It’s been a truly wonderful summer at Iona House (animal losses aside). We’ve been watching with great joy as the Lord is building the Iona House community and shaping the identity / character of this marvelous place. We’ve welcomed guests from near and far while enjoying a regular, growing community of local volunteers and participants who are bringing life and vitality to our rhythms of prayer and life together. We have been so blessed to have a wonderful resident family (Lou Family) with us for the summer, bringing life and joy to this place.

The past few weeks our core leadership team spent some time reflecting on some of what we’ve been learning the past few months. Below are a few of the reflections. I’m not sure any of these are new ideas or significant pivots from what we set out to do. But these represent increasing clarity and a tightening of our focus.

Regarding our Identity:

• Echoing the ancient celtic monasterium, we are a center of Christian formation & contemplation. 

• We offer overnight accommodations as part of the mission of Iona House. But, we are not a conference center: we do not offer rental space for groups to come up and do an offsite; we are not a small boutique place for a church retreat or ministry team strategic planning retreat. We do not host other conferences. Groups can experience Iona House as a group. But they are always immersed into the existing ecosystem and rhythm that we practice. [All of this represents a sharpening of our vision]

• A Question we wrestled with: Is Iona House more of a retreat center in which local volunteers assist… or is Iona House an ongoing local community into which guests come to experience a retreat? We all agreed: the latter.

• At the core of our identity and mission is an ongoing rhythm of life sustained by a local community of participants, volunteers, residents, and staff. It is this rhythm of life, this ecosystem, that is CENTRAL to the identity of Iona House. It is what allows guests (whether day use or overnight) to experience a distinctive setting in which all of life is oriented toward Christ. It is INTO this ecosystem, culture, rhythm that guests are invited to enter. It is this distinctive ecosystem that carries much of the formational freight (regardless of how much individual guests choose to participate in it). 

Some Implications: 

• The rhythm of prayer, the ongoing pattern of prayer, study, and silence, the animals, the garden - all of it matters!

• The resident program is central to our mission and essential to the success of Iona House. It’s worth having less overnight guest capacity initially (until phase 3) in order to have an ongoing on-campus life into which guests can enter. Residents are vital to our mission.

• The continuous engagement of the local community is vital to the ongoing health and vitality of Iona House. These volunteers and participants are not “accidental” or “randos” who happen to drop in. They are vital members of the Iona House community and essential to its full fruition.

• Iona House is not a performance-based setting. - i.e. we do not “put on” retreat performances (which is inevitably exhausting). Instead, we extend monastic-style hospitality to guests and invite them into the life we’re already living. This gives the campus a sense of integrity and constant rhythm. We’d be doing most of what we’re doing even if guests weren’t there. 

• The campus development is a joyful co-creation between staff, residents, local community volunteers, and guests. It’s not a project to complete in order to welcome guests. 

• Eg. - We paint the barn because the barn needs painting… not in order to impress the next set of guests. 

• We seek to offer the highest quality guest experience possible because every guest is to be welcomed as though he or she was Christ (- from the Rule of St. Benedict). 

Hard Day part 2…

Today (Saturday) we woke up to yet another killing. The Mountain Lion took our most beloved goat: Willow. She was bottle fed as a baby and more friendly than any other goat I’ve met. She was a great milker (produced a quart a day). Everyone loved Willow. She even let my boys ride on her. She would run up to you and just love being in your presence. Willow will be severely missed.

not a great picture of a phenomenal goat

We had a special memorial service for her today. To tell you how much she was beloved, 17 people showed up with one hour notice to gather and give thanks for her life and grieve together. We read scriptures, listened to a poem, told stories, and prayed. It felt better to grieve together. The time together ended by eating the last bit of goat cheese that Mary Shang-Lou had made from Willow’s milk. It was delicious, as usual - further emphasizing our collective loss. Hopefully all of this grieving over goats doesn’t sound ridiculous to you. I think it’s been surprising to us how much we quickly grew to love the animals.

The murderous mountain lion is officially legal to be hunted and euthanized as of this afternoon when we were granted a second deprivation permit. The trapper will be out either tonight or tomorrow morning. I’m sure the mountain lion is a magnificent creature… but he/she is a danger not only to our livestock but to all the neighbors and their animals. We’ll leave the fate of this lion to the trapper.

