Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Camping at the base camp park and military family

Our place looks like a park. It is amazing out at the base house right now. Tony built a childrens play area complete with swings and slide. We have expanded the yard and are going to put in a bit of a sports area. We are working on a bit of a kitchen expansion... we are in need of a little more room. Things have changed a bit this summer and instead of a couple of young adults coming up we are having a little family move in! A military family is moving in to the community while "dad" is overseas for a year. We are very excited to have them come! They will arrive at the end of July.

Most of our crew is headed to Cornerstone at the end of this month. Daughters of Exile will be playing Thursday evening. We have an art festival shortly afterwards in Minneapolis. There are also babies on the way so Tracy will be traveling on a semi regular basis. I'll be taking some coffee brewing classes in prep for the coffee stand at LifeLight.

Here's the really important part for you! Freedom Seed's Communion is coming up! And like I said it is like a park up here! July 28 - 31 - Come camp!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Surfing

I don't know about you but surfing always looks easy to me. When a professional does it anyway. Doesn't it look easy? They take a board out there. They have groovy hair. They have sweet hemp necklaces. They look totally relaxed. The stroke out in to the ocean like they were born swimming and like the board doesn't create any drag whatsoever. They wait patiently. They hardly even drift. And then... then the wave comes and the slide in to an upright position on their board. You can hardly see the motion they make that takes them from their prone position to standing on the board. Then they are riding the wave. They are inside the wave. They are flying. They are gliding. They come out of the water looking just as relaxed, if just a little flushed with the excitement and victory of their ride, as when they went in. Hemp necklace still in place. Perfect tan gleaming.

Gosh that looks easy.

If you have ever attempted any kind of physical activity you will know that it takes a lot of effort and a lot of practice and usually quite a lot of bruises. On top of that there is the investment in a board and clothes and even the hemp necklace. Sure everything looks "carefree" and easy but these people worked like crazy to make their surfing look easy.

We are practicing a new trick right now. We are putting together a curriculum for this summers (and many summers to come) interns. We are working on a church plant. We are working on starting a business. We are recording music. We are traveling. We are deciding on how we are doing all of these things and keep our community and family lives vibrant, healthy and happy.

It's fun. It's a lot of work.

Sunday, April 03, 2011

In the quiet of Sunday


It's silent.

It's still.

It isn't an uncomfortable silence.

Someone has just finished speaking.

Everyone is letting the moment rest.

If someone speaks and someone else interrupts or explains, makes excuses or in anyway detracts from what the speaker just said it sours the moment.

It doesn't matter what just came out of that person's mouth.

There has to be somewhere that people are safe to share.

Be authentic.

It's a comfortable silence.

And then someone else opens up.

Their words gush out like water.

Unhindered and free because no one has placed a stone in front of them to disrupt the flow.

And then everyone is still.

As we let it soak.

And we are filled.

And it's quiet.

And it's safe.

To be.

Authentic.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

We are prepping for our summer new arrivals this year. We have one who will be moving up full time and another who will be on and off and we are all looking forward to the surprises that come along! If you have an interest in coming up for the summer or know someone who would benefit then get in touch with us!

Our entire group is busy with piecing together side businesses and working on becoming more self sustaining. Things are moving as slowly as the sap around here and we are all trying to remind each other that spring is just now starting. We are having some of the coldest weather for spring though and we have been warned that the next couple of months are going to be chilly... great... there are some years here where you can wear a sweater all year round. We are hoping this is not one of those years. We would like to enjoy some lake time!

Garden plans are in the works and new chicks will be ordered soon as well. Things for the LifeLight music festival are gearing up already and soon there will be a lot of back and forth to Sioux Falls for both Tony and Matthias.

I have to say that our hearts are all straining towards other countries right now, India and Mexico especially are weighing on us all. Right now we can't make it there but we are looking forward to the time when we will be able to go again! Until then, we invite you here! We always have great food and there is hardly ever a dull moment.

