Our home was built circa 1826 by Isaac Turner. He was an established farmer and mariner in the New Horton and Harvey Bank area, who had migrated from Horton, Nova Scotia. A family of nine children is the reason why the home was so large. His fourth son, Gaius Turner, shipbuilder and entrepreneur, owned it after Isaac’s death. The house changed hands many times down through the years. When we found and bought it over two years ago, the house had been abandoned and left to rot and pillaging for over ten years.

Due to the terrible condition of the house, Desire and I had first thought that we would tear the house down and build a smaller home further back from the road. However, a building permit for new construction, would take three months or more to obtain. Therefore, we decided to renovate the existing structure.

The idea of running a Christian retreat came to mind as an avenue to use space on the second floor, as we only needed the first floor for our living quarters. By “Christian retreat” we mean that the Moncton churches could bring small groups to our property for seminars, such as marriage counselling, Alpha “Holy Spirit” weekend, pastor’s vacations, etc. We would provide sleeping accommodations and meals for two to three day stays. This vision is still a real possibility for the future, but we would need a private meeting room for the groups, which we do not have at present. For now, we are starting with renting out the rooms that we have available. This idea came from the teachings of Jesus, who always used available resources, rather than looking at the lack of such things. To his disciples his question was “What do we have?”, as in the feeding of the five thousand.

The twist for our “bed and breakfast” is that we are offering a Bible study with the room and meal package. We call it a B, B & B, as we can provide single-session Bible studies upon demand after supper. What sweet dreams you will have with some good Bible knowledge in your mind before heading off to bed!