Skip to the content

  1324 GA Highway 49 South | Americus Georgia 31719

(229) 924-0391  |  info@koinoniafarm.org
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Flickr
Visit Store
  • Home
  • About
    • Koinonia Today
    • History
      • Clarence Jordan
    • News
      • Publications
      • Media Page
      • Koinonia in Your Inbox
  • Visit
    • Ways to Visit
    • Come, Stay Awhile, and Serve
  • Internship
    • Internship – A Brief Description
  • Support
    • Prepare to Thrive
    • Service To Others
  • Blog
    • Brief Thoughts from Bren
    • Peacemakers
    • Other Writings
Menu
  • Home
  • About
    • Koinonia Today
    • History
      • Clarence Jordan
    • News
      • Publications
      • Media Page
      • Koinonia in Your Inbox
  • Visit
    • Ways to Visit
    • Come, Stay Awhile, and Serve
  • Internship
    • Internship – A Brief Description
  • Support
    • Prepare to Thrive
    • Service To Others
  • Blog
    • Brief Thoughts from Bren
    • Peacemakers
    • Other Writings
Donate
Store
Top ^

Summer Internships Available! Learn More

For the People Coming after Me

Bren Dubay

Bren Dubay

Bren oversees our life and work by keeping us focused on the community’s vision and mission. She facilitates the internship program and guides novices and candidates.
All Writings
  • January 30, 2020
  • 4:21 pm
  • No Comments

By Bren Dubay
January 2020

Koinonia is full of stories. There is nothing quite like one of our gifted story tellers delivering a Koinonia tale, holding us in the palm of her hand as she delivers the details, causing us to laugh so hard that none of us can speak. Many of the stories are funny; some are not. Some bring us to a quiet place. The room can be silent for a very long time. There is something deeply healthy about how we can sit in the quiet together and not be uncomfortable. 

I’ve been thinking about one of my favorite stories a lot lately. My guess is that others here have been, too —

One rainy Christmas Day, Clarence was found out in the orchard planting pecan trees.

“What in the world are you doing out here, Clarence?” someone asked.  “It’s Christmas Day! It’s raining, and you’ll never benefit from those trees.  It takes 25 years for them to produce anything.”

Clarence replied, “I’m planting them for the people that are coming after me.”

A crew dug 500 holes this month and, at this writing, they have planted 250 new pecan trees. The other 250 will be planted long before I write Brief Thoughts for February. 

In my imagination I see Clarence and Alma Jackson and Lenny Jordan and the Wittkamper boys (as the story has been passed down we’ve lost exactly which of the Wittkamper boys) and many others whose names I do not know planting those trees so long, long ago. The red clay of Georgia is hard. They didn’t have the benefit of the fancy modern machine we had to dig the holes. The story goes that the machine they did have broke Lenny’s arm. No matter the machine, it is back breaking work. How their bodies must have ached. I am grateful that they planted those trees for us.

Likely, I will benefit from these new trees. It takes five to seven years now for a pecan tree to bear fruit rather than the twenty-five back it took when Clarence was planting on Christmas Day. Yes, most of us who are here now will benefit from the new orchard, but that makes it no less true that we are planting these trees for the people that are coming after us. I think about those people, too. I imagine them. Can one be grateful in advance? I feel that I am.

Stories do abound at Koinonia, but as happy as that makes me, it also makes me sad. For each story we share, there are thousands, likely way more than hundreds of thousands, that we don’t even know. Sometimes I fantasize that one-day we’ll have so many members that we can give one of them the work assignment — a full time work assignment — to gather all the stories and write them down … or record them … for the people coming after us. 

I reflect about the ways Koinonia has changed in its first 78 years and wonder about how it will change in its next 78. I’m comforted by the thought that some things will remain the same. We’ll still be telling stories and I’d be surprised if we aren’t still offering welcome to all — hospitality has been central from the beginning. Will our friends donate to help plant the next orchard or the other ways we work to serve others? I suspect they will. 

That gives me another thought. If you are reading this and you have a Koinonia story, would you send it to us? Do you have more than one story? Send them all. “Lenny, is it true that the machine broke your arm?”

Share Your Koinonia Story on Facebook
Share Your Koinonia Story by Email
Share this with your friends:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
PrevPreviousFull Circle with De’Asia and Ra’Sheena at Koinonia Farm
NextFruit Of …Next

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More to explore

Charles Bradley Performing
Blog
Steve Krout

The Lamentations of Charles Bradley

I became aware of Charles Bradley in 2015 and instantly took to his music. There was something in him that reminded me of two biblical figures that I’ve long loved: David, the psalmist, and Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. Bradley had both the heart and voice of a poet- prophet. One will hear in many of his songs the spirit of a man trying to stay righteous and honest and decent in a world that is going up in flames.

Read More »
February 16, 2021 No Comments
Blog
Steve Krout

Reflections on Martin Luther King Day

In many of the people I grew up with, I see a Christianity that is not informed by spiritual and civil rights leaders like Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King, and Cesar Chavez. I wonder how differently our country would have been shaped had we been taught to be open to the Spirit’s moving in and through such prophets.

Read More »
January 18, 2021 No Comments
Blog
Steve Krout

5 Songs for Your Advent to Christmas Playlist

There’s the longing of the Advent season and there’s the excitement that is the Christmas season. I love both of those feelings.

Read More »
December 11, 2020 3 Comments
Blog
Bren Dubay

Leisure

Leisure is an end in itself, a time to dwell on the beauty of creation, to read a challenging book, to be carried away listening to a soaring symphony, to catch one’s breath at a stunning work of art, a time to step back to admire the work that one has done. It is a time to worship and pray, the highest forms of leisure. It is a time to contemplate goodness and allow that goodness and all these meaningful activities to re-create us.

Read More »
October 28, 2020 1 Comment
Springtime Orchard
Blog
Bren Dubay

The Great Divorce

Good art, good literature, helps us imagine what a new normal and a new world can be. It is vital in times like these to seek out that which helps us imagine a better world and encourages us to work together, perhaps in small ways like Sarah Smith, to build this new world now.

Read More »
September 30, 2020 No Comments
Peace Trail Sign
Blog
Bren Dubay

Lessons for Disciples

The father went on directing his remarks to Naomi, “You aren’t one of us. Why would my children play with you?”
Naomi looked at the grown man. She could see kindness in his eyes even though his tone and words did not match it. She said to him, “Aren’t we are all God’s children, sir? That makes us one family … doesn’t it, sir?”

Read More »
August 24, 2020 1 Comment

Contact Us

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
Mailing List
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Koinonia Farm

1324 GA Highway 49 South
Americus, Georgia 31719
Tel: (877) 738-1741
Tel: (229) 924-0391

E-mail: info@koinoniafarm.org

Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Flickr
Online Store

Looking for something else?
Enter a word or phrase below.

Koinonia In Your Inbox

Please fill out the information below so we can keep you up to date in your email inbox.

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
Type of Updates (check all you would like):
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Designed and maintained by Lowthian Design Works