Let me bring you up to date on “the Land,” as it’s become known here at Life On Purpose Institute. But first just a little background. Life On Purpose Institute was founded in 1996. During that year we created our vision and mission and what these two combined might look like in physical form. Thus was born our cyber home — our web site, our programs, etc. One part of this envisioning process included the idea that perhaps one day we’d have a ‘physical home’ not just a cyber home. I called it the Living On Purpose Mountain Community, and I envisioned it as a place where people could come and experience as alternative way of life — one based on the principles of Life On Purpose inside the context of living a life of service, simplicity and spiritual serenity.

And not long after that vision was created I placed it on the back burner of my heart and mind to simmer…and simmer….and simmer. Well, it simmered so much that I kind of forgot about it. Then a few weeks ago I was talking to another ‘volleyball dad’ (I figure if we can have soccer moms we can also have volleyball dads, right?) He was sharing that his YMCA volleyball team had recently lost a player who’d moved away to manage another Christian Youth Camp and that he had his own camp up for sale.

At first this was only mildly interesting to me, but I found myself asking questions about it. Where was it? How much acreage was involved? How long had it been there? Etc. Then I didn’t think any more about it…except that I did catch myself from time to time wondering about it, and wondering why that was. A few days later, as I finished up my workday a little early, I felt like getting out of the office and enjoying the bright sunny afternoon.

So I took a drive and as I drove I thought about ‘the Land’ again, and wondered if I could find it. After all, it wasn’t far from where I live so I figured it would be fun to take a look. It took a phone call to my friend for directions but soon I was driving down this well groomed gravel road onto the “the Land.” The first thing I was struck by was how quiet it was around me and how quiet I became as well. As I drove up to the entrance I saw a rustic cabin next to a large pond (or small lake — so let’s call it a plake.), complete with diving board and a floating platform.

The land is about 20 acres of rolling meadows, woods and an old apple orchard. It has 2 houses on it, both 3 bedrooms with 2 baths. Both are quite nice though my family really fell in love with the smaller one that felt more like what we’d most enjoy. Besides the registration cabin which can also serve as a small residence, there are 4 rustic cabins — each one with bunk beds enough to sleep 22 young teenagers. (It’s previously has been used as a Christian Youth Wilderness Camp.) There are a number of other structures on the land, including a pavilion, storage sheds, a game room, two green houses which had been converted to bunkrooms.

Is “the Land” destined to become our Living On Purpose Mountain Community (which we’d probably name Serenity, similar to our online support community)? I really don’t know, but it sure has pushed this particular part of our vision up from the back burner. I’lll share more about how we envision