<p>
	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Bob-Barr-adjusted.jpg" style="width: 175px; height: 227px; float: right;" />&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you get bored living out here in the middle of nowhere?&rdquo; exclaimed our friend from the big city (city folk can be so provincial), &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t stand the isolation.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	Becky and I had been living at Au Sable in the caretaker&rsquo;s house for several years by the time our friend made her comment. Trish Fagg, Au Sable&rsquo;s Environmental Education Director, lived in a cottage 30 feet from our house, and Au Sable&rsquo;s founder Harold Snyder and his wife Ellen lived just across the pond, a five minute walk away. Our basement was constantly filled with an ever changing assortment of Environmental Education Interns, students, faculty families, or staff. Twenty to thirty year-round residents came to the Lodge one evening a week for an environmental education program that Trish coordinated. Becky and I were involved in our local church (a shorter driving time than our city friend was from her church) two nights a week, and I had just joined the local volunteer fire department (our motto: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll save your lot&rdquo;). So you can see why I broke into laughter when I heard my friend&#39;s question. We were facing a classic case of &ldquo;looks can be deceiving.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Bob-Barr-2-adjusted.jpg" style="width: 175px; height: 245px; float: right;" />More than the total number of people in our lives was the quality of those people. Becky and I did worry about raising kids in a community in which education lagged behind and many people had relatively few opportunities to explore the wider world, but we had rich friendships within the Au Sable community from academic sorts far and wide. The college students would come and go, but every year there were a couple of them who would stay on to be interns or work as staff and perhaps return the next year as students once again. &nbsp;We got close to these folks, and occasionally would serve as mentors and guides for them. At the very least, they were the sources for <a href="/news_and_resources/blog/au_sable_stories_the_mis_adventures_of_hansel_and_gretel_by_bob_barr#.Ud7X5_k3uSo">many wonderful stories</a>. Over the years, we have hosted in our home educators, scientists, a congressman, theologians, journalists, famous authors, and thinkers from five continents. Our kid&rsquo;s lives were enlarged by playing with professor&rsquo;s kids who came from all over the United States to spend their summers with us. And we were enriched by local people who did not have much education nor had they seen much of the world, but who lived a rubber meets the road sort of Christian life informed by an unsophisticated but very personal and powerful faith. So, no, from a people perspective, we did not have time to get bored. Rather, the thousands of people who have been part of our lives these past 36 years have blessed us and enriched us in ways incalculable. &nbsp;</p>
<p>
	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}AS_Day2_LowRes-143.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 166px; float: right;" />Our friend, who calculated boredom by the absence of people, completely missed a very powerful element of life at Au Sable, and that is the place itself. This is a beautiful place, and each season has its charms: &nbsp;the spectacular colors of fall, the returning birds of spring, morning mists over the lakes, fox kits playing below our deck, and my favorite, the Currier and Ives beauty of a heavy lake effect snowfall. But there are lots of beautiful places in the world, and we know that God speaks through his Creation, but there is something more, something special that happens on these unique acres. God has honored the prayers of the founders, that this place would be a place where God&rsquo;s presence could be felt. Over and over again, I have heard students, retreat participants, campers, and staff testify to life changing encounters with God while they were on these grounds. &nbsp;</p>
<p>
	A college student attended several winter retreats here with his church. He developed a very aggressive cancer and requested that he be permitted to make one last winter retreat at Au Sable. We put a couple of beds in the Lodge conference room so his aids could be with him through the night, and we had a spectacular snowy winter week end. He died in the spring. Just this past week, a student from our first fall semester program showed up because he was in the area and wanted to find out if Au Sable still existed. He spoke of the impact this place had on his life 33 years ago. Interestingly enough, I remembered him as one with whom we failed to connect. He wasn&rsquo;t interested in biology, could be abrasive at times, and was always pushing the behavioral boundaries. While I liked him personally, I was not unhappy when he left. And yet, God spoke to him here (probably in spite of us) and his life was impacted. God still speaks here. Some students have changed majors and career tracks as a result of their Au Sable experience. One guy came to Au Sable planning to be a wildlife biologist and told me later that it was my fault he was a missionary in Uganda. &nbsp;Several have met their spouses here and a few have even gotten married or had their reception here. Others have committed their lives to the Lord while sitting quietly by the water or in the forest. It is these people who have been the main reason I have stayed here for all these years.</p>
<p>
	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Bob-Barr-4-adjusted.jpg" style="width: 225px; height: 151px; float: right;" />Those people and maybe a couple of others. Becky knew long before I did that we were moving north to Au Sable, even before Harold offered me the job. In fact, one of the issues (among a long list of others) she wrestled with before agreeing to marry me was whether a good Southern Baptist girl from Kentucky could survive in the north woods. She has not only survived but thrived here serving mostly at no pay as cook, professor, housekeeper, environmental education intern, counselor and artist. We&rsquo;ve been blessed by the presence of many others who have been devoted to this place: Harold and Ellen Snyder, who between them have been professor, mentor, employer, colleague, surrogate parents, neighbors, and friends; Trish Fagg, who has seniority on me by two months, and joined Becky and I as Au Sable pioneers in 1977; Muriel Janisse, who is next in seniority, and who I often refer to as &ldquo;poor Muriel&rdquo; because of the jokes she took from Dave Mahan and I, but she certainly was a victim who gave as good as she got; and Dave Mahan, who was hired to be my supervisor, but quickly became my brother (except for my biological brother, there is no one closer to me than Dave Mahan). While I would not trade my life at Au Sable for anything, there have been some tough moments, and I could not have done it without Becky, Trish, Muriel, and Dave. While I am convinced that the life changing encounters many people have had on these grounds is the result of the prayers of our founders, I believe with equal fervor, that a big part of the good that has happened here is the result of the spirit and community that was forged here by servant hearts, gentle spirits and giving lives that Trish, Muriel, Dave and maybe I have poured into this place.</p>
<p>
	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}Bob-Barr-3-adjusted.jpg" style="width: 125px; height: 191px; float: right;" />One of the delights of my job is its variety. &nbsp;My tasks change with the program and the season. &nbsp;Nothing remains the same. &nbsp;Trish and Muriel are retired, and I will be soon. &nbsp;But Paul, Lynn, Dieter, Dave, and Fred are in place, and I believe that Au Sable is ready to move forward and continue its life changing work. So it is with a deep sense of gratitude for the adventure that God has allowed Becky and me to live here at Au Sable, and a confidence that God will continue to work in the hearts and lives of people who experience this place that I can pack away my tools and delight in what God has in store for this very special place.</p>
<hr />
<p>
	You can read Au Sable&#39;s announcement of Bob&#39;s retirement <a href="/news_and_resources/news/bob_barr_retiring#.Ud7ew_k3uSo">here</a>, and don&#39;t miss out on one of <a href="/news_and_resources/blog/au_sable_stories_the_mis_adventures_of_hansel_and_gretel_by_bob_barr#.Ud7X5_k3uSo">Bob&#39;s famous stories</a>.</p>
