I’m disappointed to say that this relationship did not work out. You can read about why here: https://wellspringcommunityblog.wordpress.com/2024/03/16/sadly-potential-co-founder-is-incompatible/ However, I do want to remember the positive things about “Will” and celebrate that he helped me realize that I am no longer wanting to create a community, but rather look for one to join. I pray for Will daily, and hope that he can find what he is looking for, as he is no longer willing to communicate.
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Three days ago, a person reached out to me expressing interest in joining Wilberforce Village. I am going to call him Will, because at this point I don’t have permission to use his real name. I am writing about this because I want you readers to know what I am looking for in a co-founder. I also want Will to read this and to know my thoughts about our interactions.
The first thing that impressed me about Will is that he expressed enthusiasm about aligning with my vision, and that he is a Christian vegan who knows the importance of living in community. I appreciated that he said, “ask me any questions you would like to ask.”
I had a list of questions that I was still editing because I realized that I needed to be ready if someone who had the capacity and desire to be a co-founder appeared. I had actually given up on the idea of finding such a person, and was willing to just try to find people to come to conferences and retreats, as well as be work exchangers. After all, to find a person who is a vegan Christian and passionate about community seems like finding a needle in a haystack.
Fortunately, all we need, according to Jesus, is faith as big as a mustard seed in order to move mountains. I have been cultivating my faith in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as being all good and all powerful, and they all love me and want the best for me. I also have had the faith to keep on persisting in writing on the blog as well as keeping the entry updated in the Intentional Communities Directory at https://www.ic.org/directory/wellspring-community/
I want Will to know that he has inspired me immensely and from my 2 1/2 hour conversation that we had last night, I think he will be happy about that because he says that he really wants to be of service to me.
When I read Will’s initial email, I quickly sent him some questions. I found it interesting and helpful that only last week someone emailed me expressing interest in joining the community. I compiled some questions based on my current understanding of what I wanted to know about people. Thus I was prepared to move quickly since Will seemed eager to visit next month.
So often I find that God orchestrates situations so that I can be prepared for the next step in my progression towards achieving the goals that I believe that He set in my heart even before I was born.
I was relieved to see that Will quickly responded with lengthy answers to my questions. Some people are reluctant to write answers and want to talk first. My need to is get to know someone through writing because arranging a time to talk is often difficult since I have a rather unpredictable schedule. I realize that ideally potential co-founders and work-exchangers will be able and willing to write initially.
Because I did not want to overwhelm Will, I did not send all my questions at once but he made it clear that he was willing to answer more questions. I was inspired by his initial answers and thus was even willing to ask the other questions on a call. Once again, he surpassed my expectations and enthusiastically wrote answers to my questions.
One of the questions I asked was “Have you read the values and do you align with them.” He said he had not read all of them but would do so before our call. It is very important to me for someone to read the values because if there is a major one that is not shared, like being willing to eat a plant-based diet while on the land, for example, there is no use going forward. All full members will need to be committed vegans, however, when people are work exchangers or exploring membership, this is not a requirement.
The one value that Will did not align with is that all spiritual paths would be accepted. I have been indecisive about this value because of fear, and I know that acting out of fear is not healthy. My fear has been, “It seems impossible that I will find a Christian who is also vegan and committed to living in community so I need to be open to people who are not Christian being co-founders.” However, I intellectually know and have experienced the Biblical truth, “With God all things are possible.”
I made the decision to change the value that said all spiritual paths were acceptable. I have written a short version of my reasoning in the previous blog post. Here is the refined value:
“Spiritual Path: Christian
People who follow spiritual paths in alignment with the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” are welcome to visit, participate in activities, join the work exchange program, and even be part of exploring membership. However, full members who have decision making powers will need to express their belief in the Nicene Creed and have a commitment to follow Jesus Christ.”
Even if partnering with Will does not work out for some reason (and so far, all I see are green lights), I am glad that I made this decision. As I grow in my commitment to follow Jesus, I know that I need others around me to support me on that path. I also want the community to be a light to others where they can truly know that we are Christians by our love for one another, and for everyone. It was my experience of first participating in a group of Christians with whom I experienced that love which inspired me to finally do what I think I have wanted to do all my life–to surrender my life to Jesus.
The timing was unusually good for Will to connect with me because for the first week in months, I am at home working on projects rather than going out to work. Therefore it was easy for us to set up a time to talk on the phone. I continued to be satisfied that we are compatible because of the following reasons:
He loves to bring people together and encourage them. I am passionate about that, and that is the reason I designed and implemented the Community Connect events. I also recently decided that I envisioned a learning center where we would have back to back dynamic events described here. After writing this post,, I realized that this would be something I could not pull off by myself. However, with even one hardworking person like Will seems to be, I think we could do it!
He is a musician. Well, that is a plus that I would not have required, but since I am a singer yearning to incorporate more music in my life, this is wonderful. He has recorded. performed and written songs. He has the tools to record music. I have recorded songs such as these:
From our conversation I sense that he would enjoy this vision of an ideal day in community: https://jesusvegans.wordpress.com/ideal-day/ Will is a minimalist he even likes to sleep on the floor, as I described in this article! I appreciate that he has a vehicle which he could live in until structures can be built. I am envisioning making a wooden shelter over at least one of the large decks so that people could sleep in tents and not worry about branches falling down and having more protection from the elements.
He is enthusiastic about partnering with me. Will can see the vision, and does not need to have other people already here in order to join me. We are exploring our compatibility and so far I get the impression that he is easy to work with. I will be talking to him about nuts and bolts of him being here as a visitor and then being here as a provisional member. He is fine with me making final decisions until such a time that he has proven himself trustworthy enough to be a co-decision maker. I’m glad that he is not challenging my stewardship over the project, thinking that power should be shared right away.
