Fields
The building of a network of farms called to use their land for the glory of God through refreshment and renewal for pioneering leaders and artists.
Across North America Jesus has been calling His people to offer their fields/farms to open space for pioneering missional leaders and artists to encounter deep intimate connection with Him. The Fields of the Sower’s Abbey follows in the footsteps of saints and mystics throughout the centuries: Francis of Assisi, Clare of Assisi, St. Teresa of Avila, Hildegard of Bingen, Saint Catherine of Sienna, etc. Each of them built community by offering thin spaces set apart, hidden, and sacred in order for Jesus to deepen His relationship with His Bride, the church.
In January 2025, Ascent’s Abbess/Prayer Director received a Creo Arts Grant to explore further the work of prayer and intercession specific to Christian Artists entitled The Art Abbey. This project brought insight into how to support artists in their spiritual growth by the offer of spiritual direction and the development of contemplative retreat experiences across North America. During that initiative artists with farms began to connect and a desire to come together and hear how the Lord would have them journey together having been given similar visions.
In August 2025 the first gathering of Field Stewards took place in SC at Viridis Farm. There was a consensus to journey together as a network of farms to be “Harvested” for the Glory of God.
As of September 2026 the Fields of the Sower’s Abbey has increased in number offering space for both pioneering leaders and artists to engage in deep intimacy with the Father, contemplative prayer and the creation of contemplative art that offers soul healing, transforming prophetic prayer, regional intercession, and the building of deep faith communities.
Connection, Infusion, and Collaboration through Prayer and Art, for Mission.
If you have a similar leading to offer your farm/field for His Sowers or are an intercessor desiring to connect with other intercessors in your region we invite you to join this tribe of Field Stewards, please, contact our Abbess at cheryl.mccarthy@ascentmovement.org
The inaugural gathering of the Fields of the Sower’s Abbey at Viridis Farm on August 25, 2025
Viridis Farm Wadmalaw Island, SC
Meet Robert and Lindsay MacLeod
We are Robert and Lindsay MacLeod, the artists behind Khalima Lights and the farmers
behind Viridis Farms.
We have been married for 25 years and in the coppersmithing and lantern-making trade for over 20 years. We are proud Mom and Dad to our precious son, Zion, 17. Lindsay was born in Oregon, but has lived in Charleston the majority of her life. Robert is from Jacksonville, Florida and walked (yes, walked) to Charleston in 1998.
Our heart is to introduce people to Jesus, display His magnificence and His goodness through fellowship, art, and nature, and invite all He calls to come into a space where they
may encounter Him and be made whole. Please, visit khalimalights.com to read more about our story and trade.
Introducing Viridis Farms
Viridis Farms
is a working farm on Wadmalaw Island, growing vegetables, fruit, and flowers and bringing together people from all walks of life to discover God’s fingerprints as we tend the land, the wildlife, and watch His creation grow.
Retreats and workshops offered:
Viridis Farms exists to open space for discipleship, growth, healing, wholeness. Art and farming, life and faith. Prayer and mission. These are the fruits we are watching Jesus produce, and we are excited to bring in the harvest!
Coppersmithing workshops
Since the earliest days, humanity has prized copper for its purity, strength, and beauty. God Himself instructed that many of the holy furnishings of the wilderness Tabernacle be crafted from this enduring metal. Come and learn the foundational techniques of this ancient trade and use them to create an art piece, jewelry, or small vessel of your own design.
The Art Farm Walhalla, SC
Meet The Aligs and The Wrights
The Art Farm has its roots in friendship and faith.
Ruthie Alig and Stephanie Wright met in 1978 at Salem College in North Carolina where they participated in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and studied the arts.
In 1999, Ruthie presented The Art Farm idea to Stephanie, who responded enthusiastically. Prayer and faith steps began.
In 2003, they were Co-Directors of Christian Education at their church, practicing business, leadership and ministry skills as they explored their call to arts ministry. They led a ten week workshop called “The Creative Life: A Workshop for Discovering and Recovering Your Creativity in Christ.” They offered Sunday school classes and vacation Bible schools which emphasized the arts, as well as a Stations of the Cross experience in which church members prepared artistic presentations for Lent. They directed worship services involving drama, set design,
costuming and singing. They also began The Creative Life Studio, a physical space in the church for focusing on arts ministry.
In 2006, Vince Alig was called to be a pastor in Walhalla, SC. The Aligs bought forty-five acres in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Then Daniel and Stephanie Wright bought three acres from the Aligs and built a home in 2008.
