A Parish Story from the Satterfield Commons | Adams County, OH

Collaborating for renewal can look like intentionally tending the land and sharing with neighbors to cultivate relational and ecological grace goodness in a parched place. Long past dark on the Wuest family’s rural-wilderness land in Adams County, Ohio, a buzzing energy lit up the big red barn as we nestled on hay bales and blankets for a time of sharing poetry, stories, and songs on the final night of a gathering of some hundred “Parish Farmers.”

Among the beloved guests that night were a dozen neighbors, who arrived near midnight on their four-wheelers. For ten years, Tom and Karen have tended a friendship with these neighbors across layers of difference. “I’ve learned so much from you,” Tom said from the mic, and then shared stories about how he and his neighbors have come to realize their need for one another. “We don’t have many options for friendship in this place, so we have to love and care for each other,” he said and went on to describe how the bonds he shared with his neighbors were building a more loving community and shared sense of purpose in the Brush Creek valley. “Thanks, Tom,” one of his neighbors called out. Then Tom shared, “Love Can Make a Way,” a song written about the Wuest family’s experience of trusting Love to make a way through the valley of sorrow and division.

Tom Wuest

How long til we know we belong
To each other, the world, a cacophonous song
Of many voices, the breath of one 

Meet me in the Valley of Tears,
Love can Make a Way
When we are poured out like water,
Living for a new day
Love can make a way.

In many places, such friendships across vast difference don’t exist. Opposing ideologies spark, and people tend to gather with others who hold similar values and beliefs. But the Wuests are learning to make peace and hold hope as they walk the long path of love in their rural parish. That night in the barn, we all bore witness to the joy that “rises from sorrow” when we walk this long, slow path and begin to “see [God] in another’s eyes.” May you each find courage to walk the long, slow—and often lonely—path of love in your own parish.

To connect with Tom, email brasstrumpetpublishing@gmail.com. To hear some of Tom’s songs, visit Bandcamp or Spotify.