On our end, Mike Lewis and I spent all afternoon constructing a new shelter for the goats. We didn’t want another night of bloodshed. The shelter is a modified dog kennel with a corrugated metal roof (with a tarp to provide shade / weather protection). It won’t win any aesthetics competitions, but it will provide safety through the night and shelter when needed. The remaining goats and Llama will spend each night from now on locked inside of this protective shelter.

Thanks to the many of you who have reached out with kind words, prayers, and encouragement. We’ve learned a lot over the past 48 hours. We’re grateful that our beloved llama and mini-mule haven’t been hurt. We also give thanks for the two little remaining goats. They will need some new friends. We’ll begin that process soon.

In hope…

Today was a hard day. One of the worst I remember in this project.

I arrived just in time for morning prayer to discover that things were not ok with the animals. Our beloved milking goat was out of her pen (which was minor and easily remedied). But the real problem was found inside the electric fence enclosure (electric fence is both to keep the goats in and predators out as they do their important work of eating the undergrowth, especially the poison oak). Our guardian animal (Llama) was not acting herself. She always boldly runs toward people as they approach. Instead she sat in the dirt looking forlorn and distraught. Only two of the goats were visible. Usually all of them are loudly making their presence known. I knew something was wrong. I began to look around, and then I saw it: the first dead goat. After a minute more, I discovered a second dead goat. The two goats that were dead had no visible wounds. Just broken necks. A third goat was missing altogether. The fence was totally intact and operational; everything looked as it should.

I knew there was only one explanation: mountain lion (cougar).

a stock image… we haven’t seen our killer yet

I called a friend who knows about goats and predators. He agreed. It must have been a mountain lion attack. He recommended I call the El Dorado County Ag Department, who put me in touch with the county trapper (who knew there was such a role?) as well as Fish & Game. The trapper was out within an hour. Like a crime scene investigator, he poked around and quickly confirmed that it was indeed a mountain lion. He found tracks and said the crime scene was classic mountain lion. They can be savage beasts who kill just to kill (not even to eat). He was able to follow the trail where the lion dragged the missing goat and found the cat’s eating site. It was a mass grave of other animals, including our other missing goat from several weeks ago (which was, until today, an unsolved mystery). That means this brutal killer is responsible for 4 goat murders from our herd alone.

The State of California classifies Mountain Lions as a protected species, which means you can’t just trap or kill them. You must first get a “deprivation permit”, which gives us permission to “haze” the creature (chase it with dogs, or something fairly innocuous). If there’s another killing, then a different permit if sometimes granted that allows lethal action to take place (or perhaps trapping and removal to another region - though unlikely). As a property owner, you can only kill a mountain lion if it is in the act of predation against your animals.

The trapper strongly encouraged me to go out and buy a shotgun. His words were chilling. “The lion will be back.”

For immediate protection, we put the remaining herd back into the paddock with both the mule and the llama as protection (with the horse in the adjacent paddock). We also took the trapper’s recommendation and put out a battery operated FM radio playing music and then Stephen Lou helped create a scarecrow of sorts; I guess it’s a “scare-lion” - an attempt to make it appear a person is watching the herd. We’re praying against another murder tonight and feeling quite vulnerable.

The (actually) terrifying “scare-lion” made by the Lou family.

One of our next steps will be building a fenced shelter with a fenced roof that we can move around to be wherever the goats go. They will be locked in each night. We’ll need another locked shelter for the milking goats back at the paddock as well. These were complications and expenses we didn’t anticipate. But they’re solid solutions to this problem. This is a project looking for a sponsor - anyone?

To be honest, we are all pretty sad about the losses. It’s amazing how these creatures get into your heart.

I felt it appropriate to do a simple Christian burial (see the attempt at a crude wood cross, yet casting a beautiful shadow) and to pray a prayer of thanksgiving to God over each of them - for the precious creatures He entrusted to us, who have been our sweet friends, and who have quickly became an important part of the Iona House family. They will be missed.

All of this reminds us (lest we get hazy) that our world is aching and groaning for New Creation - where the lion and lamb can lie down together. Today’s newsflash: we’re not there yet.

At the big picture level: Today underscores that doing what we’re trying to do is inherently difficult; it involves substantial risk, massive effort, constant vulnerability, course corrections, and some painful losses from time to time. Today is a reminder of the difficulty of bringing this dream to fruition - one of many. Please pray with us that God will give us wisdom, provision of all kinds, and protection as we seek to carry out our mission.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.

