A community is not simply a group of people who live together and love each other. It is a place of resurrection, a current of life, one heart, one soul, one spirit.
Community and Growth, Jean Vanier

Volunteers at Farm of the Child come together in community because they feel called to live together, pray together, share in each other's lives and work together to respond to the needs of the poor, most especially the children of Honduras. All volunteers live together in a Catholic faith-based community. The success of the community depends on each individual's commitment to accept, challenge, respect, and care for one another. Communal life requires that its members share in house responsibilities and participate in the established house activities, business meetings, community prayer times, and the larger Farm community activities. Living and working so closely with others can be difficult at times, but through effort, dedication, good communication, perseverance, and love, community life can be a nurturing environment and an enriching experience for its members.

The individuals that are a part of the community make it what it is; together they work to set the guidelines and expectations. Community members are all asked to commit to the same basic ideals and to follow the basic guidelines. However, each member has different ways of participating in community life and each brings meaningful gifts to the community as a whole.

Each volunteer works to clean the house and prepare meals. Volunteers commit to sharing meals together in the volunteer house, praying together daily and participating in a weekly community night that includes dinner, personal sharing and an hour of reflection and discussion. The group may decide upon additional community activities.

Out of His solitude, Jesus reached out His caring Hand to the people in need. In the lonely place His care grew strong and mature. And from there He entered into a healing closeness with His fellow human beings.
Out of Solitude, Henri Nouwen

Jesus came to this world to serve others in order that we might receive fullness of life. His service grew out of his immense compassion for His people, for us. He fed the hungry, made the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the dead live. Jesus serves by offering His compassion and divine gifts and He has called us to do the same, "I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least important of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me!" (Matthew 25:40) We are called to share our own compassion and our own gifts with those in need, to share our lives, our experiences, our faith, our happiness, and our sadness with our brothers and sisters.

The Farm offers and invaluable opportunities to serve others. In addition to one's primary job responsibilities, circumstances arise daily that challenge volunteers to act out of compassion, to share their gifts, lives and time with those in need. Neighbors arrive early in the morning with an emergency ailment; a drunken man asks for food; an abandoned child needs a home; a young orphan acts out in his desire for attention. These cases exemplify daily situations where volunteers must view the face of Christ in another and ask how Jesus would respond to these needs. How must we respond to this situation? The many questions and situations call volunteers to step out of their comfort zones and to stretch themselves. Sometimes tangible solutions can be offered. Often, however, no solution to the problem exists except for the presence of a loving, compassionate and listening ear and the strength of prayer.

One of the local Hondurans, who has worked closely with the Farm, once said to tell prospective volunteers that they have to be ready to love. It is crucial that volunteers are prepared to love all those with whom they come into contact. Without that mentality, the experience will be very frustrating. There is no doubt that it will be challenging to love some of the people, but this job demands love 100% of the time. Often times, true love is tough love. What people are lacking physically or emotionally cannot always be fixed with a handout although that would be the easy solution. What they need is to experience God's love through you.

Though volunteers offer much to the children and the people in the surrounding area, we inevitably receive more than we actually give. By opening ourselves up to others, allowing ourselves to love, to care, and to share our gifts, we serve others. In turn, we are served by others, receiving their generosity, time, wisdom and love.

All the believers continued together in close fellowship and shared their belongings with one another. They would sell their property and possessions, and distribute the money among all, according to what each one needed.
Acts 2:44-45

Those who come to work at the Farm of the Child have the common interests of living in Christian community and sharing their lives and the Gospel with the poor and the marginalized. We hope that these personal commitments will contribute to the transformation of the social structures that perpetuate the cycle of poverty. The act of simplifying one's lifestyle contributes, in a very important manner, toward the goal of fighting poverty and injustice.

Since most volunteers come from backgrounds of higher education, which create many opportunities to build a stable future, most volunteers will never know what it means to live a life of involuntary poverty and injustice. We are not called to live this same life. However, we are called to enter into a life of accompaniment with our brothers and sisters that strive toward just changes.

As foreigners, volunteers are viewed differently. How we live and act greatly impacts how the entire volunteer and Farm community is perceived. Living simply allows us to break stereotypes and helps us to communicate more openly and honestly with the local Hondurans.

Simple living is a commitment to both an ideal and an action. When we surround ourselves and fulfill our wants and needs with material goods, we have little room for God's presence and grace to work in our lives. By decreasing our dependence on these goods, we recognize our greater need for God's guidance in our lives and open ourselves up to spiritual fulfillment.

Volunteers at the Farm of the Child make a commitment to simple living. Some choices are personal (i.e.; use of spending money, use of free time, etc.) while others are communal decisions to live more simply (i.e.; types of food we eat, limits on watching movies, etc.). All are asked to commit to this ideal in theory and to be willing to incorporate this into their experience in Honduras.

Blessed are the humble of heart; they will receive the land that God has promised.
Matthew 5:5

Spirituality is the basis and heart of our community life. Volunteers come to the Farm to personally develop their relationships with God and to share their unique spirituality with one another. All volunteers are asked to participate in the established community. The foundation of our community is based on our shared prayer life and spirituality. When facing hardships in relationships with others and in our work, our community prayer life serves as a source of strength to resolve difficulties. In order to share our gifts and serve others in the volunteer community and the larger community around us, we must nourish ourselves individually and as a community with prayer.

Volunteers are asked to make community prayer commitments before arrival. All volunteers gather at 6:00 a.m. to pray the Liturgy of the Hours each weekday morning with the house parents, house helpers, and children in our chapel. Individuals take turns offering personal reflections and additional spiritual readings of choice as part of the Morning Prayer. The entire Farm community attends Mass on Sundays in Trujillo and participates in a communion service in our chapel usually one morning a week in place of the regular Morning Prayer. Community night, mentioned above, is an opportunity for volunteers to pray together, reflect, and discuss. Volunteers take turns leading community night and can choose the topic of discussion. The success of the volunteer community relies on the commitment by all volunteers to participate fully in these spiritual activities.

The volunteer community is welcome to complement these established prayer commitments with other prayer times that occur on the Farm. For example, at 8:00 p.m. each weekday evening, a small group of adults gathers to pray Evening Prayer and to discuss daily readings. Women from the local villages and the Farm gather weekly to discuss the challenges of the Gospel in their lives. In addition, the children pray the Rosary together each weekday evening and have catechism classes in the afternoon.