Help Grow the 18 Inch Journey Campus
As our community sets out to build a third cabin on our land, we’ve been reflecting on the impact that our current housing has had on the lives of our guests and students. In the fall of 2015, we built two beautiful cabins to make space for more students that were coming to our school. These cabins were a practical need that ended up serving a much greater purpose. Check out the story below to see how our staff and students have been impacted by the simple gift of more housing.
In November of 2015, I said goodbye to our Phase One 18 Inch Journey students with joy in my heart and tears streaming down my face. It had been another season of loving deeply, laying my life down for others alongside my friends, and I could feel the profound impact it had made on the students who had come so willing to be transformed. Before our closing staff meeting, I walked down to the newest cabins to make sure that they were clean and ready to be closed for the winter. As I pushed the door open, a small note left by the entry-way caught my eye. It read:
To the 18 Inch Journey Students of 2016,
Welcome home! You have made a brave decision. The 18 Inch Journey changed our lives and we know that it will change yours. We hope your time in this cabin brings you as much rest, friendship and hope as it brought us. We bless your Journey!
Love,
The Students of 2015
More tears. An eruption of laughter. “They got it!” I whispered, full of wonder and gratitude to the Father. The students not only understood the gift that living in community was to them, but they caught the vision for what it can do in the lives of other people. They learned to look beyond themselves, to engage gratitude and to bless those who would be coming along after them. This is why we believe in community living—it leaves us transformed.
The two cabins that were built in 2015 continue to be a gift to our community. Every year 18 Inch Journey students and retreat guests live in these cabins, letting their hearts be stretched by moving in with strangers who soon become life-long friends. They learn to see and prefer the people around them, to engage others when they don’t feel like it and to be intentional in friendship. For many of our younger students, this is where they learn practical life skills—like weekly rhythms of cleaning and how to care for a home—that will serve them as they transition into becoming spouses and having families of their own.
We have learned that community builds consistency—
consistency in seeing the people around you
and caring for what you’ve been given.
We are seeing first-hand how community living is changing lives and the 18 Inch Journey is only getting started. We are building a third cabin on our land this year to house more students and guests whose lives will be transformed by living and learning alongside others. If you’d like to partner with us to see this dream become a reality, click the link below.