We have been SO blessed to have Stephen & Mary Lou along with their four kids on campus this summer as our very first edition of our envisioned “resident program”. They have occupied the “dome” temporarily as we get our feet under us and get infrastructure in place in the Village portion of the campus.

When Elizabeth and I met the Lou family a couple of months ago, we were quickly struck by how well they fit into the vision of Iona House. They are hospitable, thoughtful, prayerful, contemplative, creative, adaptable, and a lot of fun. They have a wonderful ministry of presence. We invited them to consider a residency and to our great joy, they said “yes”. They began in early July.

We only have the Lou family with us for 3 months (through September), but we’re treasuring each day they’re here. They’re headed overseas to do some extended mission work that the Lord had previously put on their hearts before coming to Iona House; so Iona House is but a way-station to this calling. Previous to coming to Iona House, they lived and worked with YWAM in one of the most challenging places I’m aware of: the Tenderloin neighborhood of downtown San Francisco.

The Lou’s have quickly jumped into the mix handling animal feedings, cleaning, cultivating in the garden, security, garbage duty, goat milking (and production of milk related products - cheese, yogurt, etc.), and most importantly inhabiting and leading many of our times of prayer (Morning, Midday, and Evening prayer). They have pioneered a family-friendly approach to the Daily Office (fixed hour prayer). What a joy it is to see a Christ-centered family living out a journey of faith to the glory of God!

Hopefully you will get the chance to meet the Lou family.

Note of Apology: This summer has been filled with so much activity that I haven’t had time to write blog entries. Part of the “fullness” of the summer has been that the Jones family has been trying to move and get settled into a permanent housing setup (approx. 6 min from Iona House). So it feels like every waking moment has been devoted to either Iona House or our own house. We are now moved (mostly) and by the end of August will be able to put full attention to Iona House.

Much of the excitement of this summer has been the addition of many four footed friends (and a few 2 footed friends) to the family of Iona House. In addition to the horse we already had, so far we have added (with the generous help of sponsors who have donated toward these):

• 1 mini-mule (Festus - see previous post)

• 7 Nigerian Dwarf goats

• 1 Llama

and just last week we added two ducks to the family. This was when my oldest son (Nathan) informed me that “now we’re a real farm”. I didn’t know that ducks were the key to being a real farm. But apparently so.

The animals all serve a purpose… will, maybe not the ducks. We’re not sure.

• The goats are for the purpose of eating poison oak (which they view as a tasty treat). They are also for milk production (more on this below).

• The mini-mule protects the goat(s) that are in milk that stay back in the fenced paddock. Mules protect goats from coyotes, stray dogs, and potentially even from mountain lions. Everyone loves Festus. He’s sweet natured and can’t get enough pets from people.

• The llama protects the herd of goats who are out eating poison oak (who are fenced in by movable electric fence). The llama has quickly become a crowd favorite. She is very personable and curious. Llama’s don’t typically like to be pet, but ours is patient with people touching her. She is about 1 year old and will get to be quite a bit bigger over the coming year. And no, she doesn’t spit - at least not at people.

• The ducks… we’re not sure of their purpose (they came as a gift from someone). They do eat bugs and grubs and stuff like that. And the pair we have might be a mating pair. That might mean baby ducks and egg production. We’ll see. Currently they just love hanging out in their kiddie pool pond and waddling around. They are free range creatures and are cute to watch (when they’re not biting Festus).

The one goat that we have that is currently in milk is a good producer and extremely sweet natured. Her name is Willow. She’s like a dog. Wants to follow you around and hang out. She produces about a quart of milk a day. So far we’ve enjoyed goat milk, goat cheese, goat milk latte’s, and goat milk yogurt - all of which are delicious. The milk is very good tasting and quite creamy. We would also like to produce soap with the goats milk. SO. MANY. POSSIBILITIES.

By the way, I should be honest and say that the “we” is not usually me. I’ve only milked her like 3 times. It’s others who are doing this. I haven’t the faintest idea how to make cheese or yogurt or soap. It’s been Mary Shang-Lou (of our resident host family for the summer) who has been a rockstar at making great stuff with the goats milk. Go team Iona House!

