Anamchara Ministries

Well friends, Jake and I are officially students of Anamchara Ministries, "a monastic ministry fashioned after the order of St. Patrick's Celtic Christianity," including a 6-month long discipleship program that Clint and Caoimhe started over a year ago. Their home is now considered a "monastery" in that it is meant to function as a community space "occupied by people living under religious vows". Anamchara Ministries is an official Non-Profit organization with 501c3 status with a Board of Directors and Elder Board that provides direction, spiritual support and accountability. Caoimhe is fashioning a website that is still under construction, but it can be found here. If you would like to see a copy of the Monastic Programme (the who, where, why, how...), just contact me and I can have Caoimhe send you a copy. It is very informative.

"Anamchara" [ah-nom-car-uh] is the Irish word for "soul friend," "meaning one with whom you would walk through matters of the soul"...more like a mentor/mentee relationship than a spousal relationship.

The structure of the ministry includes housing and sharing meals with students who undergo an application process to be considered for the discipleship program, bi-weekly discipleship classes for students as well as a weekly Bible study (and dinner beforehand!) that is open to the community, serving the widows and orphans, and offering services (construction, painting, snow shoveling, etc...) to the community by donation only.

Clint and Caoimhe feel called by God to focus on finishing their building project, so that students will have a place to stay. The projected completion date is set for October 2012. Once the building and remodel is finished, the monastery will have 9 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, an entry/greeting room, a large kitchen and dining room, a library and resource room as well as a laundry and sewing room. The only rooms that are finished in the large building are Caoimhe's office and our bedroom. The projects that will be worked on next - now that our bedroom is finally finished - include plumbing for the upstairs bathroom and downstairs laundry room, and insulating and drywalling the whole upstairs. Last Sunday, Caoimhe presented the ministry to Cle Elum Community Church where we all attend together on Sunday mornings, and she asked people to consider helping out with the insulating and drywalling so that we can get it done quickly. We are hoping for a handful of people to come help in January or February. Until the insulation is finished in the whole upstairs, we will be using a space heater for our bedroom. However, eventually (once the insulation is done) the large wood stove in the downstairs wood shop will heat the whole upstairs.

Jacob and I are the first students (the guinea pigs to be sure) and almost two-months into the discipleship program and are learning so much about Scripture and how to live out the commands of Christ. Clint and Caoimhe are creating the curriculum as well as teaching the different commands of Christ. The curriculum is run by the Board through a process of approval.

Since we have committed to being here for the six months of the program, we will be living here until May, at least. We do not have any plans for this summer yet, but we would like to try and see my family at some point. Jake and I would like to settle in the South Cle Elum area, where we are living now. There is a house next door (that we are partial to) that has been foreclosed on by the bank and is selling for $50,000. We do not have that money or anything close to, but we know that if God wanted us to have it, then He would provide the money needed. We're praying about our future every day. We would like to have our first child in the next couple years, so we're thinking and praying about all the things that accompany that decision.

So there's the more serious update that I've been meaning to tell you about...Please forgive me for the delay. We love visitors and practicing hospitality, so please come visit if you are able. Also, if you want to send us mail, starting in January, please send mail to:

Jacob and Abigail Grove
c/o Anamchara Monastery
P.O. Box 283
South Cle Elum, WA 98943

Shalom.