Since the late 2000s, we have hosted missionaries and individuals on day- and week-long personal retreats and held a multitude of art farm retreats and events.
So, your story now joins ours. You are invited to The Art Farm,
currently the land and our two homes, where together we will find out all that God has planned for us!
Introducing The Art Farm
The Art Farm is a place (houses, land, streams, forest and gardens) for growing artists and art. Together we welcome imperfection, process, laughing, learning, praying and encouraging one another, as we cultivate wonder for the living God.
Retreats and Workshops offered:
The Art Farm currently offers personal day retreats for artists and missional leaders to come and have their own guided day.
Check back for upcoming Sharing Hours and our 2026 Art Retreat Event.
Fourwinds Faith & Art Farm Springfield, MO
Meet Kurt Caddy
Kurt and Laura Caddy live on a farm in Missouri. They have eight grown children. Kurt is a visual artist and theologian. He has an MDiv degree and has completed all seminar courses for a Doctorate with an emphasis on the integration of Faith and the visual arts. This theological training informs and inspires his creative process. Kurt is constantly in search of ways to express the point at which brokenness and beauty meet in our everyday lives. One way he does this is through his Kintsugi Workshops. Kurt teaches a hands-on workshop and weaves spiritual truth throughout the mending process. Kurt Caddy is an artist who believes that art is generative and transformative.
Introducing Fourwinds Faith and Art Farm
FOURWINDS FAITH AND ART FARM and Selah Studios is a sacred space where God’s people can gather to create sacred art for Glory and Beauty (Ex 28:3 ESV). We are committed to integrating faith and art at the intersection of the church by these four guiding principles:
Educate the Church - To bring awareness by teaching the church the biblical basis for art. By teaching the meaning of inspiration and beauty Kurt helps to guide the church in integrating the arts.
Equip Christian Artists - For artists to receive technical training, but also to give permission to create to the Glory of God.
Engage the Culture - As a missional pastor, who has traveled all over the world, Kurt helps churches to use art as an evangelistic platform for reclaiming arts in culture.
Express Creativity - Kurt’s own creative process as an artist and theologian. The fruit of this practice is creating commissioned pieces for churches and God’s people across North America.
Retreats and Workshops offered:
We offer quiet retreat for single artists and missional leaders. Nestled in the forest of the expansive 35 acre property, Kurt has built a small hermitage for private pilgrimage.
Kurt offers Kintsugi workshops that can be booked locally or across North America. Kintsugi is the 14 Century Japanese art of mending broken vessels. This beautiful and engaging creative art form becomes a visual representation of God’s redemptive story- from brokenness to beauty through the new creation.
SONSHINE FOLK SCHOOL FARM
ST. STEPHENS CHURCH, VA
Meet Beth and Andrew Sloane
Andrew has 30 years of experience as a public school teacher, preceded by 13 years as a building contractor. He has taught over 8,000 students from middle school to high school and has seen the growing need for young people to learn life skills and have mentoring adults to give direction for life.
Introducing Sonshine Folk School Farm
SONSHINE FOLK SCHOOL FARM is God's fulfillment of a 30-year dream of having a place to minister to at-risk youth. It has been Andrew's life-long dream to have a place to minister to kids outside the classroom, and beyond that, a place for the restoration of souls for the glory of God.
In 2011, Beth and Andrew Sloane had the opportunity to purchase 21 acres in a rural county adjacent to a 22-acre lake. Since then, we have expanded to 81 acres with 4 acres under cultivation and four greenhouses operational year-round.
The Farm is a Christian agricultural ministry with a two-fold purpose of work training for youth and provision of produce to the hungry. We seek to show people of all ages the saving grace of Jesus Christ by demonstrating the Christian lifestyle through personal interaction and providing an environment where all can discover their worth as a child of God while learning work and social life skills.
Visit their website: www.sonshinefolkschoolfarm.org
Retreats and Workshops offered:
We hire youth ages 12-18 to work on the farm growing vegetables, doing light construction, operating farm equipment, caring for 100+ chickens, and all the myriad of activities to operate a working farm. In addition, they have classroom time for basic educational skills, drafting, and woodworking.
Our prayer is that our LORD God Creator will make this place a resource, refuge and sanctuary for salvation, education, inspiration, restoration, and enjoyment of His creation. In 2025 we completed our home on the farm, upsizing instead of downsizing, to offer a retreat and event space for groups and individuals.
Contact us for more information