by Cindy Guertin

The day before I left The Campbell Farm, Carmanita gave me several gifts. In one of my hands she placed an eagle feather, protection for the journey, and in the other a rock she had scavenged out by the potter’s wheel. The stone had two distinct sections separated by a white vein down the center. She said the rock symbolized our bond — two souls fused together, and despite my leaving to move across the country, we would always be connected.

I went to The Campbell Farm as the summer Resident-in-Artist, seeking it out as a place of deep spirituality centered around the rhythm of work and rest, creativity, simple living and sustainability, connection to creation, multiculturalism, and hospitality.

I brought a potter’s wheel with me and set it up under the lean-to woodshed that became my makeshift ceramics studio for the summer, set beside the apple orchard, under the shadow of Mt. Adams. At dusk, after the sun set and the desert air began to cool, I would sit at the wheel and mold clay into thrown objects or pinch pots vessels until the darkness set in and I could no longer see the clay…and even then I would continue to work by touch and instinct. The farm dogs would wait by my side to watch over me and walk me back safely to the farmhouse to sleep.

Every morning before 6 am I awoke to join Carman in the kitchen to cook breakfast together for the Farm staff and visitors. Betsy brought us eggs daily that she had collected from the chickens, and Carman and I would go out to the garden to gather onions, potatoes, garlic or fresh fruits to use in the meal preparation. We cooked and danced and laughed together all summer long, sharing and listening to each other’s stories, celebrating our joys together and weeping in moments of sorrow.

Carman taught me the art of making Indian fry bread, not from any recipe but from the wisdom passed down through tribal elders. Our hands worked together in a large bowl, where we swirled warm water into the dry ingredients and worked it between our fingers, speaking prayers and blessings into the dough. She warned me not to bring any bad thoughts into the kitchen because the negative energy would get into the food and make people sick.

I taught Carman how to throw a bowl on the pottery wheel, my hands wrapped around hers as we worked the clay together between our fingers on the spinning wheel head. When the clay would start to wobble I would remind her to ground herself, find her center, and let that energy work from her spirit out through her hands and into the clay. Indeed Carmen said that throwing a bowl was one of the most centering and exhilarating experiences of her life.

I love the moments in my life when I am taken out of the ordinary and given a glimpse of the Peaceable and Just Kingdom. Last summer, I had the chance to be living that reality. I was nurtured and found mutual healing in my friendship with Carman and many others at the Farm. I was witness to peaceful coexistence between animal and people, the earth and her inhabitants, and was sustained by the rhythm of life — laughter and play, hard work and deep rest and recreation.

Starting in the fall of 2004, The Campbell Farm will host Young Adult Volunteers who want to live in intentional Christian community and spend a year in mission. The volunteers will contribute to the total life of the farm in a team ministry model and will work with one of a variety of community partners including Native American youth outreach, chore services for the elderly and disabled, Hispanic ministry with women and children, advocacy work with farm worker issues, and after school tutoring, drama and arts programming. Learn more about opportunities through the PC(USA) for young adults through Mission Service Recruitment.

The Campbell Farm is located on the Yakama Indian Reservation in Wapato, Washington. Its motto is “Caring for God’s Creation from the Ground Up!” Through a ministry of hospitality the farm seeks to model the peaceable and just Kingdom of God, be ministers of Christ’s reconciliation especially in a the culturally and racially diverse community, empower and equip Gods people to experience the abundant life of Christ and be good stewards of all of God’s creation. To learn more about the Campbell Farm visit.