Caneyville Christian Community

So, we don't have a smartphone.  How do you go anywhere without GPS these days?  Somehow we were going to find our way from the rental car agency in Nashville to a community off the beaten path in Kentucky where they have a telephone, but it's not likely that someone would actually be near it to hear it ring.  Many Amish communities allow telephones, so long as the ringing doesn't interrupt the flow of a quiet, ordered life.  But besides, how would we call anyway since someone accidentally left our flip phone in Ryan Deramus' car at Horse Progress Days?  (Yeah, yeah, it was me who left the phone.)  Thankfully, the rental car agency had a decent free map that would at least show us out of Nashville.

Nico and I were dead tired from the lack of sleep on our overnight bus, so we took advantage of our children napping in the car and hopped off the highway to shut our own eyes at a gas station near the exit.  The gas station didn't sell any maps, which we found remarkable, though maybe not surprising in the age of GPS.  Before we made our way back up the highway, we discovered a Barnes & Noble where Nico bought a Kentucky map to get us as far as the small town of Caneyville, Kentucky, but we would still have to find the community somewhere on the outskirts of town.

We had originally heard of the Caneyville Christian Community (Caneyville, for short) from some traveling friends who were written about in Plain Things, a bi-monthly magazine published by the community.  While we were there, Nico met the editor of Plain Things, and they had a great time geeking out about electricity-free magazine publication.  Since Caneyville is located near a group of very primitive Old Order Mennonites who we were already planning to visit, Nico sent a letter to Caneyville and eventually he and our host played a long game of phone tag, since neither Nico nor anyone in their community give high priority to the telephone.

Once in the small town of Caneyville, we started looking for people that may be able to give us directions to the community.  Would they have any idea who we were asking about?  Nico hopped out and asked the first person we saw, an auto mechanic, if he knew where we could find the Caneyville community.  "Oh, you mean the Mennonites?" he said, with immediate recognition, "Oh yeah, sure." He gave us directions to their market, just a few miles away.  It turns out that the Caneyville Christian Community has a very positive rapport in the greater public.

One of the most popular models
of Pioneer brand stoves.
Image found in online search.

The communty is currently made up of 11 families who live in short walking distance from one another and their centrally-located, community-run businesses.  Once we arrived at their market, we were directed down a gravel road to find our host.  Our introduction to this community began with a tour of the steam-powered workshop where our host works, building Pioneer brand wood cook stoves.  Moisés loved watching the gigantic, Industrial Revolution era machines bend thick sheets of metal and the men welding stove parts together.

We were particularly interested in this group to see the cross-section of Anabaptist Christianity, petrol/electric-free life systems and businesses, and community-living convictions.  Old Order Mennonite and Amish groups are usually made up of families, each living on and running their own farm, and all attending worship at the same church meeting space or rotating house church.  Caneyville differed slightly in that the families shared the land and businesses (though they were not "common purse"), and worked together in many daily activities.  For example, one mother told me how joyful it was to meet with the other women to do much of their canning together, rather than each person preserving their food separately.  Not that this wouldn't happen in other Plain groups, but it seems that there's more of an interest in common work in Caneyville.

It is important to note that environmentalism was not part of this community's narrative.  Their petrol/electric-free convictions came purely from a desire to live simply, as prescribed by their interpretation of the Bible.  It was intriguing to them that we have drawn similar conclusions because of experiencing environmental and social injustices in conjunction with our faith and reading of scripture.

Most folks in the community had grown up Old Order Mennonite or Amish, so they had previous experience in the Plain-style of living.  Coming together in Caneyville, they committed to a deeper level of "plainness" than some of them had come from.  From my perspective, here's a snapshot of a few ways the Caneyville Christians define the word "plain":

• Clothing - simple home-sewn patterns using solid-colored material (not changing fashions with the changing times)
• Travel - horse and buggy, walking, and biking, or hiring a driver for longer trips (not owning cars of their own)
• Corporate worship - a solemn, reverent service filled with scripture, prayer, and simple songs (no musical instruments or Sunday school)
• Income-producing work - close to home businesses creating products that they themselves are willing to use (not having parents regularly go farther than walking distance from each other or their children)
• Communication - two phone lines hooked up in a common space, shared by all 11 families (no internet or cell phones)
• Energy production - besides human and horse power, we saw steam (created from burning wood chips) to run one of the on-site businesses; solar panels to charge a battery bank powerful enough to run welding tools, and also to charge smaller batteries for light bulbs in houses and headlights on buggies
• Economics - systems for sharing money easily and freely between families to cover any great need (no credit cards or insurance)
• Citizenship - primary identity in the kingdom of God and the law of scripture (many choose no social security numbers or state-issued marriage licences)
• Education - a communal school using a Biblically-based curriculum
• Child raising - training children in a way that encourages them to develop the self-control necessary to be still and quiet when appropriate and respect the needs of others, while also considering it their good and important "work" to play and explore

