Tami Kipphut 1959 –

Co-founders of an intentional community near Buffalo known as Ransom House, Tami and her husband, Jeff, joined the Bruderhof in 1991. Since then they’ve raised two children. In 2018, the Kipphuts moved to Minneapolis to be a presence in the neighborhood and to connect with people who are looking for Christian community. In Tami’s words:

We’ve met so many people who have a need to belong – to be united with God and with others. What they don’t realize is that they’ll have to change – their paradigms, but also their way of relating. They’re looking for external answers, but underneath, there’s this deep discontent. 

The younger people we’ve met are looking for wholeness too, but they aren’t interested in anything that feels like an institution. They are desperate to find the genuine and the authentic in life. 

Others are engaged in all sorts of religious activity while their inner needs go unaddressed. Jesus calls us to a life of true love and healing and these form the pillars of a life together. Everyone longs for harmony between our inner and outer lives. 

So we try to give them what we have: our time. I believe our most important service is listening to their problems. When I listen to someone and seek with them, maybe together we can find answers that neither of us would have found on our own. That’s the mystery of community.