Sustain Life Workshop

Homestead Heritage craft village near Waco TX

Grist Mill at Homestead Heritage near Waco, TX


Woodworking display at workshop in Lewiston, ID


Quilting display at Lewistion, ID


Joy recovering from nearly fainting in the Idaho heat


Chris & Destiny in Lewiston

(Waco, TX 23 June and Lewiston, ID 31 July) I've been waiting to blog about this since June. When we left Katie and CJ's in late June and before we caught up with Joy's family in Dallas we visited a craft village near Waco, TX. I saw a flyer while checking in to an RV park and thought it looked interesting. The village is called Brazos de Dios or Homestead Heritage and is in a little spot in the road called Elm Mott, TX. It is a laid out like an old community would have been in the days of say, Little House on the Prairie (one of Joy's favorite shows). There is a grist mill where they grind their own grain, a building where they do all the spinning and weaving, a blacksmith shop, a woodworking shop, and a cafe' where everything is made from scratch using mostly ingredients from the homestead.

We were impressed with how friendly everyone was and after questioning found out that they are a Christian community. They are committed to living simply in the traditional lifestyle of an agrarian, family centered community. In the course of our visit we learned that they had been working out this idea in 3 different states over 3 decades. Everything they have learned to do living off the land for their own sustainment they also teach. One whole aspect of their ministry is education of these "essentials". They are just beginning to take their teaching "on the road". We learned they are at the front end of opening a traditional crafts/sustainable living teaching center north of Lewiston, Idaho and were partnering with several groups there to host a Sustain Life Workshop at the end of July to help jump start that work. As we made our way visiting the different buildings around the craft village we shared some of our story about just retiring from the Air Force and RV'ing across the country as we move back to Oregon. So here we are in the middle of Texas in June saying to folks we had just met that we might see them in Idaho at the end of July. Just before we finished our tour a couple came across the campus and introduced themselves. The young man asked me if I was the retired Air Force guy? Word had gotten around quickly. We met Chris and his new wife Destiny. We came to find out that Chris had gone to the Air Force Academy and had flown F-16's. He got out of the AF 3-4 years ago and came to this community to see what it was about. He never left.

It didn't take much adjustment to plan our trip to make it to Lewiston on 31 July. We found the fairgrounds where the workshop was to be held arriving early to make sure we could park the RV. We hadn't been their 10 minutes when we started meeting some of the people we had seen in Texas. They brought all their goods and 150 or so people from Texas to support the workshop. They remembered us and said they wondered if we would make it. We had a great time and went to several of the seminars and demonstrations. The cheese-making seminar was fun and we ended up buying the cheese-making kit and cheese press so we're ready to start a new hobby when we get settled. Joy visited a pottery demonstration and we watched the woodworking guy start with a log and turn it into a Windsor chair (well the steps to make the chair). We found Chris and Destiny minding the Kettle Corn tent and met and visited with Chris' parents who live in Boise, ID. Joy had a brief sense of feeling light-headed so Chris and Destiny got her a chair and we sat in the shade of the tent to finish our visit. Chris was so thoughtful to give us a gift of a music CD produced by the ministry. We have had two brief visits with these young folks and ended giving hugs as we departed wondering if and when we will see them again.

We're not sure why God had us connect with these people, but they love Jesus and their approach to Christian community is compelling.