Almost all the members have grown up very similarly to how they're living now, which as I have found out personally, makes a difference with respect to how easy or difficult it is to perform daily tasks in a petrol/electric-free environment.  On the contrary, a mother of two told me she didn't wash clothing by hand before coming to this community, but since it's part of the culture it wasn't a problem to integrate.  Another mother of eight, also without previous experience hand-washing clothes, had a horse treadmill to run her two washing machines at once.

Yeah, you read it right.  A real treadmill made for a real life-size horse.  I didn't take many photos in this community out of respect for their desire to avoid vain glory and publicity, and their low-technology preferences, but I had to ask if I could take a shot of the horse treadmill to give an image to the washing machine scene.  It turns out that larger treadmills, built for up to four horses abreast, are also made for serious power needs, like running an entire woodworking shop.

Horse walking on a treadmill, which spins a cross-bar
through the wall into the basement.

Through the window: horse on the treadmill;
In the basement: belt spinning to run the
two Maytag washing machines

During our stay in the community, our host organized for us to spend every lunch and dinner with a different family.  Each morning we joined our host's family for their morning prayers and breakfast, then the boys and I headed over to a new family's house to visit with the mother and children for a couple hours while Nico worked with the father.  The men would join us for lunch at the family's house.  After lunch each day I took the boys for a nap and Nico would either continue working with the same man from the morning, or he would join the husband of the family we'd be eating dinner with that evening.

I felt honored to be welcomed into our host family's morning prayers.  The mother and father would hop up in the morning and do a couple morning chores, including start breakfast cooking, and while breakfast stayed hot on their wood cook stove (one of their own Pioneer models!), the parents and children would gather together to read the Bible, sing, and pray together.  For the Bible reading, each person that could read took turns reading two verses apiece around the circle, then the father would give a reflection on the passage and invite commentary from anyone else.  Afterward we sang a hymn or two from a shape note hymnal and gathered on our knees to pray for the day and recite the Lord's Prayer.  Nico and I felt inspired by this morning ritual and hope to incorporate it into our own family rhythms.

We met many families and I enjoyed getting to know everyone's varied backgrounds.  Learning that the husband and wife of one couple had grown up in different communities and had met somewhere else before coming to live at Caneyville, I asked them to tell me their story.  The husband laughed and replied, "Well now, you don't normally ask an Amish man how he and his wife met.  It's just not that interesting!  He'll say, 'Oh, well, I saw her at church and she looked like she'd make a good wife.'  But I guess you're right to ask us because we've got more nuance to our story."

My interactions and conversations with the mothers were easy.  Almost all our meal hosts had children the ages of my own, some having older or younger ones also.  I enjoyed learning how they organized their days and cared for their children's needs.  The women were open to talking about birth and breastfeeding, two of my favorite topics in my current life stage.  I was delighted to learn about the culture of these two more intimate processes.

I paid special attention to how the women experienced their roles as wife, mother, and homemaker, because I feel caught in a tug-of-war of two perspectives.  On the one hand, much of the culture around me considers it inherently oppressive if each individual does not have control of their role in society.  I notice this critique employed particularly to advocate for women, and it certainly seems logical and fair to me.  On the other hand, it is interesting to note that in most, if not all, traditional cultures around the world and throughout history, the sexual division of labor has been part of the very fabric of society.  I realize that if the importance of one role is elevated over another, there's a slippery slope to oppressing the "less important" role, but since sexual division of labor has been so common to humanity, I can't help but feel interested to see what it would be like for this model to function healthily.  If both roles are held to be of equal importance and weight by the society, does that lend people to feel happy and secure or sad and oppressed?

