Thirty years have passed since six adults and five kids moved from south Georgia to 260 acres in Comer.
Those first Jubilee Partners in Comer were set on doing the Lord’s work. And they slept in tents, took baths in the creek.
“In a mild sense of the word, we were like refugees,” said Don Mosley, co-founder of Jubilee Partners, remembering the early days in Comer. “We got just a taste of it. We became more sensitive to what real, bona fide refugees around the world are up against.”
Apart from the lack of modern comforts, there was another concern. Mosley, his wife Carolyn, and others were aware that some might worry about what would happen on that rural land. It was 1979, only a year removed from that horrible incident in Jonestown, Guyana, in which a Christian ministry had taken a horribly un-Christian turn and more than 900 people lay dead. The newspaper headlines out of Athens spoke of a “commune” coming to Comer.
But the Jubilee Partners found support in Madison County, not hate.
“We were going to local churches, such as the Comer United Methodist Church,” said Mosley. “And bless their hearts, they stood up for us. There were several instances when people said ‘Do you know what’s coming across the street from you?’ And the people there, William Porterfield and others, said ‘Hey, you ought to meet these people. They attend our church. They’re good folks.’
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What took root 30 years ago on that Comer property has changed numerous lives — not just in Georgia, but nationally and internationally. Now, 30 years later Jubilee Partners will celebrate three decades of service with a worship ceremony, lunch and open house on Thanksgiving Day.
Mosley will surely reflect this Thanksgiving on those first days — that taste of living like a refugee and how the group decided to dedicate itself to those who were displaced by war, famine and other strife. They created a refugee welcoming station at the back of the property, with staff and volunteers setting up camp between the refugees and the world beyond. It was a safe haven for those who’ve seen some of the worst the world has to offer.
Over the past three decades, Jubilee Partners has welcomed over 3,000 refugees from 30 countries. Another 700 to 800 people have lived on the camp to offer help to the refugees, earning just $15 a week, but gaining valuable experience.
“We have, I think, the cream of the crop of deeply committed volunteers,” said Mosley.
Manal Tayar was scheduled to return to Lebanon Tuesday after three weeks volunteering at Jubilee.
“I’ve learned how to have a relationship (with the refugees) not as an authority, but living together as a family,” said Tayar. “We can learn from each other.”
Amber Oda of Indiana has spent six months at Jubilee.
“I’ve learned from the families about what is done in Burma and Thailand taking care of the animals and the land,” said Oda on Monday. “I’ve learned more from them than they have from me teaching them English.”
As Mosley reflected Monday on the early days of Jubilee, he recalled his time at Koinonia Partners in Sumter County. Koinonia is a farm founded in 1942 by two couples, Clarence and Florence Jordan and Martin and Mabel England, where residents divest themselves of personal wealth and follow the teachings and principles of Jesus. Habitat for Humanity was modeled after the Koinonia Partnership Housing project. Mosley was one of the founders of Habitat for Humanity and served as construction manager at Koinonia for several years. But as Koinonia grew, some looked to expand the ministry. Mosley and others developed a list of 16 potential sites for a new Christian community in north Georgia, South Carolina or North Carolina.
“We visited each community and as we went down the list we kept checking them off the list for one reason or another,” said Mosley. “The last one was Toccoa. We decided it really wasn’t quite the right place. And so in defeat, after two years of this brilliant strategizing, we stopped by Carlton to see Chip Chandler. And he said, ‘Hey, you ought to check out this place Comer up the street.’”
Mosley said the group met the next week with B.W. Coile, who led them around the Comer area.
“He brought us to this property and we said, ‘Hey, this is it! This is what we’ve been looking for.”
Mosley said the land was beautiful and the group got away from the “science” of the search.
“One man in our group said, ‘Look, persimmon trees! I love persimmon trees. They’re growing wild,’” recalled Mosley. “One of the women, who was a bird lover, said, ‘Look at that great blue heron! Oh, this place just feels right. We all looked at each other and said, ‘Where are we going to find a place better than this?’”
Of course, had Mosley followed the family plan, he never would have stood in Comer.
His father was a “Henry Ford” type of genius, who became a millionaire during World War II developing scrap metal industrial processing equipment. Mosley got an engineering degree and was expected to take over his father’s business, but against his parents’ protests, he rode across Europe on a bicycle and then traveled to the Middle East.
“I discovered the refugees,” he said. “I knew nothing about refugees or really about suffering anywhere in the world at that point. I had been a teenager with a pilot’s license, encouraged to go out and fly. We had six private planes. I lived the life of luxury.”
But Mosley, who has written two books — “With Our Own Eyes and “Faith Beyond Borders,” which is due out in the spring — said he has found riches in an entirely different way.
“I feel like I’m probably the luckiest guy on the face of the earth,” said Mosley. “I don’t know anyone in the world who enjoys their work more than me. And it’s not just my work. This is not Don Mosley’s project. The thing is the Gospel. When you put the Gospel of Jesus Christ into action, and set out to love people, your next door neighbors and the people from the opposite end of the world, your enemies, along with all the rest, that’s what Jesus said. Come to think of it, man, what an exciting life it leads you into.”
My husband grew up in Comer and considered Jubilee Partners a neighbor. My mother-in-law talks about some of the special friends (refugees) that came home for dinner with him from time to time. My youngest son and his friends fished in their pond. Remarkably, for a community with a partially transient population, they have never caused problems in the community.
May they continued to be blessed and may more minds and hearts in Madison County be open to them and the good they have done.
It's too bad that the fact that churches are exempt and whereever you like to hang out is not. The "freeloading, hypocritical, 'christians'" pay property taxes on their homes just like anyone else. The church is a different entity altogether.
Do you people put much thought into these things you type before you hit "submit?"