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WORKING TOGETHER IN THE HEART OF THE HOUSE
For Akke Walsma, working as part of a domestic team running a community house is a big challenge
When Akke came to England, aged 21, all she meant to do was to take a break in the middle of her university course in Holland. Instead, she left her homeland and found herself spending the next 24 years in a Christian community house near Northampton.
Here, she is part of a domestic team, cLeaning a large farmhouse with ten bedrooms, cooking and washing. She is also a praying, caring, listening spiritual mum to an ever-changing household which includes thirty young men!
In her late twenties she accepted God's call to stay single for His work and soon afterwards she started her 24 years as a domestic worker - a role she says is not at all natural to her 'bookish' self!
"Domestic work is all about love and service. It's one of the most needed jobs in community because people need a home and security, not an institution. The daily challenge is to live from your heart and not from a set of regulations. There are many demands and it can only be done by staying in the flow of God's Love. I know I never wanted a cosy, comfortable life in Jesus!
"Often, as a spiritual mother you feel desperate when you see a young brother in trouble, going the wrong direction. Sometimes all you can do is to pray. Other times you can be a listening ear, helping these ones to be at home with God, with themselves and with one another.
"In domestic work you can feel misunderstood and taken for granted. But you can't afford to be at odds with each other because the blessing is God's smile and He smiles when we love one another."
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Working together