Will is a passionate vegan and Christian. He became vegan overnight, 12 years ago, when he discovered how much animals suffer in order to satisfy people’s desires for meat, dairy and eggs. He also had a powerful experience with Jesus 3 years ago, and almost overnight became a devoted Christian. He is open to exploring Christian Universalism and is accepting of my interpretation of the Bible. I am not demanding that he believe exactly as I believe, but I feel hopeful that because he is a student of the Bible, he will discover that the concept of eternal conscious torment is not found in the Bible nor in the teachings of the majority of the early Christians.
Will values all the work I have put into this project. I was touched by his expression of gratitude that I have never given up on my dream. He said that perhaps all the ground work I have done made it possible for this time for him to join me. Maybe I wouldn’t have been ready–maybe he wouldn’t have been ready–if we had met at a different time. I have asked God about this saying, “Why hasn’t anyone come to help me yet.” The answer I sense he is saying is, “You still have some qualities that need to be cultivated so that you can handle the responsibility of starting a community. This is a huge responsibility. You don’t have to be perfect, but everything that you are experiencing is preparing you for this leadership role.”
Will wants to seek God’s will. I am so relieved and happy to hear his commitment to hearing God’s voice and seeking guidance in everything we do. I really do need a partner who has this passion because otherwise I would not be following my spiritual path which is all about co-creating with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I focus on Jesus because I feel more connection with him, and so does Will. But I know that the Divine Community–Father, Son and Holy Spirit–wants to participate with us and I love the idea of together listening to what God has to say about our decisions. I like the Clearness Committee process which I learned about early in my research into intentional communities almost 5 decades ago which creates an atmosphere where being led by the Holy Spirit can happen. I really like the Quaker tradition of spirituality which emphasizes this truth: “At the very centre of the Quaker faith lies the concept of the Inner Light. This principle states that in every human soul there is implanted a certain element of God’s own Spirit and divine energy. This element, known to early Friends as “that of God in everyone”, “the seed of Christ”, or “the seed of Light”, means to Friends, in the words of John 1:9, “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world”. You can read more about the Quakers here.
Will would like to eat a diet of raw vegan food: He is not currently on a raw food diet although he has done a juice fast recently and eats mostly whole foods, oil free, as I do and which I have described to be the diet of the community. I also would like to eat only raw food, and we are in agreement that it is much easier to do that when there is support. I realize that part of my relationship with food at this time when I feel such a longing for the comfort of community, is that the cooked food does supply some degree of comfort. I know it is not real comfort, but I confess that I do give into these desires.
I think we might find common ground in our diet. The main cooked food I eat are in the form of Ezekiel Bread, which is a sprouted grain bread, and cooked cow peas which I grew myself over the past two years. I am growing longevity spinach in the grow room, eating wild edibles that even still are growing outside, and alfalfa sprouts which I love to nurture. I also drink a green lemonade which has lemon juice date syrup, super greens and cayenne. A fruit salad comprised of soaked walnuts, hemp seed, apples, soaked raisins and some kind of other juicy fruit all ground up in the food processor has become a daily staple as well. I add papaya and other fruits on hand and it is delicious!
Well, I just explored the diet that Will says he subscribes to, and we are exactly in alignment! https://www.drmcdougall.com/education/free-mcdougall-program/introduction/ I had heard of Dr. McDougall but had not researched his work recently. I’m glad to hear that the diet I have been drawn to after 50 years of learning about nutrition, goes along with evidence based science. I’ll be consulting with Will to see if anything in my diet might not be the best so we can design the ideal menus for the community.
Will likes to eat wild edibles. He mentioned the name of a wild edible Youtuber who I have not heard of. I am passionate about eating as much wild stuff as possible, and this guy seems very helpful. I forgot his name but I will ask again.
Will is passionate about living in community. He knows that this is the way that people need to live generally because this is how we were designed, and the current way that people live in such separate ways is unhealthy. Since I have wanted to live in community for the past almost 5 decades, to find someone who sees the importance of living such a life is refreshing.
Will believes that veganism aligns with Biblical teachings. I wonder if he has read the book, Why Every Christian Should Be A Vegan https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43597297-why-every-christian-should-be-a-vegan I would like to write a shorter, more gentle version of this book. Ryan Hicks, the author, provides good evidence to show that Jesus did not eat fish or animal products. He also goes over the Biblical texts that people use to refute veganism as a way of life that honors God. However, I am uncomfortable with the way he speaks negatively about people who eat meat, especially Christians. After all, most of us vegans ate animal products at one time out of ignorance and societal programming. One of my favorite sayings of Jesus is, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Another is, “Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.” Some Christians are downright angry with us vegans and even say that the Bible commands us to eat animal products, but we vegans are called to love them.
Will likes to pray aloud. We ended our conversation with a prayer where we each prayed. I really value prayers where people can hear each other and their expression to God.
Well, I’m sure I could list some other things that we have in common, but this is good for now. I feel hopeful, as does he, that we could work together to make the vision of Wilberforce Village a reality. The vision is so big that vegan Christians can find a way to fit in. I am glad to be narrowing the focus to vegan Christians because I think that even though it may seem that our numbers are small, we need to work together to spread the word about veganism, especially among Christians.
The vision I had which was supported by a non-Christian who thought it was important for the largest religious group in the world to be inspired to be vegan, can be found at this blog: http://www.JesusVegans.wordpress.com
I feel inspired to return to this vision, and I thank Will for helping me to do so. I write this article in gratitude to Will, and I hope that soon we will get to a place where mutual trust is built to a point where we can commit to working together on the land. God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. If our partnership is God’s will, we will be working together, as Will said in his prayer. Isn’t that amazing? I felt inspired to call him Will!
