One of the distinctive and inspiring parts of Iona House has been the role of gift giving. As you (may) know, Iona House is not a “fee for service” business. We operate completely on the basis of gift giving. That can look like financial support through monthly gifts, one-time gifts, etc. [Thank you SO MUCH to each of you who support this way.] But giving can also look like the giving of expertise or time or effort. It can look like the donation of a valuable item.

Here are some examples of gift giving at Iona House from just the past 5 weeks:

A professional forester / arborist has offered to come and make an official forest health plan for our entire 71 acres and help us figure out the best way to handle fire safety and tree health.
A kind person we barely know gave us a very nice farm “quad” with a trailer for getting around the campus and doing maintenance, etc. This was at least a $3500 gift.
We had 4 people come this past Saturday and spend the entire day serving: 3 guys on chainsaws, 1 lady cleaning. They offered their service as a gift.
We had a husband and wife from the Bay Area secure 100 settings of five-piece (main course + salad plate + bread plate + tea cup + saucer) china and cutlery from a church that is closing in order to give it to Iona House. I’m guessing the value of this must be well over $10,000. We now have banquet quality china for whatever we want to do!
We had a local tree service person offer to bring out an entire crew and give us a day of free service to our forestry needs.
We have a family that includes a father with his three teenage daughters who come up from Galt every Tuesday to help us with a variety of projects. They offer their time and effort as a gift
I’m not even beginning to scratch the surface of the gift giving that is happening when you think about time / serving / etc. We have too many gifts being given to even acknowledge them.

What is the result of all of this gift giving? Many things… (i.e. the entire operation of Iona House)… but underlying the gifts what has emerged is a community that is connected to one another. Societies that operate on the basis of gift giving are ones in which social capital and connectedness is built up. Sure, it might be simpler to just make everything transactional here at Iona House: you pay to come for a visit or a stay, or to have a meal, or to have a tour, or a time of silence and solitude, or what have you. But the net result is not at all the same. In a fee for service operation, every interaction is then measured in dollars and evaluated for whether it was worth it. That has never been our vision. We have staked our operational future on the vision of an economy of gifts freely offered and joyously received.

What we are seeing emerge is something much richer and more beautiful. It echoes the spirit of the early church seen in the book of Acts (chapters 2-5). It echoes what has been practiced in Christian monastic communities and healthy churches over the ages all around the world.

Some folks can’t begin to imagine how this can possibly work. People ask us all the time about whether this is “sustainable”. They’re good questions. We’re certainly not trying to be naive or worse, reckless and foolish. Our underlying confidence comes from years of experiencing the incredible generosity of God toward us and from experiencing the joy of giving and receiving in Christ’s Name. He is the Giver of all good gifts. Every good and perfect gift flows from Him (James 1:17). We hope that encountering Iona House will capture more peoples’ imagination for what it looks like to receive life as a gift and to freely offer it back to the Lord as an expression of joyful trust.

The connective role of gifts