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Thirty years at Jubilee

January 24, 2009 | posted by Lars under united states, updates

I’m writing now from Poarch, Alabama, just a 15 minute drive from the Florida state line; and again, we have a bit of catch-up to do.  One week ago, we were in rural northeastern Georgia with the Jubilee Partners, a Christian community committed to living out the peace, simplicity, and service of the biblical jubilee; two nights before we had biked literally over the river and through the woods on the drive leading into the farm where the two dozen community members live, tend the land, and host refugees in resettlement.  The next day, while the spring-term volunteers taught EFL classes, we got the comprehensive tour with Al Lawler, and then dirtied our hands in the work of the day:  transplanting fig starters in the garden and processing sweet potatoes in the main kitchen.

Entering the garden, you see the tangible fruit of living at peace with the land - the native red clay is buried well below the surface, under 6-12″ of soft, dark soil, enriched over three decades of cultivation.  When left to natural processes, the earth accumulates one inch of this humus every 500 years; surely these have been 30 years of the Lord’s favor for these plots in northern Georgia.  This land’s bounty surpasses all estimates - this season, Jubilee harvested 6,000 lbs. of sweet potatoes out of 5,000 square feet of garden, and their 1,200+ blueberry bushes bear plenty for Jubilee - fresh, frozen, and in jam - and for their neighbors - around 1,000 invitations are sent out each summer to pick blueberries, free of charge or donation.  “That’s the beauty of always being in debt to other people (Jubilee lives largely off the land and by supporters’ contributions),” Blake, a long-term partner at Jubilee, told me as we walked to the fig plants to cut and pot starters which will also be shared, ”you can never give away too much!”

Back in the kitchen, we scrubbed and chopped, boiled, puréed, and bagged a small percentage of the 3 tons of sweet potatoes harvested this year.  Now, in midwinter (and it’s been a cold one at that - we had days in the teens (Fahrenheit) while we were there!), sweet potatoes are on the menu for most meals.  We consumed the tuber in soup, as fries, in bakes, and in biscuits.  Each was delicious, and only foretaste of our travels to come through the Andes, where potatoes are native, and over 5,000 varieties can be found.  Carefully tended, the land supports the Jubilee community throughout the seasons, along with 80+ chickens, several goats, and two cows, for eggs, meat, and a variety of dairy products.  Their tax is in sweat, withheld by each crop and line-dried shirt; it’s an economy the IRS can’t understand: the good life, below the poverty line.

As I mentioned before, Jubilee Partners also hosts refugees in a village of stand-alone homes called ”The Welcome Center” and teach EFL classes during the week, all free of charge to the refugees, the resettlement agencies, and the federal government.  So last Sunday, when we gathered for the evening meal and worship, 20-30 Karen and Burmese refugees (both from Burma) joined us, including some former Welcome Center guests who are in the process of beginning a “Karen Jubilee Partners” nearby.  The enactment of the simple, yet abundant life appears to be contagious.

When we rolled back down the lane in the pre-dawn dark Tuesday morning, bound for Atlanta, the farm was quiet and the path was lit only by the moon and our own headlights, but another mornings’ work was already beginning - it was time for Rhoda’s milking (that’s the cow).

Clarence Jordan, co-founder of Koinonia Farm, the parent community to Jubilee, described their work in Georgia as trying to live as a ”demonstration plot for the Kingdom of God.”  It seems that this must be the vocation of all Christian communities, regardless of how they organize their community life.  Congregation or farming cooperative, the faithful Body of Christ must proclaim with each sinew, as its Head did, that

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19, cf. Isaiah 61:1-2)