04 Culture

By Paul Gordon Collier, Editor

“For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

“Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” – Hebrews 4:8-13

Here is an update on our Hope Estates Project:

Last year, right before we were set to get our maintenance to protect our natural-gas powered steam heating system from freezing risks, we were hit with a deep freeze that lasted for days. To us, this was an act of God (in the figurative sense). While we could have avoided the disaster had we scheduled our maintenance earlier, there was little reason to believe we would experience the deep freeze that hit Canton in 2025.

Since that disaster, we have faced the reality that our project expense just doubled, minimally.

Now, we are having the whole steam heating system removed. We have had an estimate for a splitter solution, one that offers heating and cooling, but, in the end, we chose not to go with an option that requires many holes to be drilled into our stone walls. This might have been the cheapest solution, but cosmetically, it’s the worst.

For this winter, we are going to use a few industrial-strength heaters to keep our large spaces above freezing. We will be installing a new shower in one of our bathrooms and getting our roof repaired to the extent that it needs it. We have a slate roof that needs a good cleaning and some minor repair work.

My wife and I hope to be living there two weeks out of every month starting in the beginning of November. Once we can stay there, we can do more of the work that requires more elbow grease than cash. Next year, we will decide our final heating and cooling solutions.

Our Harrisburg project has seen a lot of improvement, with my brother Bill’s apartment mostly done save for some furniture that has yet to be removed. His apartment is on the third floor and the hallways and stairways are narrow, making this final move a challenge.

Once his apartment is ready, he can stay there more to help prepare the apartment my wife and I will be using. He can also begin to make more trips to D.C., where business opportunities abound.

The project has been challenging to all of us, especially because of health issues that first affected my wife, and now are affecting me (unrelated to hers). Even as I write this, I am battling an adrenal pots flair up.

Part of my health issues, though, are tied to this project, but really, are tied to my struggle to enter into God’s rest. Every morning when I wake up, since it became apparent how much we lost in the deep freeze disaster, I feel a lead weight on my chest, and the same basic thought, “how will we ever overcome this loss? How will our shared visions ever come into fruition?”

What began as a quest to build a Hope Exit Castle has turned into a quest to build Hope Exit Castles and “embassies” in four locations. Our second Hope Exit Castle Project in Harrisburg fell on us by necessity; we must provide for our mother, and help her fulfill a dream she’s always wanted, to see her property become a resource for her community.

Her dream aligns with our vision, so she has joined up with us. So far, we have myself, my brother Bill, my wife Jena, and our mother, Kymm, coming together for this project. All four of us share the vision, and all four of us hope to experience the joy and trials of serving our communities, one which we come from, and one which we are emigrating to.

Outside of us four, we have other people supporting us at various levels, some of which may join us more directly down the road. All told, there are roughly 12 of us invested in whole or in part in seeing this vision come into being.

I have such hope for all of us in our group to see the potential of our projects fulfilled, which will mean everyone will have platforms to fulfill their own unique callings to serve in the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

One of our members, Joe, hopes to use the sanctuary to run traditional Anglican services, which has been a dream of his for decades. My mother has dreams of creating gardens that supply food to the needy in both Harrisburg and Canton.

I have my own dreams, as does my wife, my brother, and the rest of us.

None of us have received direct knowledge from God about how our project will end up. God seems to have chosen to commit us to the work without the confidence we are “destined” to succeed. My wife and I, at present, have the most to lose if this project fails, and, to some degree, we feel the most responsible to make the project succeed (not that we should, only that we do).

The Apostle Paul had a similar worry. Like me, Paul was taking God’s responsibility, God’s will and purpose, and making it his.

In 2^nd Corinthians 11, the Apostle Paul is excoriating the Corinthians for allowing false doctrines into the church and being seduced by “super apostles” who claim to have done greater works and performed greater miracles than Paul.

When listing the trials he has endured in the name of Christ, he ends it by confessing to a sin, the sin of anxiety, fear over things you cannot control. He says,

“And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” – 2 Corinthians 11:28

This confession of sin is a counter to his claims of endurance. He makes this clear by following the previous verse with this one: “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?”

Paul is a sinner, like us, a repentant one not walking in the habit, or practice of sin, but not wholly free from the heart of stone. As such, like us, he is weak, incapable of enduring the hardships he’s endured, and he is not courageous enough to face authority in the name of Christ, like he did.

The message is that the fruit of a servant of Christ is not in boasting of our good deeds, our miracles, but in demonstrated humility that comes through resting in the Lord, and not in your own works, “for whoever has entered into God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His.” (from Hebrews 11:10)

What we have endured, the four of us, in different ways, for the past two years, has been a severe trial. Yet our trials pale in comparison to Paul’s, and certainly to Christ’s. They probably pale in comparison with what some of you have endured these last two years as well.

Yet even in the middle of this disaster, we have received unexpected blessings that will enable us to initially invest more in this project than we previously thought. We’ve also received other blessings along the way that have softened the blow of this unexpected setback.

Above all else, though I have struggled with anxiety, my daily meditating on scripture has given me a foundation of truth and a certainty in the end of my earthly story, which ends in the presence of God eternally.

That Hope Exit is the only one God has assured for me, so far. The other Hope Exits we are working on will be testimonies either to our weakness overcoming great adversity through the Holy Spirit or a painless learning experience for others. Those who follow after us might then succeed in bringing a vision such as this to fruition, in part through our failures.

Our vision, plainly stated, is to create a living example of a missional extended family living in mixed space, private and public, to serve the community they are in. There are many ways to accomplish this vision, and for those reading now who have a similar vision, we hope you are working to bring yours to fruition as well.

I have learned through the years there is one thing you can control in life, the commitment to keep trying. Whether my end comes before or during the return of Christ, I hope to be found working towards building the Kingdom of God on that last day, come what may.

Surrendering outcome is not surrendering excellence in pursuit of outcome, it is entering into God’s rest, which is the whole story of creation.

In Daniel 4, I believe the vision given to Nebuchadnezzar is also for us. His second dream, along with Daniel’s interpretation, reveals, I believe, the whole story of creation. In that vision, he said “The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.” (Daniel 4:17)

To “know good and evil” for yourself is to rule yourself, and the whole of creation is working out the cost of ruling themselves, of refusing to enter God’s rest and allowing HIS will AND desire to overcome your own desires, even your own will.

It is in this spirit we continue our work, certain that it will end in our glory, through God’s glory, for all eternity. Beyond that, we will strive to be good stewards of our vision without making the vision an idol. This means entering into God’s rest so we can rest in our work.

For those of you who pray, I ask you to pray for us, especially me, that we may be good stewards working diligently to complete our vision while also entering God’s rest while we do it, come what may.

Let us rest while we work excellently to advance the Kingdom, through spiritual battles we currently face, and the ones still waiting for us to fight.