From my own perspective as a wife, mother, and homemaker not in an Amish community, I feel like there's little support and enthusiasm from the greater culture or the women's liberation culture towards women who want to be mothers, and particularly, women who want to stay home with their children.  I have found beauty and intimacy and sheer joy from having another being form and grow within my own womb, then felt the deepest of deep connections to that new little helpless person after meeting them.  This connection between mother and baby is made without really even trying and it is a connection unmatched by any other human-to-human relationship.  And further, to get to spend my days with that little person... what boundless joy to watch and be part of every minute of my own children's growth!

In my chosen field, why do I respond to questions of "What do you do?" by saying slowly, "Oh, I'm just a stay-at-home mom."  And then, to give myself validity in a culture where status is based in wealth and income, I add quickly, "Also I do the bookkeeping (one day a week) for a local non-profit!"  How would our culture look if the position of motherhood was elevated to the importance of C.E.O. status?  Couldn't it be possible that fully supporting people to lovingly raise a healthy new generation is at least as necessary to society as the responsibility of smoothly running a business?

Moisés and Yanni show their carrot snack
while at the Caneyville Christian Community.

Oh, so in that case, "What do I do?"  Well, I am an M.O.M.  It's a single role that encompasses many roles, including but not limited to: a teacher, a day-to-day operations manager, a lawyer and judge, an emergency physician, a detective, a trainer and coach, a janitor, a (Lego) engineer and architect, an adviser, a waste management specialist, a chef and waitress, an administrative secretary, and a respected authority figure.  My clientele have no social skills whatsoever, require lifetime commitment, and have constantly changing demands.  I work first, second, and third shifts and am otherwise always on call.  I acquired all these positions without putting together a single resume.  Not to mention, an M.O.M. is under constant scrutiny.  The public eye notices my clientele and, by their behavior, judges on the spot whether I am successful or not.

Sure, my multi-job can be limiting, and on a bad day I have definitely felt the lack of support for my role in society, but I also have experienced the power of choosing to be happy with where I am and what I have.  I've worked a 40-hour per week office job and found that to be pretty limiting too, in it's own ways, even though it is supported by society.

To pause for a moment, I realize I could easily fill several blog posts just on the topics of motherhood and gender roles, and since these particular topics are not the focus of this particular blog, I'll reel myself in and encourage further conversation in person.  I'm aware that there are plenty of other ways of thinking about gender roles than what I've mentioned, and I'd love to participate in the discourse.  Rather, my goal here is to report what I felt and saw while visiting a group with a deep culture, history, and tradition.

In Caneyville I got the overwhelming impression that these women were satisfied and comfortable in the stability and definition of their role.  I spoke directly with the mom (or should I say, M.O.M.) of our host family who shared her joy and true contentment in having a valuable role and the necessary support to fulfill it well.  I appreciated that in this community, the women's roles are respected, balanced well in giving and receiving love from God, their husbands, their children, and other community members.  These women aren't second class.  They do have different jobs than the men, and both men's and women's roles are seen as equally key to healthy community function.  I felt genuinely happy for them.

I was also happy for the children.  I could easily see how Caneyville families harmonized play with responsibility, children's nature with parents' and communal expectations, and how the parents shared their true deep faith with their children through the parents' own choices, actions, and sincerity.

Out of our main host family's 8 children, numbers 6 and 7 were both boys, one older and the other a smidgen younger than Moisés.  The three were immediate friends.  I loved the two boys' influence on Moisés: they were very still and obedient at the proper times (though the older of the two apparently gave the parents more grey hairs than any of their other offspring), and when they played, oh how those boys played!

This is exactly how Moisés and
his two buddies looked.
Image found in online search.

Their bare feet ran all over the property as the three small comrades made up sweet wholesome games together.  One game that was a little less sweet included precarious, cartoon-like careening down a hill, around a sharp curve, and up another hill, all on a gravel road in a multi-purpose hand cart.  These carts were like the classic little red wagon, but they could be driven by the riders and even had a hand brake on the side!  I couldn't help but wonder if this mobile fun would end in some kind of body part being smashed.  I encouraged myself by continuously repeating, "I guess they do this all the time and they're all still alive."

We had arrived in Caneyville in the late afternoon of a Monday, and our final meal with the community was the following Thursday's lunch.  The family who hosted us for our last meal was so easy to talk to that, like the others we spent time with, it was hard to leave!  We had so many topics we wanted to hear their perspective on, and they wanted to know all the intricacies of why we were interested in visiting their community.  Eventually our time was constrained by everyone's babies needing to nap, so we parted ways and headed about an hour and a half southeast toward our second destination in Kentucky.