People who come to Iona House love to interact with the animals. It’s a beautiful reminder of our creatureliness. The Bible was written in an agrarian setting and it’s wonderful how it comes to life in new ways just from spending a few hours or days in this kind of context. We easily forget that both the story of our creation (Gen. 1-2) and the story of the incarnation (Jesus’ birth) occur in the context of animals. Also, when Jesus went out into the wilderness for His 40 day fasting / testing, the Gospel of Mark tells us that He was amongst the wild animals. There are of course many, many examples of how animals are a big part of the story of Christian faith. These are just a few.

We look forward to you meeting the newest members of our Iona House family: fellow creatures under the care of our Creator.

What an incredible day we had this past Saturday (June 10, 2023)! We had around 100 folks come out to celebrate the purchase of the 2nd half of the campus and to bless and dedicate the land - offering it back to the Lord.

The day included gifts for guests: an Iona House cutting board + a prayer book + delicious appetizers. We had a special worship service focused on honoring God as the giver of all good gifts. We took a walking tour from the Abbey side of the property to the Village side where we continued the service. We then gave folks a chance to take a tour of the homes, the sheds, the barn, the garden, and more. We also had a hayride taking people between the sides of the property and bringing delight to kids.

It was unusually cool weather for June and we even got a thunderstorm at the end of our gathering. It merely led to more bonding under the big tent (while enjoying the refreshments).

The Iona House team of volunteers who made the event happen were truly amazing: from the food, to the parking assistants, to the musicians, to the docents, to the set up and tear down…. beautiful!

Emily Brannan

Director of Hospitality & Volunteer Coordinator

emily@ionahouse.org

We are so excited to officially welcome Emily to the Iona House staff. She has been serving with Iona House for over a year, so she’s not new. But we thought it would be helpful to do a formal introduction as she comes into an official title as part of our team. Emily is part of our weekly staff meeting and brings valuable contributions and wisdom to the ministry of Iona House. Emily in her role as the Director of Hospitality plays a significant role in shaping the experience of guests at Iona House - from partnering with Elizabeth to shape aesthetics and decor to managing laundry and cleaning, to coordinating a variety of volunteer roles, her hand is in many places.

Elizabeth and I did a brief Q&A with her recently:

Q. Tell us a bit about who you are and how you found out about Iona House.

I am wife to Chris and mom to Caleb. In the fall of 2020 I was able to fulfill a dream I've had for years to go back to school to finish my undergraduate degree in psychology, which I am still working on at Sacramento State. Caleb also started college at that time and not long after, Chris started a program to earn a second master's degree. Needless to say, the last three years have been an adventure! We purchased a home in Placerville in early 2021, where Chris's amazing mom lives, and she introduced us to the Jones Family in April 2021. We immediately felt a connection to them. When Chris and I left our long-time home in Livermore and moved to Placerville full time in early 2022 we got to spend more time with the Joneses and witness the beginnings of Iona House.

Q. How have you been involved in Iona House to-date?

I have been chipping in where I can, helping with administrative planning for a few retreats and community days as well as the recent Celebration Event, helping to stage the homes in the Village, and meeting regularly with Ryan and Elizabeth to help with the details of running Iona House.

Q. You've become our Director of Hospitality and volunteer coordinator. What kind of experience do you have to help you with these roles?

I worked as the Guest Services Manager for a large retirement community where I was responsible for a staff of 20 who led activities, worked the front desk, provided transportation, etc. Our purpose was to create a satisfying and edifying living environment for the residents. I have also done a lot of event planning in professional roles and have worked on staff and volunteered at two churches as a counseling intake coordinator, event planner, and coordinating volunteers. 

Q. We had imagined offering compensation for this role, but you have told us that you want to serve Iona House in this role as a gift. This is truly extraordinary! Tell us about that. 

Chris and I have felt called to live in such a way that during this time in our lives I am able to serve without a salary. We believe that God is asking us to live generously. He has certainly been so generous with us. More than anything, we want to be obedient to Him and allow Him to use us to extend His blessings to our community. 

Q. What excites you about the vision of Iona House?

Everything! I completely resonate with the idea of living into a rhythm of quiet and contemplation. I am so excited to help create environments and experiences where people can feel closer to God and be able to dwell in His presence. I have a passion for spiritual formation and soul care (I will be attending seminary next year to get a Master's in this area) and look forward to seeing people come to Iona House to experience Jesus' deep healing. He's done so much for me, I can't wait to see what He does for others who come to this beautiful place.

