MEET THE BAEHR FAMILY OF PILGRIM HILL IN THE HUON VALLEY OF TASMANIA
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The family that works together, eats together, and prays together, stays together. – Amish Proverb Peirce and Christina Baehr with their ten children [PHOTO SOURCE: https://share.google/images/p8rFriqsuJXCHIIkH] |
I would like to blog about a family of 12 in Huon Valley, Tasmania. They are the Baehrs, they are the founders of Pilgrim Hill Association Inc. I will post several articles about them before giving my comments and endorsements.
Pilgrim Hill located at
Lucaston is an off-grid, family-run Christian hostel that warmly welcomes
travellers from all backgrounds. The hostel is positioned
in the hills of the Huon Valley region in southern Tasmania, Australia. Only 35
minutes from Hobart, the hostel is surrounded by natural forests, native
wildlife and major orchards for working holiday guests. Enjoy warm hospitality,
shared meals and thoughtful discussions amongst the rhythms of off-grid
lifestyle. The accommodation at
Pilgrim Hill is solar powered and offers free wifi, a free shuttle, an outdoor
kitchen, a wood-fired oven, bedding and showers. The rooms house up to 6 people
and there is an option for separate male and female dorms. The team come from a
variety of backgrounds and are multilingual. [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.pilgrimhill.com.au/en/]
Giving Is Hard Work. Sometimes Receiving Is Harder
By Emma Wilkins / November 14, 2024
Peirce Baehr and his wife, Christina, operate a hostel in the Huon Valley of Tasmania. Inspired by the L’Abri community, they offer a place for conversations on how Christianity speaks to all of life. The work, however, takes support from around the world.
Earlier this year, an American expat and his 10-year-old twin daughters farewelled their family in Australia and set off for the U.S. Over the next 40 days, they traveled to 36 states and provinces and were welcomed by 39 hosts. They stayed with some for a matter of hours, but most took them in for the night. Some were relatives, some were old friends or friends-of-friends, a few were people they’d met only in passing, or online. In 40 days they spent only four nights in a hotel.
Peirce
and Christina Baehr with their 8 children (Photo in 2021) [PHOTO
SOURCE: https://modeenergy.com.au/humans-of-solar-christina-peirce-baehr/]
Not all the hosts knew Peirce Baehr and his daughters well, but all knew the reason for their visit — and the reason they weren’t staying long. Baehr wanted to ask as many people as he could, in the short time he had, if they wanted to support Pilgrim Hill: the hostel he and his wife had founded in Tasmania’s Huon Valley, with the goal of sharing the gospel through hospitality and art. It took support from near and far to build it in the first place, and it was support from near and far that would allow them to expand: to go from sleeping a dozen guests to two dozen, and to build the artist’s workshop they’d been dreaming of for years.
"Money is really
worth no more than as it can be used to accomplish the Lord's work. Life is
worth as much as it is spent for the Lord's service." – George Muller [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.georgemuller.org/devotional/receiving-more-to-give-more]
On the road with his daughters, Dot and Bess, Baehr enjoyed reuniting with old friends and making new ones, giving and receiving encouragement. But he found the fundraising part difficult. “This is the hardest thing we do,” he told me.
“The hostel’s off-grid, and the toilet for the travelers is a composting toilet, and there are these huge chambers of human waste that I have to change every three to four weeks in the busy season. I actually prefer that to making presentations where we ask for support, because it feels so — it feels awkward. I’m fairly open about that.
"I lift up my eyes
to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth." - Psalm
121:1-2 (ESV) [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.biblestudytools.com/inspirations/psalm-121-1-2.html]
People would ask, at an event on the trip, ‘What’s the hardest thing?’ And I would say, ‘This is the hardest thing.’” People usually responded with enthusiasm about the opportunity to be a part of work they couldn’t do themselves. “It did encourage me,” Baehr says.
The trip reminded the trio, all well accustomed to hosting travelers themselves, what it’s like to be a traveler, to receive hospitality rather than offer it.
Welcomes when they arrived at a new place were sometimes tentative: a shy wave or shake of hands, while farewells were “very huggy,” and often saw the girls perform the song the family sings to long-term guests when they depart the hostel. The trio also gave their hosts the parting gift they present to backpackers — mindful of the fact they travel light, it’s a small and symbolic: a candle.
Where there is
devotional music, God is always at hand with His gracious presence. - Johann
Sebastian Bach The Stoltzfus Family We'd love to see you
here! Happening this coming Saturday evening, December 14th, at the Ephrata
Business Center. [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=597191039489961&set=pb.100075972100828.-2207520000] https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-stotlzfus-family-musical-group.html
As for how the Baehrs greet their guests, a tour of the property is the standard ice-breaker. Years before they started the hostel, Baehr and his wife, Christina, stayed at one where guests were given a double-sided card crammed with a 10-point-type, single-spaced list of rules upon arrival.
