Julia & Clarke Scheibe
After recently spending time at English L’Abri, Clarke and Julia Scheibe have come to Canadian L’Abri on Bowen Island with the desire to serve a young generation on a personal basis with biblical education and cultural engagement.

Julia grew up just south of Vancouver, in White Rock, B.C. and studied at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., receiving her Bachelors of Science in Nursing in 1998. After two years of hospital work, she transitioned to Community Health Nursing in the Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a place beset with prostitution, heavy drug use, and homelessness. Her heart for the marginalized led to a working relationship with Jacob’s Well, a ministry that focuses on the needs of the people living there. She also studied part-time at Regent College, where she would meet Clarke and would marry him in 2002.

Clarke grew up in Tennessee and studied at the University of Mississippi, graduating in 1998 with a Bachelors of Liberal Arts, with a Creative Writing emphasis. Soon after graduation, he went to Swiss L’Abri where he experienced a real conversion. Upon the recommendation of Jim Ingram, the then director of Swiss L’Abri, Clarke pursued studies at Regent College in Vancouver, graduating with a Masters of Divinity in 2004.

While in Vancouver, Julia and Clarke attended Grandview Calvary Baptist Church, where Clarke and Julia led a home group for three years; where Clarke served as a deacon for two, helping to develop part of its education program, teaching biblical studies, leading a men’s spirituality group, and occasionally preaching; and where Julia was involved with worship.



Michelle & Andre Harden. 
photo coming soon

We’re a recent import to British Columbia. Michelle and I and our three children; Thayne, Analena and Matthias, moved to Bowen Island in the summer of 2005 to take part in the Piko Screenwriting fellowship. Our family shared one room in a beautiful but remote house that we shared with four other screenwriters. It was the first time we’d lived in community and it was an excellent season of our lives that taught us just how adaptable we could be. Who knew that scaling a cliff with a three year old in one hand and four bags of groceries in the other could become routine?

Two years later we’re excited to join L’Abri, and not just because of the road access. Exploring truth with people in community is one of our highest values. It’s what I love most about theatre and collaborative storytelling and it was a key reason why we decided to pursue home learning with our children. We see the work of L’Abri as an extension of the journey we’ve been on as an artfully living family. Our post-Christian culture is a powerful force and taking the time to deeply consider our purpose and place within it is as difficult as it is necessary and rejuvenating. Helping L’Abri fulfill its mission of providing a shelter where this sort of learning can take place is very good work.

To this new experience we bring our brief history: Manitoba boy meets Saskatchewan girl at Briercrest College (Saskatchewan) where I graduated with a theology major in 1993. We spent the next few years kicking back and forth between Alberta and Saskatchewan. I alternated between teaching theatre classes for the college, writing and producing plays and working at soda pop factory; Michelle was an at home mom to Thayne and Analena (Matthias didn’t arrive till 2000) and explored her own creativity in fabrics. In 1997 we settled in Manitoba and I began writing and or directing and producing full time, occasionally supplementing income though church or farm work (writing all the while!). Since coming to Bowen, Michelle has found more time to express herself in fabric art, dabble in the visual arts and has enjoyed networking with the many home learners on the island and finding time to jog or hike or kayak with friends.

In all it’s been a huge blessing to pursue life together as a family, to believe in God’s call and to do our best to follow that call whatever circumstances we find ourselves being pulled into. We trust not so much in ourselves, but in Him, that He’s led us to this work for a purpose and will provide the means for us to bless, and be blessed by, those he draws to L’Abri.