Our domestic animal population doubled recently: from 1 to 2. :) It’s about to jump to 8-10 when we get goats (more on this soon). We have been so grateful to have Mink (the beautiful, 21-year-old, quarter-horse who came with the property). Horses are herd animals and we’ve been planning to get some companions for her. We have also been keen on getting a goat herd (a project in process) to eat our poison oak and produce goats milk for Iona House. So, we have been searching for a great animal to be both a guardian for the goat herd (from coyotes, dogs, mountain lions, etc.) as well as a companion for Mink.

A couple of weeks ago we were introduced to Festus and fell in love. Festus is a mini-mule (mother is a donkey, father a miniature horse). He’s 13 years old. Ironically he was rescued from a bad situation near Placerville about 8 years ago and taken to Nevada City. We purchased him from a kind person who cared for him, and now we’ve brought him back to Placerville. He’s incredibly sweet. He’s well trained. He loves kids and is quite gentle. He’s also wicked smart (he can untie the gate latch). As soon as he arrived, we realized how much Mink had wanted a companion as she literally quivered with excitement and pranced around her paddock. It was quite the sight. Ever since, the two of them have been inseparable.

The idea is for Festus to be the guardian animal for our goats. But we’ll have to see if we can pry him away from Mink without a crisis.

We predict Festus will be a favorite with kids and adults alike. He loves attention and will happily take a carrot and a neck scratching from anyone.

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.

We have been quite busy ever since we closed escrow 5 weeks ago. Below is a partial list of some highlights of the action: Note that when it says “we” it is not Elizabeth and myself (though we’re often in the mix)… it means a steady stream of amazing volunteers who have offered their time, talent, treasure, and expertise. It’s a BEAUTIFUL thing watching God put together such a fantastic, broad, and committed community of participants and partners for the forming and shaping of Iona House. All glory to God!

• Campus Land Improvements

  • Fire prevention work: we’ve improved access trails / and widened roads across the whole 71 acres including creating turnouts and other improvements. We brought in 5 truck and trailer loads of gravel… more is still coming. We’ve removed approx. 30-35 large ponderosa pine trees that died as a result of the drought / bark beetle. We’ve been collecting and burning forest debris while we still are able to burn (burn permits typically go away this time a year).

  • Cleaning out the old ponds: as you probably know if you’ve visited, there are several very old mining era “header” ponds (used for hydraulic mining) that are now just big depressions in the earth. We continued to work on making them usable. Over the past few weeks we cleared brush and trees out of these so that they can become water storage for fire safety, irrigation, and to be a beautiful aesthetic feature.

  • Prepping for a future orchard: we are still finishing up prepping the area where we hope to plant our fruit orchards. We’ve removed stumps and unhealthy trees and our now ready to start amending the soil (later in the year) so that we can plant trees. The soil is quite acidic from generations of pine needles. So we will need to add lime to the soil.

  • On the Village side of our campus, we have been clearing away debris, organizing the layout, and more. It’s hard to put into words all of the work that has been happening because it varies from moving wood piles, to raking debris, to flattening bumpy ground, to adding gravel, etc.

• Facilities: We spent several weeks cleaning, organizing, and removing unhelpful / broken furniture from the homes. We had each of them professionally deep cleaned. We also purchased and assembled 17 beds + all bedding.

  • We’re preparing a temporary library space for the books that have been donated

  • We’re beginning the process of repairing some wood decking and creating a children’s play area.

  • We are in the process of transforming the barn from a pretty gross place to a very nice barn. The roof and gutters were completely cleaned by one volunteer already. Gravel was added to the floor by an amazing group of volunteers another day. We’ll be painting it this summer.

  • We moved the round pen for the horse and rearranged the paddock.

  • We’ve begun working on rehabilitating the fenced garden.

  • We’re in the process of organizing the firewood storage system.

Though we’re not “open” we’ve had the privilege of hosting some preliminary guests, most of whom have been serving as volunteers in some way or another. One of the joys has been the diversity of people who we’ve had so far: folks from Singapore, Egypt, South Africa, Germany, and China are amongst our first guests. We also had an amazing group from Silicon Valley (Holy Trinity Church) come.

