Being a pioneer..

.. I was chatting with someone today and they told a story about a group of nuns. They were given a piece of land in Egypt, upon which they were to build their convent. Like much of the country this piece of land was effectively desert. But the group of nuns, took up shovels and dug their way to the Nile. They insured that the land could be irrigated, the convent built.

She likened their story to that of the pioneer: that we pitch up on barren land to build a community of prayer and of hospitality and all that, but that it starts with a pioneer who will take up a shovel and dig through the desert until they get to the Nile.

Bring on the spade!