“Christina and I were like, we don’t ever want to do this. … When guests come to our hostel, we show them ’round, then we walk through everything verbally, and then I’ll point out the bulletin board: Here’s where all the details are, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.”
As a guest in people’s homes, Baehr appreciated it when hosts showed them around, showed them where to put their belongings, and invited them to make themselves at home.
“We were really blessed in so many little ways,” Baehr says. Beyond food to eat and beds to sleep in, many hosts showered Dot and Bess with snacks to eat on the long drives ahead and toys to play with.
Meanwhile, Baehr appreciated when people specifically asked if they needed to do any laundry. “That was always sweet, because instead of having to ask, ‘Can I run the laundry?’ just the fact that they asked first makes you feel less like you were an imposition.”
Most of the hosts didn’t just provide accommodation, they provided a venue and an audience eager to hear about, and perhaps support, the ministry. The first big presentation took place at Baehr’s family home, an hour north of L.A., and attracted about 60 people. The largest, held in a church, attracted around 200. Baehr left the details of these events up to the hosts, inviting them to plan around what would work best for their networks.
“We had two purposes. One was to share about our project, and the other was to encourage people in hospitality evangelism and the arts,” he says. “And we were able to encourage people. … We had one couple who came to the event in Vancouver, and they weren’t so interested in our ministry, they were trying to think through, should they do something similar [also in Tasmania] and that was fine. I wanted to encourage people: This model’s extensible, you can steal it, you can do it.”
Some in the not-for-profit space are very protective of donors, but “God owns the cattle on a thousand hills,” Baehr says. “What we’ve always felt is: God’s able to provide for all the work that’s his, so that’s been our strong conviction.”
Part of the hospitality the Baehrs offer guests at Pilgrim Hill is a shared dinner followed by a conversation about life’s big questions, and ways in which the Bible answers them. The dinners are entirely optional. “We love showing hospitality to the travelers … a sense of family, and a place where they can feel safe, where they take their bags off and rest,” Baehr told Australia’s Life & Faith podcast last year.
However, the overwhelming majority are interested. They show up for the first meal, then the next, then the next. Taking care of people is not “some sort of warm-up” to sharing the gospel, Christina added. “Taking care of people, for us, is the heart of what Jesus does, and if you look in the gospels, you see that Jesus has a holistic approach to humanity. He preaches, yes, but he also teaches and heals, and he breaks down social barriers, and he eats with people. It’s not always clear if he’s always preaching when he’s eating with people; sometimes it seems like he just sits down and has a meal with them.”
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“Our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful – Christian community is the final apologetic.” — Francis Schaeffer PHOTO CAPTION: Chalet Les Melezes at Swiss L'Abri - May, 1978 L'Abri (French for "the shelter") is an evangelical Christian organisation which was founded on June 5, 1955 by Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith in Huémoz-sur-Ollon, Switzerland. They opened their alpine home as a ministry to curious travelers and as a forum to discuss philosophical and religious beliefs. Today, L'Abri houses in various parts of the world continue to offer people a place to stay when they travel. |
The way the Baehrs see it, it would be dishonest if they invited guests into their home and didn’t tell them about the book and the beliefs that lie at the heart of it. But they start by meeting people where they are.
“When you meet a need people know that they have, they’re much more willing to listen to a need they don’t realize they have,” Baehr explains. “Especially with backpackers, you’re dealing with people who are homeless; they’ve been away from family and friends for a long time; a lot of the hostels across Australia and Europe and elsewhere are soulless, or they’re party hostels, and even if you want to party, you don’t want to party all the time. You want to be able to take off your pack and feel like you’re able to rest and not always watch your back. It’s just very palpable, fundamental needs. Safety, a place to rest, food; if you’re able to meet those basic, basic needs, then people open up and are willing to listen to things, needs that they don’t think about very often. We love that part.”
https://commongoodmag.com/difficulty-of-giving-and-receiving/
Why Should Art Matter to People? It Matters to God
30/06/2023 | Emma Wilkins
Peirce and Christina Baehr, along with their growing family, run a hostel in Tasmania’s Huon Valley. It attracts backpackers from all over the world and throughout the peak (fruit-picking) season, they host regular dinners with their guests. One would think that in the off-season they’d enjoy a break and, to some extent, they do. But they also use that time to round up an army of volunteers and stage a multi-day art exhibition, complete with workshops, performances and prizes. All this might sound like a recipe for exhaustion. Sometimes it is. But they’re not doing any of it on their own. And sometimes, it doesn’t feel like work at all. After all, they’re living their dream.
To continue reading go here: https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-should-art-matter-to-people-it-matters-to-god/
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good
reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up
his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to
lift him up! - Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (ESV) [PHOTO SOURCE: https://x.com/dBibleVerses/status/730987175395790848/photo/1]
VIDEOS AND PODCASTS:
https://publicchristianity.org/podcast/fruit-pickers-and-truth-seekers/
https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/commending-contending/pilgrims-on-a-journey-commending-christ-in-the-arts/
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTGwlzEey20
Welcome to Pilgrim Hill
Oct 25, 2018 HUON VALLEY
Pilgrim Hill is an off-grid, family-run Christian hostel in the Huon Valley of Tasmania, Australia.
VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcKwXNIN9BQ
MY THOUGHTS:
In 2018, I met the Baehr Family at my church in Western Australia. The couple recognized my thick Singaporean accent, and they could tell which country I came from. I heard Peirce gave his speech and I enjoyed it very much. I learnt that they live in the Huon Valley, Southern Tasmania, I nickname it the Black Forest of Tasmania.
“Our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful – Christian community is the final apologetic.” — Francis Schaeffer
Their organization Pilgrim Hill was modelled after L'Abri, founded on June 5, 1955 by Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith in Huémoz-sur-Ollon, Switzerland. By their ministry, Pilgrim Hill and also their large family, the Baehrs also follow the 4 core values of the Anabaptist Trio: faith, family, community and simple life.
Christina Baehr runs an
off-grid hostel in the Huon Valley while raising (and homeschooling) her huge
family. She’s not famous, and she’s not rich, but in her first year of
publishing she doubled her household income: https://bit.ly/4m4kcyV [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1095677759263756&set=a.628571989307671]
Christina Baehr, the mother of ten children is not only a supermom, but she is also a talented artist and harpist, she has also written books. Peirce is also a creative person and I admire his ministry and evangelism.
Their family of 12 do remind me of the families in these groups: Anabaptist Trio, Faroe Islanders and Ultraorthodox Jews. Their family can be compared to the McCallum Amish Family and Mel and Katie Stoltzfus Family, where I will blog about a comparison between the those families in another blog.
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Peirce and Christina Baehr with their ten children [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJfuiONt0VJ/?img_index=1] |
ENDORSEMENT:
I encourage visitors to Huon Valley, to visit Pilgrim Hill and even stay at the hostel. If you can, please donate to help their ministry, by going here: https://pilgrimhill.org/
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For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. – II Corinthians 8 vs 9 (ESV) [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1431115593692136&id=727493754054327&set=a.736544786482557] |
RELATED LINKS:
https://modeenergy.com.au/humans-of-solar-christina-peirce-baehr/
https://www.pilgrimhill.com.au/en/blog/
https://www.pilgrimhill.com.au/en/
https://www.pilgrimartists.com/
https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-should-art-matter-to-people-it-matters-to-god/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTGwlzEey20
https://pilgrimhillnews.blogspot.com/
Christina Baehr Links:
https://christinaharp.wordpress.com/
https://www.christinaharp.com/
DOCTRINES OF GRACE LINKS:
https://findlivinghope.com/2025/03/why-i-love-the-doctrines-of-grace/
https://www.walkingthroughthegospel.com/2023/09/10-reasons-to-believe-doctrines-of-grace.html
https://www.oakhillspca.com/blog/post/why-i-love-the-doctrine-of-irresistible-grace
https://www.apuritansmind.com/tulip/
https://www.apuritansmind.com/tulip/why-i-am-a-calvinist-by-dr-c-matthew-mcmahon/
BIG NEWS for EVERY Christian | John MacArthur
Sep 12, 2025 #christian #reaction #god
Worried about Your Salvation, or afraid of LOSING IT.....Then this video is a MUST WATCH. One of the most powerful sermons by Pastor John MacArthur on the subject you will ever hear.
VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANYDh19nFPg
https://dailyencouragement.wordpress.com/2025/03/17/christus-victor-amen/
https://www.1517.org/articles/christus-victor-saved-my-life
THE MCCALLUMS LINKS:
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. - J. R. R. Tolkien
The McCallums – One of Australia’s few Amish families
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-mccallums-one-of-australias-few.html
The Church At Springfield
https://thechurchatspringfield.com.au/
True community arises out of transformation, and only transformation can make real community. – Eberhard Arnold
The McCallums and their community
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-mccallums-and-their-community.html
“I make music to touch the souls of people as it’s a language we all can speak.” — Andre Rieu
The McCallum Family Musical Group
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-mccallum-family-musical-group.html
Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. – Jeremiah 29:5 (ESV)
Love Is Work Working together with others is the best way to test our faith, to find out whether or not we are ready to live a life of Christian fellowship. Work is the crucial test of faith because such a life can come into being only where people work for love. Love demands action, and the only really valid action is work. Christian fellowship means fellowship in work... (Talk, May 1934 By Eberhard Arnold)
Springfield Farm Fresh Produce - McCallum Family
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/08/springfield-farm-fresh-produce-mccallum.html
Piano Tuner Compass
https://vimeo.com/539429269/5a910346a1
OTHER LINKS:
https://amishamerica.com/the-amish-population-has-grown-over-130-percent-this-century-2025-report/
https://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/population-2025/
Largest Amish Family Ever?
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