Amongst the varied guests who have visited, we had two Greek Orthodox clergy recently who kindly gave us an icon of St. Columba and who would like their parishes to be involved in the life of Iona House. What a beautiful thing to see Iona House be a place of shared unity in Christ and mutual witness to His goodness! We continue to have folks from many different Christian traditions be excited about this place. Amidst a contentious and divided world, we hope Iona House will be a picture of what unity is possible in Christ.

On that note, we have been focusing on establishing more regular times of prayer (Morning, Midday, Evening Prayer) so that folks from the community can stop in to join us for prayer. We also enjoyed a potluck dinner and spontaneous community night a week or so ago. More to come… stay tuned.

There is no way to summarize in a single blog post the happenings of the past 5 weeks. We are BEYOND thrilled at all that God is doing. As we look toward the coming months, we will be focusing on a number of things: 1) establishing a rhythm of regular prayer and community involvement in the life of Iona House. 2) Preparing for the “Conditional Use Permit” process that will allow us to develop the campus and use it according to the vision we have. This will be an extended process that involves everything from environmental impact reports, historical studies, fire safety planning, traffic impact reports, architectural and site planning, etc. We welcome your continued prayers. 3) Doing some preliminary hosting of guests, as we’re able. A lot of what we’re doing right now is figuring out what infrastructure we need to have in place.

I can’t end this post without saying again how AMAZING our volunteer / serving community is: we have dozens of people involved in a variety of tasks: from laundry, to feeding the horse, to stacking firewood, to spreading gravel, to assisting with forest management, to gardening, to moving furniture, to cleaning, to leading prayer, to helping with food, and so on and so forth…

We are praying that God will take all of our collective efforts and prayers and truly make Iona House a place to reimagine all of life in reference to Christ.

This blog post is about 4 days later than I intended it to be. Unfortunately, I came down quite sick just after we closed escrow on Tuesday. (I’m recovering still…) Anyway, it was a no-drama close (which is the best). Everything went as hoped - the money funded, the paperwork was signed, and there were no surprises. Elizabeth and I celebrated with a special meal out on Tuesday evening… what a crazy ride this season has been. God is so very good!

It’s hard to believe that Iona House now has it’s full necessary footprint secured - all 71 acres. This includes our water needs, our road access, and a lot more infrastructure than we had a week ago… not to mention the homes, horse barn, 10 sheds / outbuildings, fenced garden, and more.

We’re gearing up for a busy season of preparing the campus for short-term usability: cleaning, rearranging, furnishing, fixing, etc.

We’re grateful to have such an incredible, generous, and enthusiastic community behind this mission. What joy to do this together.

So far in this Capital Campaign, participation has been INCREDIBLE!

• 129 distinct households

• representing 63 different congregations

• donations ranging from $50 - $300,000

Amen!

Today is a day of great rejoicing! We’re absolutely astounded and blessed beyond words by the goodness of God and the generosity of His people. It gives me great joy to announce: We have officially hit our goal of $1.5 million in gifts and pledges (on paper) - meaning that while we don’t have the full amount in our bank account, we have gifts and pledges in transit to us to cover the full $1.5 million amount needed to close escrow next week. We’re awaiting about $200k to arrive in our account, but we’re reasonably confident that it will arrive in time.

So far in this PHASE II capital campaign, Iona House has received 147 distinct gifts from over 100 households representing more than 50 churches. I’ll fill in the exact data in an upcoming newsletter blast. But for now, here’s the updated giving pyramid graphic.

Happy Easter! He is risen. Alleluia!!

I’ll share more soon about the summary of the fundraising to date. This is supposed to be a day off for our family after a very full Holy Week… so I’m keeping it short and to the point.

PRAISE BE TO GOD!!! We’re so close… We’re currently right around $20,000 short of our initial Phase II fundraising goal - to close escrow on the property. We’ve been blown away by the phenomenal response to this vision and the way the Lord has provided for what is needed through a broad and generous community. Our prayer continues to be that all of the funds (including the remaining amount) will arrive and get settled in our account in time to get the money transferred to escrow next Monday.

In spite of some rain on Friday morning, we had a wonderful Good Friday service together at the “Tent of Meeting”. We had a solid crew of locals and a few out of town folks. The service included singing, a homily (which I failed to record), prayers, silence, and our bell from Jerusalem being rung 33 times (one for each year of Jesus’ life) at 3pm. It was a beautiful and sacred time of contemplation. People also enjoyed walking around the property and spending time in silence, contemplation, and prayer.

