THE REFUGE
A family’s vision to provide a place for rest and shelter

Created by: Meg Roussos

The Welch family lives contently inside a school bus on 20 acres land. Their vision of providing a place for shelter and rest shapes their daily lives.

See full story at: 2011.soulofathens.com/our-dreams-are-different/the-refuge.html

TRANSCRIPT:

SMILES: It's not surprising to have some guy living in a bus in the woods, but to have a family live in a bus in the woods, and being at peace, that's super natural. I mean we are so at peace here.

SPACE: For a long time it was kind of tough for me because especially in the winter time where I was all feeling a little bit overwhelmed and claustrophobic trying to keep the house clean that's thirty some feet long; having to work through those things stretches our souls, and makes us better people in the long run I think.

(Birds chirping)

It didn't start out this way, you know, it started out with us having to learn contentment as being renters, as being homeless.

(Birds chirping)

SMILES: I hit the road looking for love. So, eight and a half months after that I get picked up hitchhiking by what ends up being my incredible wife, and she was on the road looking for freedom. By getting rear ended by a drunk driver a week later, and meeting the right people we came to know Christ ten days after we met. I knew I had found the love that I have been seeking after, and she found the freedom she was looking for.

(Stream running water)

SPACE: These are my life choices and this is what we have chosen to do, and I do feel that they have been a huge asset to our family.

(Rain)

SMILES: People that are striving to live the American dream even though they are so discontent they look down upon us and our life, the way we're living, raising our family, these circumstances. What we have you cannot buy and people are trying to buy their happiness, weather it is through money or through whatever; but as we learn and gain, we want to teach and give.

SPACE: What were pouring into this land is not just for our benefit but, for the benefit of generations to come.

(Rain)

SIMON: That sucks. Oh, that sucks

(Rain)

SMILES: We prayed yeah, that we would gain some land outside of Athens, we prayed for this land for 12 or 13 years before God provided it. We want this place to be a refuge for people who need it.

(Birds chirping)

The world would say you're so poor and then they would look at us and say yet you're the richest people I've ever seen. The world would say you have nothing and then at the very same time they would have in their mind, you have everything I have ever wanted.

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See full story at: 2011.soulofathens.com/our-dreams-are-different/the-refuge.html

See other stories that examine the changing American Dream at: 2011.soulofathens.com