We dreamed of having a pond on the Village side of the campus for quite a while. Over the past year it became a reality. It started with identifying the right location.

Bit by bit we carved it out of the ravine and formed it with the excavator. Once it was shaped, we purchased a liner to place in the hole to make it water tight. This was a much more involved process than we initially realized.

Once the liner was down, we began the work of prepping the bottom of the pond and creating two different depth levels as well as a little dock (see the pilings in the picture).

It was starting to look good… just in time to be used for a baptism! Kevin (who has worked hundreds of hours on this pond) was baptized last October on the Feast of St. Francis (Oct. 4). It was one of the most joyful days in Iona House’s history.

Ugh. The rain came and our drainage that we had worked on proved to be insufficient to keep all of the runoff out of the pond. It now took on this orange-ish brown color, which stayed all the way through the winter.

The answer: A self cleaning pond (and improved drainage). We began the hard work of developing a recirculation stream bed. Water would be pumped out of the pond, up a hill and then run down through rocks and plants to purify the water.

With the stream bed in place, we have now begun working on the aesthetics - rocks, plants, and more.

The stream bed demanded a walking bridge over it. Micah Hitchcock - former resident and gifted carpenter - went to work.

It’s coming together! We have more rock work to do and a lot of plants to get established before this pond will take its complete form. However, it has already become a favorite place for prayer and adventure (for kids). Thanks be to God for the gift of water. We are dreaming of a day when there is a lot more of it on the Iona House campus…

The Village Pond Project