Jasmine for the crew


Buy some awesome coffee from us!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Everyone, wanted and needed

Our "parents" arrived home today! It is strange how you can live with so many people and yet when someone(s) leave for even a short time you miss their part in the daily activities. That is when you know that everyone really is participating in community life, you feel their absence because their part in the daily or weekly activities are missing and that part is vital to the way that we function. Sure someone can take over for a little while and we all live and everyone enjoys a vacation now and then but everything functions the best when everyone is here to fully participate.

Everyone is wanted. Everyone is needed.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Saturday Morning at the Community

It is Saturday morning at the community and it's far from what the normal populace would call "laid back" but that is exactly what we would call it. It is after 10 a.m. and the pancakes are coming off the grill. The house is loud and filled with all of us and we have extras this weekend.

Aubrey and Tony make the best pancakes. They are huge, fluffy pancakes. I don't even try to compete I have just moved to making flapjacks so that nobody compares my cakes to the perfect pancakes that come of the grill of Aubrey and Tony. How do they do it? I don't know. Maybe I could talk them in to making a "How to make a perfect pancake" post but it isn't very likely because they both have an aversion of sorts to social networking so if you ever want the most perfect pancakes you will just have to come visit.

Jasmine

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Coffee with a Cause

Our mission is to help youth “gap year” or more accurately “gap summer” which is the year that follows high school where many young adults are wondering what to do next. We help these young adults find purpose and gain direction through hands on projects and through volunteer work in the community and around the country. These young adults spend their gap year summer working hard with their hands, learning to live with each other and learning vital life skills and teamwork.

The young adults that set aside this special time to focus on character building come out stronger and full of purpose. Many decide to go on to college or join a volunteer organization or even start their own business. They became highly motivated people.

By buying coffee from Freedom Seed Mobile Youth Church’s you will be supporting our work with young adults as well as enjoying an incredible cup o’ joe!

We purchase our coffee from Peace Coffee, a Minneapolis, MN based coffee roaster. Peace Coffee beans are fair trade organic coffee. Not only are they ethical they are also huge advocates of getting off your couch and being active while saving a little gas! We love that.

We are selling each pound of beans for $14. Local pick up is offered in the town of Bemidji. We will ship it to you and you’ll be charged what it costs to ship your order of beans. We’ll also give you some brewing instructions for drip, Melitta (our personal favorite) and cold brew.

We have a great selection of beans that our coffee fanatics enjoy.

Because of our love of biking….


Colombian Heavy Pedal Roast


Clean sweet light roast with a mild berry/cherry finish.

Roast Level: light
Acidity: medium-high
Body: medium
Aroma: cocoa, honey, almond
Flavor Notes: toasted walnuts, cocoa, wine


Blue Ox Blend

A dynamic blend of three coffees that highlights the individual flavors of each origin.

Roast Level: light, medium, and dark
Acidity: medium-high
Body: medium-heavy
Aroma: orange, spice, earth, dark chocolate

Flavor Notes: caramel, dark chocolate, graham, orange marmalade

This is our crew’s top pick.


Mexican Dark Roast

A big smoky start, nice dark chocolate middle and a crisp, clean finish.

Roast Level: dark
Acidity: low
Body: light
Aroma: dark chocolate, nutty & dried herbs

Flavor Notes: dark chocolate, black currant, prune, toasted walnut, dark toasted wheat


Yeti Cold Press Blend

This special blend makes an extraordinarily balanced, smooth and rich coffee.

Roast Level: medium-dark
Acidity: very low
Body: light-medium
Aroma: chocolate & toast
Flavor Notes: caramel, dark chocolate & smoke

For more information or to order some of this rockin’ coffee for a great cause you can –

Call us: 218-854-7327

Email us: info@freedomseed.org

Check out our website: www.FreedomSeed.org

You can also friend us on Facebook! Just look up Freedom Seed.
For now you are only able to order over the phone or by e-mail.

Please let us know how many pounds and what beans you would like. If you need your beans shipped please send us your address. You may also arrange a pick up if you are local.

