04/27/2026
Fb loves to ask “What’s on your mind?” Well tonight I’ve got an answer…
What’s been weighing on me tonight is something I can’t shake and has had me stomping around with flames coming out of my ears.
There’s a deal in motion involving a new gas plant and an AI data center tied to outside interests, and it’s expected to place enormous strain on the aquifers in the area we’re moving to. Not just strain but the real possibility of depletion and contamination. This isn’t abstract. This is people’s water. It’s the lifeline for families, farms, cattle, and entire communities.
(And yes…we are moving. I was going to do a big post about it and I will later. It’s something we’ve been so excited about, something that truly feels like a gift and a calling for our family. The signs God has given us and how he has guided us clearly to this specific place is mind blowing. I’ll share more about that soon. But this part matters too much to stay quiet about.)
Where we’re going, there’s no city water for miles. Like many others there, we will depend entirely on the aquifer. So when something threatens that…what are families supposed to do? What happens to the land, to the animals, to the livelihoods built over generations?
The justification being offered is increased energy capacity, helping the grid during extreme weather. But it’s hard to reconcile that with what’s being taken. Because the people who actually live there overwhelmingly don’t want this. They’re speaking up. They’re protesting. And still, it feels like decisions are being made far away from the people who will carry the consequences.
I don’t usually write like this, but I’m angry. Not the kind that lashes out, (actually…that’s a lie. I’d really like to lash out at some of the big folks in charge right now) but the kind that comes from watching something good and necessary, something God given be treated as expendable. Water isn’t a luxury. It’s not negotiable.
We left the city to live more simply, more rooted in the land, a slower safer life for our children. Even in Greenville, development was already catching up to us. A new AI dat at center is being placed where our in-laws are in Caddo mills. Just 20 min from us. And now, as we prepare to step into something new, something we believe deeply in, it feels like the same pattern is following close behind. Expansion. Consumption. More demand, more taking.
It reminds me so much of The Lorax. Not as a cliché, but as a warning that feels uncomfortably real. The slow erosion of something beautiful. The kind of loss that doesn’t happen all at once, but little by little, until it’s too late to recover what was taken for granted.
But I don’t want to live in despair. As I cried about the unknown, then raged about my feelings towards the greedy government…I remembered God has never let us down. We have been though a LOT and he has never abandoned us.
We’re choosing to respond the only way we know how by building something good. By the motto heal the soil, heal the soul…raising nutrient dense food, and investing in real community. By creating a place where life is protected, not used up. Where what we steward today can still be here for our children, and theirs.
I’m praying deeply and hard that what we’re stepping into will be part of the answer. That restoration, even in small pockets, can push back against the kind of loss we’re seeing.
And I’m also praying for wisdom and courage for us, and for the people making these decisions. Because this matters. More than convenience. More than profit.
This is about life.
So please pray for us and with us that this does not effect us and the people of Anderson county in the ways it seem like it might.
