This summer, Au Sable welcomed our very first Artist in Residence, Nina Grauley. During her two weeks at our Great Lakes campus, Nina joined in the rhythms of our community—learning alongside students, faculty, and staff, and finding inspiration in God’s creation. A few of her sketches are at the top and bottom of this post.

I had the immense privilege of staying for two weeks as an Artist in Residence in the North Woods of Michigan this summer, and it’s an understatement to say I had the time of my life. Aside from having valuable time away to create without the troubles and distractions of daily life, I was able to be part of the Au Sable community—to learn from the students, staff, and professors who spend their summers there.

The people who come here are people who care about God, about others, and about the earth. To be with such people, surrounded by the beauty of a Michigan summer, felt like a glimpse of a better world.

I joined the final integration day as Dave Warners led us in pulling invasive weeds to continue a streambank restoration along the Au Sable River. He spoke that morning about restoration and reconciliation ecology, and asked us to reimagine what our relationships could look like: with each other and with the natural world. We spent a sweaty morning working together, wrestling with white sweetclover and spotted knapweed plants taller than we were.

Afterward, Heath Garris led us in discussion and asked us to take what we learned that day and consider two questions: “Why not me? Why not my community?”

Jon Terry, in his final prayer, asked that we would lament and be angered at what we see is so clearly wrong. We are not content with the world as it is, with its destruction and dying and despair. We have this everlasting hope that there is a better way. Part of what makes this place so good and lovely and true is its faithful commitment to hard truths, to tension, to the long obedience. These glimpses of the coming Kingdom are meant to inspire us to kingdom work.

Au Sable is a hard place to leave. It was after five weeks as a student, and it is now. But both times equipped me to go back into the world to work in hope. I wrote this in my sketchbook the night before I left, and I pray it now for every person who has experienced this beautiful community:

Emanuel, God who is with us. As we leave this place, help us to remember that You go with us. Every good gift here is first of You, and You have never left us alone. Help us to follow You.