It turned out to be perfect weather on Saturday for a Community Day. We had around 25 folks come out to join us for a great day of fellowship, manual labor, delicious food, prayer, silence, and more. Work-wise, we got a lot accomplished: several drainage projects, many piles of wood chips spread, a children’s activity tent put up, bonfires burning dead tree limbs, benches put together. We had a solid crew representing San Francisco / East Bay Area along with folks from Galt, and local community members.

With every passing day, the momentum for what God is doing here at Iona House is growing. It’s a thing of beauty to see it happening. All praise and glory to God!

Today we are 14 days from closing escrow, Lord willing, on the Phase II property. We can’t wait to see what will happen next.

We always knew that developing Iona House would take a broad, generous, and deeply committed community. We are in awe of how God is putting together just this sort of community!

Over the past month we’ve been hosted for five different “Taste of Iona House” events in which a person / couple / handful of people puts together a gathering with a meal and an invitation for us to share the Iona House vision with a group of their friends. I guess technically speaking these are “fundraising” events. But truthfully they’ve felt more like community-building or movement-building events (and our invitation to financial partnership is quite gentle).

What happens at a Taste of Iona House event?

We hear from people in the room about their experience of following Christ / seeking spiritually in this particular moment of history and then we share our story of God giving us the vision of Iona House in the midst of serving at a church in SF. We connect dots for people about the ways that we believe Iona House will be significantly helpful to building up both individual faith as well as strengthening churches across our region and beyond. We end the time together with prayer (and sometimes singing). It has felt deeply joyful and highly connective.

The food has been delicious at each event! We’ve walked away thinking that we’ve met some of the most wonderful people. We’re deeply grateful for this expression of partnership displayed in the hosts of these gatherings. Many thanks to Andy Ku, Ben Chelf, Ivy Lau, Evan Schindewolf, Peter Sanford, Sophia Chao, Ben & Margaret Fisher, Will & Jenny Stegall, and Tom & Michele Ruby. You have blessed us and the work of Iona House so much.

If you would like to host a “Taste of Iona House” event for us to come and share at, let us know. It doesn’t have to be complicated or elaborate. Even an afternoon tea or a dessert is great. The best size seems to be a group of about 10-15 people (including hosts). Let us know if you’d like to partner in this way.

By the way, we’re in an exciting season of seeing some additional gifts come together for the Phase II capital campaign. Here’s where we’re at today.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day. As a kid, all I remember about St. Patrick’s Day was that it was the one day I had to be vigilant to dress correctly (i.e. wear green) or I would pay for it all day long (pinches). Truthfully, I don’t think I even knew that Patrick was a real person until somewhere in my 20’s. It seemed like St. Patrick’s Day was nothing more than an Irish cultural awareness opportunity and an excuse for people to get sloshed on green beer or talk about leprechauns and four leafed clovers. Frankly, none of this appealed to me.

Fast-forward to the present. I got my kids up, fed & dressed them, and dropped them off at preschool this morning only to discover that we were the only household that failed to dress our children in green (I knew it was St. Patrick’s Day, I just forgot about the green clothes thing). My kids in their red sweatshirts stood out like a sore thumb. Parent fail. Luckily, preschool kids are too young to know about pinching each other over not wearing green.

The day started out on the wrong foot, but it ended on a much better note. My older son came home today, predictably, talking about leprechauns and pots of gold (which is precisely what was emphasized at his preschool)… so we decided it was important to educate our boys about one of the MOST significant Christians in the history of the Church. We talked about St. Patrick at dinner and then decided to reinforce it by finding a short animated retelling of his life to show the kids. Nathan (our 5 yr old) was captivated. Truthfully, I was too. Not so much by the very low budget animation, but by being reminded of the incredibly inspiring story of a man who truly embodied the way of Christ. If you don’t know his story, you should familiarize yourself with it: enslaved as a teenager, discovered faith for himself while enslaved, escaped slavery and returned home, studied and became a priest and then a bishop… and then courageously returned to his enslavers to reconcile them to God; spent the rest of his life in mission to the Irish people.

