I waited years for a current story, an ongoing story, to open this blog. I have found it in a most unusual family., having observed some of their trials in the path they let God choose for them. The life the Campbells have chosen, seen here on their West Coast mission, is not for every family--but we all feel the graces of such families when they touch our lives.
They sound like a family you would meet in a wild west story. Patrick and Joy Campbell range North America with their seven sons and two daughters. An itinerant family of charismatic ministers, they seek but to live-out the Good News they share. In them God weds His message with a family formed of families once broken.
The healing they have experienced comes from so often needing the Holy Spirit in their lives, that they invited Him in to stay. This takes physical form in the Cross of Saint Benedict which has so protected them that they found their vocations sharing it with others. The Cross of Saint Benedict Society which Patrick founded now has over 2,308 members. As Benedictine oblates, they live cloistered on the road much as back home.
In worldly terms, Patrick is executive director of Joyful Hope Ministries, a non-profit ministry under the umbrella of United For Life Foundation out of Birmingham, Ala. He also supports Birmingham Bishop Robert J. Baker's mission with the Comunità Cenacolo America, a drug rehabilitation program. As a singer/songwriter, Patrick produced three CDs, including from the movie soundtrack of world Youth Day "Don't Turnback." Joy Campbell is an accomplished professional organist, pianist, and writer. For the Campbells, all these things now serve a vocation which most Christians only wish to dare attempt.
In later posts here, and in other Blogs, I will share parts of their story. I witnessed the earliest days of their ministry and their sincerity of purpose. I have observed them suffering what I can only consider persecution for their faithful devotion--and I could never have handled it with the grace they did. But expressing more details would appropriate a message God has given them to share, and that nobody else can share quite as effectively as they do in the way they choose to live.
--Peter John Stone
In later posts here, and in other Blogs, I will share parts of their story. I witnessed the earliest days of their ministry and their sincerity of purpose. I have observed them suffering what I can only consider persecution for their faithful devotion--and I could never have handled it with the grace they did. But expressing more details would appropriate a message God has given them to share, and that nobody else can share quite as effectively as they do in the way they choose to live.
--Peter John Stone
