On a crisp winter’s day, several men could be seen trudging across a snow-covered field that lay along the edge of a country road. Their slow but determined progress took them through waist-deep snow that obscured a steep laneway, unused in winter. Following the lead of the first man, they pushed on until they had reached the top of a knoll, a vantage point that afforded a wide view of the surrounding landscape. There they finally stopped to survey the rolling countryside and, in particular, the old farm property that lay immediately before them. Snow covered the ground like a blanket—up the slope of a hay field, nestling down in a low-lying swamp, hugging the remnants of a decrepit barn and draping around the base of an old stone house. As they viewed the terrain, commenting to one another, possibilities began to take shape, and in their imaginations the snow melted away to reveal a future scene in this place: a hot summer’s day, a swimming pond carved out of the swamp, tents for sleeping, the one functional building becoming (with a lot of elbow grease) a kitchen, dining and activity centre—and children playing in the open fields, their happy laughter replacing the present murmur of the wind and the deep silence of the snow.

~Introduction from – “50 Years of Sowing in Faith, Growing in Service”~