"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
Last June, after much thought , my husband and I embarked upon a venture to build a co-operative solar farm. It is one of the very first co-operative solar farms in the country, so was a big voyage of discovery. For me it involved losing my husband’s company almost entirely for a year, providing lots of back up and support, and cooking numerous cakes for board meetings! For him it meant bringing to bear all the skills he had acquired during his varied career.
Gathering five wonderful voluntary board members about him, he forged ahead. It meant that as a couple we had to make a leap of faith and buy a field that had very little value if our plans didn’t work, but which we would let to the solar farm if it did. My husband is a Quaker and felt led to do this as part of his Quaker demonstration. I also prayed and felt that this was a scheme which would "bless all and injure none.”
Through the whole process, we met no opposition, and wholehearted support, even from the closest neighbours, who just asked how to invest in it. It was wonderful. The planners passed the application unopposed. and also wanted to invest, and all seemed well. But then at the eleventh hour, when timing was absolutely crucial, one of the wildlife organisations who had had over six months to comment, and had originally supported the project, raised concerns abut a certain kind of goose. We had no geese on our field, which as a restored gravel pit, only offered vey poor quality grazing, while next door there was a beautiful field with a small lake and thousands of geese. It looked as if the whole thing was going to fall in a heap at the last moment.
We all prayed in our own ways. Feeling in need of backup, I contacted a practitioner, who wrote: "I always remember that an idea exists in Mind, not matter. Therefore it's out of reach of mortal mind. And it includes within it everything needed for its inception, development, and fruition. I'll very happily pray with you along these lines. We can surely give this one to God, totally, and if it's moving on His/Her terms then it has to bless every single individual (and creature) it touches.”
Thus encouraged, I persevered, and was struck by the thought, “...and the government shall be upon His shoulder.” This seemed so apposite in this situation. In the knowledge that the government, in this case local government, authorities and their associates, was upon the Lord’s shoulder, and nobody else’s, I entrusted it to God. One board member felt led to cut through all the red tape and against all protocol and advice, contact the objecting ecologist direct, despite screams of outrage from our consultants... and within a day it was resolved.
Since then, the project has forged ahead, been taken up by the local television news, and broken all records for people wanting to sign up to invest in the scheme. In addition to this it has created a whole new feeling of community in our area. We have had a tree planting day to plant four hundred and fifty trees for the first part of our wildlife friendly hedge. Over twenty volunteers turned up, aged from five to eighty, and we got all the trees planted on a cold rainy day. We are about to have another tree planting day, and this time we are hoping for volunteers from the local university to be involved as well.
We needed to reach a certain figure with the fund raising by a certain date in order to guarantee that the farm would go ahead in some form, so that the contractors could place orders for certain items with several weeks lead times. It was a nervous week, but on the day in question, we had achieved exactly the amount that we needed to for the orders to be placed.
New friendships are blossoming, talents are popping up everywhere, and it is wonderful. It really is going to be a solar farm built by local people for local people belonging to local people, bringing power to local houses. This has all been achieved by much devoted voluntary work by many individuals, but most importantly, it has all been achieved on a bedrock of spiritual foundations. And the government really has been upon His shoulder.