed our family into our minivan and gone on pilgrimage to Spring Forest for three weeks. We leave behind our home on an island off the coast of Maine (and generally one or two early spring snowstorms!) to intentionally ground ourselves in the rhythms of the community that has best embodied our own desires for a neo- monastic life with a shared rule of life that has given meaning and structure to our own sense of call.

Ben and I are both former church planters who worked together in an urban setting in Massachusetts. We experimented with new forms of church that took shape in potlucks and board game nights and block parties and free markets. We’ve spent much of that time having long-term guests - friends from seminary, members of the church, and others sharing our space and rhythm of life with us. After that, we moved to Maine, the state in which both of us grew up, and I was appointed to serve as the pastor of the small church on Chebeague Island, an island with a year round population of 400 residents.Since then, we’ve started our family and renovated an old farmhouse on nearly 2 acres of land. I stepped down from professional ministry to tend to this nascent homestead (and herd children and chickens) and we’ve started dreaming about what our own “farmastery” might look like on this island - our own community held together by Prayer, Work, Table, Neighbor, and Rest.

Spring Forest allows us to sink our feet deep into the soil of this community, which has become our spiritual home. During our stay, there were the farm chores: harvesting chard, planting okra, pulling weeds, and processing kale. There were meals (and you never knew who would show up!) and times of fellowship and spontaneous hootenannys (a new word for us Northerners) and games of pickup basketball. There were times of rest along the Eno River or in front of the fire in the evening after a long day of work. All of it was rooted in the practice of community prayer each morning and a shared rhythm of life that takes its shape in a place that has become very dear to our hearts.

This past retreat, held at the end of April, we were blessed to volunteer during the Piedmont Farm Tour where we were able to share hospitality, help with parking, welcome children, and let people know about the wonderful programs that happen at Spring Forest. We also celebrated our first official cohort of Oblates who have formalized their commitments to God, one another, and Spring Forest!

I asked my two older children what they thought of their time in North Carolina. Here’s what they shared with me:

Michael’s Thoughts:

I like that Spring Forest is a farm and a church.

I also like the Rule of Life (Prayer, Work, Table, Neighbor, Rest). (Melissa’s note: He really named this all on his own!)

I also like Forest Feast.

I also like the chores I get to do every day, like harvesting and planting and weeding the garden.

I also liked helping out when they did the farm tour even though all I had to do was greet people and play guitar.

I really like being at Spring Forest

Genevieve’s Thoughts:

I had fun with friends there.

I also went to a pool and had fun there.

I climbed a tree.

Spring forest means church to me.

I feel good to be with friends who are like family.

I had a good time at forest feast. 

(Emeline, being not yet two, doesn’t have thoughts to share, but I imagine if she did, they would be about  her fascination with Lily the dog, and her joy in greeting Elaine every time she came back from the farm. I was also struck by how quickly she became comfortable with the many new faces at Spring Forest; she generally has a hard time warming up to new people.)

Being at Spring Forest for an extended period of time not only feeds our souls, but reminds us of what the church can be - not only for my husband and I, but also for our three kids. It’s our reminder that it’s not an hour of worship, an organizational structure, or a building: it’s a way of life lived together in community. Our experience is that following Jesus only makes sense when it’s lived from the inside-out and. It’s when we’re able to join in tending the land and loving our neighbors that the words we pray and the scriptures we read come alive in a way that is not possible otherwise.

The rhythms of life at Spring Forest give us hope for what we envision life on our island could be like for us - cultivating our land, tending to our relationships with our neighbors, inviting people for shared meals, and being a witness to a different way of living in this world - one centered around the way Jesus invited us to live. We hope to be a place of refugia - for our human and non-human kin - which is especially important in the midst of the challenging times ahead of us all. We find Spring Forest to be a place of refugia as well - a place where life thrives even in unfavorable conditions - and believe that the work and witness of Spring Forest - from the Farmastery, Hope 4 Humanity, Forest Feast, Grow It, the Oblate ministry, the retreats and workshops hosted there, and everything in-between - are vital for this time and place as we face an uncertain future.

We left with joy and grief after three wonderful weeks, packing up our bags for our sixteen hour drive home. As we traveled, we knew that we left part of our hearts behind in a place that has become our home away from home. We also were filled with gratitude for the piece of this place that we brought with us back to our island home, with prayers that what we have learned in our time with you all can continue to bloom and grow. 

Certainly I am grateful for a community that helps our family feel less alone in following Jesus in this way shaped by a monastic rhythm. We invite your prayers that there might be others who want to join us on our island as we seek to incarnate Spring Forest’s Rule of Life in community together, even as we continue to pray for you all in your work. 

In our own evening rituals of prayer before bed with our children, one of the questions we ask is “who do you want to pray for?” The other night, they offered up “Spring Forest” with Genevieve’s addendum of “so that the plants will grow.” May the seeds that Spring Forest continues to sow - the ones that get planted in the ground and the ones that get planted in all our spirits - continue to grow and thrive -- and may the harvest be bountiful.