Bruderhof life -jumping right in

Thursday, October 25th

My first full day on the Bruderhof began with my alarm at 5:40am. Perhaps that sounds early, but I had actually let myself sleep in as long as I dared, to still have enough time to get ready for breakfast with the other singles here. But people of all ages at the bruderhof seem be up and ready to face the world by 6am here.

 “Don’t miss the harvest moon in the West and the pink clouds in the east,” I overheard a man down the hall calling to his wife as he headed out to his work position for the day. How precious, I thought, was it that even in their highly structured and filled days, people here seem to retain a child-like awe for and interaction with the beauty of God’s creation. I felt privileged to get a glimpse into this couple’s sweet exchange. …And of course, had to go look outside myself to see the wonder that was spoken of.

It’s interesting. With only a door (and doors are often left open here) separating my little room from the hallway where the kitchen and everybody else’s living spaces are attached, it feels like I am sharing a home and life with not one, but three other families here!

The day’s activities

After breakfast with other young people, I was given a bit of a break before joining in on kitchen work at 9am. At 10am, Julie, another new girl friend, and I stole away to the laundry room to sort some clothes for the community (and got to linger and enjoy tea and muffins -and conversation- together, which was perfectly lovely) before heading back to the kitchen work. And this kitchen – wow. Though the place had the cozy community feel of a church kitchen, it was set up to efficiently feed 200 people. Vast pots and tall ovens, and massive bread kneaders. Walk-in freezers and refrigerators larger than I’d ever seen before -storing a lot of their own home-grown produce, too.

Julie and I helped ourselves to some community meal leftovers before she showed me more around the settlement. I was taken to their headquarters for the Plough Quarterly magazine. A woman introduced me all around the office, and brought me through Plough Publishing’s library of books, even gifting me with several from the movement’s founders, and lending me a book on early christian writings until the end of my stay. (How I would find the time to read it with how full the days seem to be here, I didn’t know. But still I was intrigued enough to try to scan it through.)

Then Julie took me to another building – the community toy shop and handicap equipment factory. There, I spent the afternoon helping to stuff furniture cushions alongside several (quite) older women who were sewing the cushions together. I loved how even the elderly in the community were present in the toy shop. There was work of all types to do, and all ages beyond highschool were bustling about the place. I was told that it was common for the elderly to continue to visit the shop to contribute in what ways they could. How neat to not have to give up that sense of accomplishment that comes from putting in a day’s work – even as old age brings on more limitations. The elderly here at the Bruderhof have so many ways to keep on participating in community life. Isolation in old age is a foreign concept here, where the elderly are highly valued and respected and included and honored and cared for -well.

The footpath winding through the community buildings. (No cars were needed for most daily life, but go-carts were a common sight -for the elderly.)

Caring well for one another

Another way that I’ve observed people are cared for so well here is how the communities will relocate families or individuals to be near someone if they are sick. Or in the case of the elderly, they are often given ‘apartments’ on the ground level, while family are moved into housing above them or with them as becomes necessary. But the idea of the elderly being secluded and separated into homes.

Dinner and visiting

After a quick rest, I joined Julie and the whole community for a delicious dinner in the main gathering hall. I found it interesting that the young men in the community took turns each night bringing the food out and serving the whole community. It was a nice change, since it seemed that it was only the women who manned the kitchens and took care of putting the big community meals together.

After dinner is visiting time! Julie and I visited a very interesting older couple. Also joining us was an older woman who had been with the community since its beginnings in Germany. When the Nazis forced them to leave in 1937, she lived through the community’s brief transition to England, until persecution and suspicion of their non-resistance and many German members forced them to find refuge in Paraguay for 20 years. So neat how this one elderly lady could tell the story of the whole movement!

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Another day is over, but it feels like two, with all that we fit into it. Despite the new reading material, I’m learning to value an early lights out over my introverted reading and decompressing time. I’ve been invited to (a comparatively late) breakfast with another friendly couple at 6:30 tomorrow morning.

Bruderhof: First impressions

Wednesday, October 24th

Yesterday and today, I took my time journeying from His Mansion Ministries in New Hampshire, south through Connecticut, towards the Fox Hill Bruderhof community nestled along the beautiful Hudson River in New York. Once again, I have been so impressed by the beautiful hilly landscape of New York – especially in crossing the Hudson River.

After passing the cheery entrance sign, a sweet girl, Julie, met me when I arrived. During my entire stay, Julie walked with me to many activities, and helped coordinate meals with some of her friends and others who wanted to host me, a visitor.

First off, I was shown to the room I’d stay in during my visit. It was a very minimal, but cozy single dorm room with a bed, bedside table, and little closet. at least 3 other families were on the same upstairs wing of the building (a school-house downstairs) that I was staying on. But even so, it did not feel apartment-like. Peoples doors were kept open, for the most part. And, a central kitchen was shared by all on this side of the building. This, I’m sure, required very intentional planning when family meal-times came around. But I also got to witness how lovingly the families interacted and shared whatever they had if the other families found themselves short of something.