You can either pay by check or with PayPal.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Spring Searching

We are all on a search. Thankfully not on a search for Hope. We've found Hope. We're not in search of inspiration or on a search for Love because we have those things blooming in our lives, overflowing really. We're not even on a search for a home. We have a temporary one here and a permanent one to look forward to.

It really sunk in that we had a home to come back to when a few of us went down to Texas on what was supposed to be a week long trip that ended up including a four day trip down there through what was dubbed "the blizzard of the century". Unbelievably icy roads and crazy weather conditions and to top it all of I (Jasmine) had a car accident with Aubrey, Jude and Cheydon all in the car with me. My car is totaled. So instead of relaxing when we arrived at Tracy's mom's apartment a couple of us headed out the next day to go car shopping and started the long process of getting things settled with the insurance. Not exactly what we were expecting. We are all OK and we all felt an incredible sense of relief that we finally had a home to go to after something like this happened. We didn't have to point our bus in a direction and end up in some place to park for the night. We came home to recover and it feels good.

So what are we on a search for? Ways to sustain our community and to make it so that we all have flexible schedules and way more avenues to reach out. We are looking forward to young people arriving this summer to be trained, to "gap year" and to be rehabilitated as young adults with a desire to seek out Christ. So we are leading by example. We are seeking the best way to be self sustaining because at this point there aren't any more options and since those are the circumstances we find ourselves in right now we know that Jesus has orchestrated them and is leading us in to new adventures that we are charging boldly in to this spring.

If you are interested or know a young adult who would be interested in spending the summer up here this year please get in contact with us. You can also read more about our "program" at www.FreedomSeed.org

Jasmine
Communications

Friday, January 28, 2011

Parenting in community - staying open honest and willing

Parenting. It is an "interesting" subject to say the least in any context but it community we have some unique forms of "interesting".

Our toddlers are trying to work out some sort of pecking order. They love each other. They enjoy each other. They fight like cats and dogs. That would be interesting in and of itself but we add our differing parenting in to the mix. Thankfully we parent in similar fashion. We hold very similar values etc. At least we don't have huge conflicts. We respect each other as parents. But it doesn't come easy. Each of us have to take turns backing off and letting the other take charge of the situation. We have to trust that each one of us as parents love each others children and have their best in mind. We have to talk things out. Sometimes it isn't easy and sometimes it isn't fun. We have to be honest and open and willing to talk about how we feel and how we can compromise as parents while still staying autonomous.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Do it yourself.

Saturday is "do it yourself" night.

Our kitchen is the hub of our community. We love to eat. We love to talk. We love to cook. We love to get really close, sometimes really close. Have I mentioned that our kitchen it tiny? It doesn't stop us from putting half of the community in there all at one time.

Some amazing creations come out of that kitchen.

We take turns cooking. There are few people, those who work outside of the community, who bow out and do the dishes but everyone else takes their turn to cook one day a week. Baking is free game.

Once a week we go grocery shopping. Two of us usually go. It's normally the same two. We work with a fairly inflexible budget. We shop smart. We buy good food. We buy lots of fresh food. We buy organic as much as we are able. In the summer we grow things. We keep chickens. We like to buy as self sustaining as we can without tying us down too much to travel. It's a little complicated but we enjoy it that way, it keeps all these hands and minds busy and that is not an easy chore with this crew.

Saturday is "do it yourself" night. Sometimes there is leftovers that didn't get taken by the working people to lunch. People like to go to the local Chinese place on Saturdays. We're all bummed because it doesn't open until 4 p.m. anymore, it's a bummer because it used to be most of our favorite place for lunch, 4 p.m. makes for a late lunch. So people go out, people fix whatever or heat up leftovers. Strangely enough there were only three of us plus one toddler for dinner here tonight. It feels strangely lonely. Nice sometimes but very quiet. I'll be ready for the dinner activity tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Beautiful Chaos

We had a meeting last night. Surprisingly we don't have very many serious meetings around here. When things are rolling they are just rolling and there aren't many glitches other than the occasional growly day that someone might experience.
That is one thing. You always know when someone is having an "off" day. You can stay in you personal cabin all you want but sometime you are going to have to come out to eat or something and people are going to see whatever mood your in. We like to call it fish bowl living, I know, original huh?

