Walking a narrow path to God
When an intentional Christian community of five families moved to Kimbolton in Manawatu a year ago, it got the locals talking. Carly Thomas went along to see if what was observed from the outside is what the community is like inside.
The murmurings started in the small village of Kimbolton about a year ago. The cafe had new owners and talk was turning towards them.
‘‘They are very religious,’’ I would hear. ‘‘There are a group of families.’’ ‘‘They’re ‘different’.’’ Nothing gets past small village folk and interest and rumours about these new people who dress modestly, whose children are home-schooled and who call themselves an ‘intentional community’ started to take root.
Kimbolton is a village where people go to live for many reasons.
I lived there myself for a time, after I bought a house on a whim.
It’s a place where many people arrive trying to find a different way of life. They choose it or, as it did for me, Kimbolton chooses them. You never really leave a little village, connections remain and it’s how my interest in the five families began.
I needed to see for myself the intentional community the group of families have started, so I take my old commute towards the snow-licked Ruahines and am greeted at the Kimbolton Cafe by Tressa Wayman.
She has a slow and easy American accent and a wide smile. Her husband Jared Wayman walks in and offers a firm handshake. We talk, for a long time. There are so many questions to ask and the Waymans are willing to answer them. The families were all living in Nelson but were spread out. In Kimbolton, they now live a short walking distance from each other.
They came together through their Christian beliefs, sharing the same strong ties to God.
Jared Wayman says they ‘‘connected’’ and the desire to live with co-operation, sustainability and simplicity was at their core.
But they wanted to move closer to the notion of community.
Wayman explains the ‘‘chemistry’’ between the families.
‘‘We are at a similar age and stage, similar challenges and trials, similar needs.
‘‘Similar thoughts and feelings, things like ‘I find myself working just to pay the mortgage, then I’m living for the weekends, then the weekends disappoint me and then woah, I’ve just rolled into another year’.you know?
‘‘We all just said, ‘is there something more?’ We all had that question burning in our hearts.’’
Among the five couples, most have held respectable jobs.
Peter Macfarlane was a dairy farm consultant, Rob Crozier a farm manager, Wayman ran a roofing company and Ralph Lattimore owned and operated a business that crafted timberframed buildings.
Eddie Rimmer was an outdoor education teacher at a secondary school and his wife Rachel worked part-time in occupational therapy.
Many of us, including myself, have sought out a life that involves a sense of community. This may not always mean a connection with God, but rather a sense of knowing and engaging with those around you.