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Alan Willes, a Songkeeper & Drum Maker, stayed with us for two days and made two beautiful drums. He prefers to make the drums in the presence of the people who will be using them to "get their energy into them" during the creation. He included us in on the making of two drums: The first is a very large Native pow wow drum made with buffalo skin. The second is a small Celtic drum made of horse hide. It was an incredible time watching this master at his art; ushering in the birth of these drums with blessing, singing, laughing, and tobacco smoking. A drum is a living thing, and Alan is a man who has a passion for living life in the sacredness of the present moment.

The Pow Wow Drum

The skin is stretched and laced on the foundation.

The skin is laced and pulled incredibly tight.

The drum's creation is ushered in with blessing

The skin must cure for four days.

The Celtic Drum

Community Prayer and Blessing

Cutting the holes for the lace

The wet skin is wrapped over the frame

Lacing the skin

Curing at the altar

Our New Horno (Bread Oven)

Ernie and Linda built the bread oven out of adobe clay to accompany the nearby sweat lodge. Along with Deanna's pottery workshop, Ernie and Linda will bake bread for our retreat guests.

Waiting for the bread

Come check out the new Patio!

Built completely from cement yet has the look of a Flagstone type walkway!

Cement Forms and Ferrous Sulfate Heptahydrate were used in this inexpensive
way of creating a beautiful patio at less than half the price of typical Flagstone or Cement Stone walkway.

Check out the pictures and learn how to build your own patio!

The Straw bale wing is finished!!

We completed the straw bale building wing and it looks awesome!

Check out the updated pictures on the Desert Rain Community House, or view the progress from the beginning.

News from the Ruined

2005 Community Building Projects

Now that the chapel building is completed, we are are turning our building attention to outside porches, gardens, patios, and walkways. We want this mission to reflect the beauty of God's life in his church. As the ancient Celtic communities envisioned, we want this community to be an oasis of beauty that draws ones mind to God.

Why and how we build

Past Items:

Summer of Love 2004

Last Summer, we had a special series of Sunday night get-togethers. Come have dinner with us at 6:00pm, then stay for a sunset service and bon-fire. We are worshipping in the new straw house at 7:00pm with Brother David sharing a special series of messages concerning Heaven. We take communion together, then have a procession out to the prayer garden where we have a bonfire after dark. Bring a percussion instrument if you would like and participate in the jam session by star light around the fire.

Baptisms, Pool Party, Pot Luck (Summer '03)

Last Sunday, we had a youth pool party. We drove all the kids from the church over to the community and had a blast. Later, the church came over and 10 ~ 15 people got baptized -- young kids all the way up to a retired Navy Seal. God is GOOD!

We had a great cook out for the rest of the day and into the evening. Late in the evening when most folks had left, the Nerias brought out the percussion (drums, rattles, wooden frogs, flutes, scrapers, etc.) and we had an impromptu jam session. Those Nerias have serious rhythm! It was a great weekend!

Weekend outreaches

There are outreaches going on almost every Saturday at either the community center or the park. Clothes, Food, and prayer are given out often accompanied by worship and games for kids. If you are interested, let us know and we'll let you know where the next one is planned.