Our meeting revolved around unholy vs holy and what does that mean? What does that mean in practical application? We don't like anything that we can't really dig our teeth in to, we want to be able to touch it, smell it and taste it. It all boiled down to is whatever you are doing or thinking of doing going to take you closer to Jesus or farther away? Is going to distract you? Distance you? And you standing there making the choice whether that thing is "good" or "evil" pretty much answers the question for you right there - there was one tree that was to be eaten from and that was the tree of Life not of the knowledge of good and evil.

Our meetings are always open forum. People are free to talk, cry, even get angry. Everyone is welcome to express their feelings and their frustrations or a bit of knowledge that they've picked up. We debate. We get emotional. And we all tough it out until we've discussed it from all angles and then we have coffee and some sort of baked good and someone cracks a joke (and believe me they are never the "so the chicken crossed the road" type) and everyone is laughing. And there are babies yelling, did I mention that?

Beautiful chaos filled Life.

Monday, January 17, 2011

"Who will go for us?"

“And then I heard the voice of the Master: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” I spoke up, “I'll go, Send me!”

Matthias made an amazing point this past Sunday during Freedom Seed's worship meeting. He siad that Isaiah overheard the Master speaking. The question wasn't directed at him. The Master was having a discussion, wondering out loud if you will, putting it out there for anyone to hear. And there was Isaiah, listening in. He volunteered, shouted out HERE I AM! Letting the Master that you wanted the job.

That's what we are doing. We have let you all in on our desire to continue to reach out and we are currently searching for ways to become self-supporting. We are taking steps to start up a mobile mini donut/coffee house as well as several other small businesses. We are still accepting interns during the summer and have been very excited to see how the Master has worked in their lives.

Tracy is graduating from midwifery school late this spring. We are all very proud of her.

We have an opportunity to connect the dots, or I should say to send a team to explore once again the possibility of connecting the dots. Oaxaca Mexico. Coffee. The best coffee we have had in Mexico. Also there is a brand new ministry started up that is in desperate need of midwives, you can see the ministry here: www.birthcenter.blogspot.com. They also need people to complete building projects.

As you all know Mexico is very close to our hearts and we continue to find a way to plant a base in another country, specifically Mexico or India, or even more maybe Mexico and then India.

We have overheard the Master and have shouted out “HERE WE ARE, SEND US!” and the Master has filled us with vision and purpose and a great passion.

We would like to send a small scout team to Oaxaca the second week of February to meet with the owners of the birth center as well as explore coffee options and the possibility of a business and base. We know how important it is to take our interns out of the country and we know that to keep ourselves moving forward we have to continue to connect and reach out.

If you are interested in supporting the exploratory team contact us by e-mail, letter or you can send a gift through pay pal on our website.

Please pray for our team!

Blessings,

Jasmine C.
Communications
Freedom Seed
Mobile Youth Church

44528 County Rd 3
Becida, MN 56678
(218)854-7327
info@freedomseed.org
www.FreedomSeed.org

Thursday, January 13, 2011

What's up with your summer?

Are you looking for a life change? A break from school? A break before you go back to school? Do you need some perspective? Some time to reflect? Some character building? Do you want to try something new? Be stretched and changed? Maybe the Freedom Seed base is for you this summer!

Sunday, January 09, 2011

The "A" Team

The Freedom Seed "A" Team is headed to Texas at the end of this month to be parking lot supervisors at the Superbowl! Our team is pretty excited and looking forward to seeing a little warm(er) sun for a week. This is a great opportunity for our logistics and event coordinators team to get their feet wet in another type of event.

We are excited to see how God is going to use our team for event planning in the future. They are great at it.