Introducing Benediction Farm
by Wade Bradshaw
Benediction Farm is a lot of things, but one of these is a resource to the ministries of our diocese. We hope to help you: let me tell you about this.
On Ash Wednesday, we read from Isaiah 68, and among the many things God desired from His people was ‘to provide shelter for the poor wanderer.” The service continued, but my mind was stuck here: we had read a perfect mission statement for the Farm. And, as you know as well as I – there are many ways to be poor and many ways to wander.
We are a small farm in Rochelle in lovely Madison County, about 40 minutes from Charlottesville and an hour and a half from Richmond and Dulles. It is 17 acres on which we raise very happy chickens and mildly grumpy water buffalo. A working farm is a great place for people to participate and rediscover many things about themselves, creation, and the Living God who did the creating.
So, we host retreats frequently – guided retreats about various topics. These are a mixture of silence and conversations and private chats, always with good food. But we also facilitate other kinds of retreats – Church staff have come to be with us; Church-planters in need of rest: groups of friends for their annual catch-up with each other; we had a youth group of about 35 absolutely fill the old 1887 farmhouse.
And as central as these scheduled events are, our prayer is that when someone is in need of a longer time of rest and safety, people will think of us and send them our way. The Five-Hopes for such a visit are healing, and deliverance, and forgiveness, and shelter, and formation. When you meet that person, we pray the Spirit of wisdom and revelation will bring us to mind as a possibility for them.
Benediction Farm is also a home. Chryse and I spent ten very fertile years working at L’Abri Fellowship, and so we enjoy having people of all faiths and no-faith live with us.
For further information about us and the hopes for our community, please visit our website. Sign up for updates and to learn about special events here.
Wade and Chryse Bradshaw founded Benediction Farms. They are currently part of the launch team of Church of the Good Shepherd, an Anglican Church of North America parish beginning in Charlottesville, VA.