Aye, B.C.!!

Aye, Canada!! I see what you've done! You lent us your beauty, simplicity and gave us complete safety. Our hearts began to heal in your gorgeous land where the mountains and ocean meet. When we arrived early September we barely functioned. In fact on day three I took a 3.5 hour nap. I don’t do naps. We unpacked all of our deep disappointment, great grief and frozen frustration. You were so incredibly patient with us. You showed us how to relax our bodies, minds and souls again. You whispered reminders to us of things we once knew, but could not recall. We went old school - put the pen to the page, the ax to the wood and even clippers to the garden (that was healing AND fun!). God used you in our lives.

We studied, worked, discussed big questions, listened to lectures, enjoyed piano, harp & cello concerts, even a jam session, toured Victoria and Sydney, heard music that others love, studied movies that mean something (and one that didn’t seem to), asked questions, were asked questions, searched the sky and trees for reminders that this world You gave us is beautiful and You want good for us.

We were richly blessed with 40 days of shelter. Forty days of safety. Forty days of asking God to __________ our minds, hearts and bodies: recalibrate, recenter, regulate, revise, reshape, revamp… and best of all - redeem. 

Day One - Friday, September, 8, 2023

We woke before the sun even thought about waking up… and headed to IAH as the epitomes of depletion… we landed in Calgary and recalled the scene from Cool Runnings with a chuckle. Then we boarded for Victoria and had no idea what to really expect. We’d been running so hard and fast with little time to really check out what we’d gotten ourselves into… It was Chris’ therapist, Kelsey Seifert that prescribed “L’Abri” as a place for healing. We imagined it was a nice quiet retreat where we could hibernate and heal. But, it didn’t take us long to learn that was not at all what we’d gotten ourselves into… and that God had way more for us than hibernating!

As the little yellow cab drove us up to the L’Abri property our hearts were open, our grips loose and we were ready to surrender everything for 40 days. As we entered the front door of the big house we called out, “hello!” Followed by, “hello?” Our eyes longingly examined every wall within sight - full of bookcases that were full of books… from ceiling to floor, left to right and what seemed like infinity! Many books were very familiar and that was reassuring. As we wandered into the “library” we were greeted with such quiet and stillness. Finally as we made our way into a little hallway with a burgandy cement floor we encountered a human being. She had rubber gloves on with a bucket of cleaning supplies and had been on her knees in the bathroom. She was happy to see us and introduced herself to us as a “L’Abri student”. 

I exclaimed confidently, “How nice! We are L’Abri visitors or participants or something like that...! We’re Chris and Jen. Where’s Liz or Clarke & Julia?” (I’d heard of Liz in an email Julia had sent me when we made reservations to stay. She seemed like the one who we would need to connect with. She would be “doing our laundry”.) Before the gloved girl could answer... down from the kitchen called our next new friend who was from Australia. There was no doubt about it - listening to her incredible voice and Aussie accent. Every word that fell from her mouth was drenched in beauty. 

Enter "Pickle" (tough, yet oh, so tender) who showed us the schedule and calendar about basic things about the house. We were highly encouraged to settle in, rest, join them for tea time at 4:00 if we’d like and then not show up again until 6:00 for community dinner. A lecture would follow at 7:00 pm. We unpacked and started to settle in. There were bookcases lining most walls including the hall we were staying in just down a few burgundy cement stairs where we’d first met our “Cinderella” cleaning the bathroom. It contained two comfy chairs to enjoy time tucked away reading.

At dinner we met a whole host of people from the L’Abri community including Liz! Yeah, finally! She laughed when I told her how anxious I was to meet her since she was to do our laundry. But, she had actually left staff awhile ago to continue in her education. As the days unfolded we began to see evidence of Liz showered all over the property. It was so fun to sit with her and talk as we ate from-scratch soup and bread (by Hannah, you'll meet her later - it's her off day). Yum! Liz introduced us to another fellow student, Mak who over the 40 days would come to be one of the dearest treasures we’d found in the journey. Mak was asking deep questions to us during dinner and my mind was complete mush with all the things we’d experienced through the day I could barely contribute answers. 

Our first Friday night lecture was given by Clarke Scheibe (Canada L’Abri Director), “Religious but not Spiritual: The Perplexing and Tragic Story of King Saul”. He challenged us from 1 Samuel 15:12-31 on these four points: distrust God’s leading, principle of sacrifice over obedience, fear of people over fear of God, conflict in a divided heart. After looking at a snapshot of Saul’s life we determined the answer to the question was to be religious AND spiritual. Finding that balance is maybe the question of the century… I noted in my journal that night, "how very fitting to hear this teaching and challenge!"

When the full day came to an end we snuggled up the best we could in our queen size bed in the corner and realized we, too, were students at L’Abri… and I wondered how long I would last being so far from family and familiarity… sometimes when you’re so frozen in frustration you just can’t think clearly… and you’d rather just stay there… in the familiar. But, I knew God wanted more for us than to just survive. He wanted us to thrive. We were breathing, but barely alive. What will tomorrow hold?

So to recap, we met three of our fellow L’Abri students in the first 8 hours. By the end of term there were 15 of us students that came and went, but the five of us were there all 40 days. There were also four full-time staff who lived on the property who were like shepherds, missionaries or ministers to us… and many, many friends of L’Abri who walked with us week in and out (Rev. Brett, Helen, Liz, Michelle, Abigail, Martin & Linda, Gayoung & Minsoo, Naomi, Liz & Devin, Jenaleigh). 

It was quite clear that there was a rhythm and routine and we were NOT about to isolate and hibernate for the next 39 days! The rhythm turned into a beautiful song and dance somewhere along the way. If only we’d read the About page on the website we’d have known more of what to expect, but maybe I wasn’t quite ready to face the truth. The Lord knew just what we needed and did He ever surprise us... in fact, He knocked our bloody socks off (more new vocabulary we learned from our Aussie friend to come in future posts!) :D