Oh, because the kitchen was shared, the apartments were very minimal. A dining room with table and chairs, a couch or two on the edge of the room, and a bedroom/bathroom (maybe two). Clutter -in the kitchen, and in the apartments- was VERY minimal to nonexistant, I observed.

My first Bruderhof meal

The gathering/meal space, arranged for a community meeting

Tonight, all the young adults shared dinner in the main dining/meeting hall. The building was spacious and beautiful. Though there were a good number of young people, the huge place still felt very empty without the rest of the families. I hear there are more than 200 people who live on the property!

Speaking of the dining space, I learned that about three times a week a 7-8pm meeting will be announced at group lunchtime of the same day. The meetings are organized around different topics deemed worthy of discussion.

After dinner, Julie took me back to my room, where just down the hall, a neighboring mid/older couple had invited us and another couple over for a visit. It was charming to hear of some of their experiences and their appreciation for the simple things in nature. They shared some foraged pears from a recent hike, and showed me a stash of hickory nuts they’d gathered so far this fall. Ah, these are my kind of peoples!

Another neat thing I’ve observed about life here is how ridiculously easy it is to visit with others! Having multiples families of different ages and seasons of life all together on one floor builds connection. Also, all of the housing buildings are no more than a 15-minute walk from each other. So to invite people over for dinner – or even a 6am breakfast – would require almost no advance planning and scheduling hassle.

Julie says that she has a special couple who she spends time with a lot – at breakfasts, other meals, and just to hang out in down time. She can help them with their children if they need it, and they can provide her a sense of home or family. Apparently, it is normal for the bruderhof to assign young people like Julie (who was transferred here, away from her home community and family) to have an ‘adopted’ family like this.

Or perhaps not so much…

So this thing about relocating young people. Well, it’s not just the young people. It is actually common for families of all seasons of life to be relocated to different communities in the same state or across the country. The couple next door is actually on their way out next month to do mission work in the middle east. This, I believe, was largely their choosing. But often, people are just directed to relocate as the community leaders see the need. Most that I’ve talked to see joyful submission to these requests as equivalent to submitting to God’s will. Though I have some serious concerns with delegating out the personal leading of the Holy Spirit to group leaders (!), there was something beautiful present among the people who had found contentment in this submission. To take on the mindset of being prepared to, at any time, leave what has become comfortable – one’s home, one’s family and friend circle, one’s profession – well… This is how I believe all Christians should view their lives. If we see a need, Jesus teaches us to give of what we have out of love for others. And if that means downsizing our home, or relocating to a neighborhood where we can better serve the broken, this is exactly what we should be ready to do.

Okay, so while I don’t agree with how little individual choice there is, the Bruderhof’s frequent relocations definitely can help to cultivate this selfless, serving, adaptable attitude in an interesting way among its members.

Another less admirable part about life here is what I learned of how all of the children, once they reach high school, are sent away from the community to a neighboring community (maybe 45-60 minutes away) where they do school with all the other bruderhof children. It seemed really strange to me that so many parents would be willing to send their children so far, rather than want to invest their own time in their education. But alas, homeschooling is no option in the bruderhof. I guess they must not have big enough questions/concerns and have relinquished trust to their community about how their children are educated.

I also learned how, from when the children are incredibly young, the children are put into (loving) childcare within the community, and the mothers return back to their work positions within the community. This remains the same as the children move into school age. To me, it seemed that the children spent so much of their time being raised by the rest of the community. And when so much of life (like communal lunches and other community activities and meetings) are already done alongside other people, it seemed that the amount of time alone with children during the week would be so precious and sparse. But that is just my perception, and I can’t say I visited with any families with younger children during my stay to properly observe how they lived. But still, I was unshakably uneasy that the option was not given for bruderhof mothers to stay home and teach/train even their young children.

Admirable/interesting people

During even my first night, I noticed a diversity of backgrounds in the people I was meeting. I got to meet Alina, whose face I recognized from some of the Bruderhof Youtube videos that peaked my interest in the first place. I also met another young woman my age, who I had also seen on the Youtube channel, giving her take on the Bruderhof as a visitor. I learned of the path that had led her here. Sounding much like my own search for intentionality and a place where the church has a deep love for one another, her path of searching for other Christ-followers had led her through Koinonia Farm and eventually to this community.

Meeting everyone so far today with such different stories and experiences, I have to say, there is certainly plenty to admire about these people and their way of life. All of the older people people seem to have colorfully different stories about how they ended up here. I’d better get to bed, because apparently Julie has my day tomorrow all scheduled full of visits with more interesting people and joining in on the community work.