There is incredible wisdom in the historic Church’s decision to dial our attention in on the lives of the saints throughout the year. As you may know, every day of the year is some saint’s feast day. We usually only stop to take notice of the more well-known or significant ones (for example, recently it was Perpetua and Felicity’s feast day - a phenomenal story of courage and sacrifice). Why do these days matter? They are a powerful means of enfleshing the gospel. They take our theology and faith from the realm of abstract or sentimental ideas and ground them in the life of a real person. They show us what the way of Christ (lived especially well) looks like in hundreds of different settings - various eras, locations, life situations, challenges, etc.

Today was confirmation for me again of how I need to hear the stories of the saints. I walked away inspired by Patrick’s courage and faithfulness… by his willingness to go “all-in” for Christ. I needed that again today. It grew my faith and reinforced my commitment to live all of life in reference to Christ.

At Iona House, one of the things we’re excited about doing is celebrating a good number of the feast days (saint days) throughout the year. We’ll enjoy a tasty, communal meal, re-tell the story, and offer a prayer of gratitude in honor of the departed faithful person’s life as we worship God together.

What a joy it is to belong to an incredible, global, historic, and massively diverse family. Today I thank God again for the “communion of saints”, as we say in the Apostles’ Creed.

We’re coming into a very exciting season: the final push to gather the funds necessary to close escrow on the Phase II property. We have around 4 weeks left… and we’re on the edge of our seats watching and waiting to see what will happen. Who will be the people who stand up to offer the generous gifts necessary to purchase this vital land that will open up so much potential for Iona House? We’re in prayer nearly constantly about this.

It’s not been an easy context for fundraising. The macro-economics, particularly of the Bay Area, are not ripe for receiving larger capacity gifts right now (tech stocks have all taken a beating over the past year or so). But that being said, we’re seeing AMAZING generosity pour forth. I could tell you stories about people sacrificially giving… and those are just the stories I know of.

To date, we’ve received (including a $50,000 matching grant that we’re only $7500 away from completing!), right around $780,000 in gifts and pledges. THIS IS PHENOMENAL! We have over 70 households, representing nearly 40 churches involved. God is building a beautiful movement of generosity and partnership. For us, fundraising isn’t just pragmatic… it’s about God putting together an invested movement of people who believe with us that Iona House matters here and now!

When you look at the history of places like the original Abbey on Iona or any number of other influential monasteries or missionary centers, there is always a corresponding narrative of generosity that made it all possible: a family legacy, a substantial sacrifice, or some other inspiring story. Sometimes the story emerges directly from a mystical encounter where a person was praying and God spoke; sometimes the generosity emerges from a crisis or a story of great loss (a gift made in honor of a lost child or spouse or loved one). But whatever the case, the story is usually a story of faith. - Someone sees potential… sees God at work in a very seed-stage and decides to take the risk.

We’re praying that God would tap the right people on the shoulder to make the Iona House vision a fully tangible dream. Pray with us!

A screenshot showing Iona House as the winner of the 10k giveaway

We were one of 15 nominated Bay Area organizations who were eligible to receive a live, online $10k giveaway from a wonderful organization called Generosity Bay Area. All we had to do was get out the vote… AND YOU ALL CAME THROUGH!!! We had a fantastic crew of faithful folks show up.

All of this just happened 30 minutes ago; Elizabeth and I are sort of dumbfounded… filled with joy and gratitude. It was incredibly encouraging to us - especially as we’re in the midst of this final weeks of trying to raise a substantial amount of money to purchase the Phase II property. What we take away from this is more than the $10,000 (which is great!)… it’s a sense that there is a movement of people who believe along with us that Iona House is vital for this time. Our prayer tonight: Thanks be to God!

We had a cold storm come through that dumped about 10-12 inches of snow at Iona House. Typically we get about 5-6 storms a year that drop a nice, pretty dusting of 1-6 inches, which usually goes away in a day or two. This was a more substantial storm.

The pictures (below) don’t do it justice. It’s absolutely stunning. Looked like a winter wonderland. It was already starting to melt when I was there taking pictures (for which I’m grateful). We love the elevation of Iona House because of the four distinct seasons that we experience. We’re also grateful that it’s not too extreme in any one of these seasons. This allows us to be a 12 month-a-year retreat center.

Oh, and yes, the “miracle tent” is still standing after all this snow - with no observable damage. Praise God!

Here are some pictures of the other side of the campus (the part we don’t yet own) in the snowstorm that preceded this most recent blast 2 days ago. These are courtesy of the ladies who live in these homes who are selling them to us right now as part of our PHASE II capital campaign.