A Time to Be Born: One Midwife’s Witness to the Miracle of Life in Christian Community

Imagine a place in twenty-first century America where kids grow up milking cows by hand and still prefer “hide and seek” to video games. Where families laugh together around the dinner table every day. Where gardens bloom, children splash in the creek, and newborn lambs bleat in the springtime. Where divorce is unheard of and friendships last a lifetime. Where the aged and infirm are cared for by loving family, not institutions. Where children are educated by parents and trusted friends, not strangers. And where babies are born at home, tended by generational volunteer midwives who share the parents’ faith, culture, and values. Enter the world of Amanda Lancaster, born and raised in the intentional Christian community known as Homestead Heritage, begun in 1973 and now a thriving network of church communities around the world. A Time to Be Born is her delightful, emotive memoir, a tapestry of birth and belonging, of motherhood and midwifery—where the sacred and the ordinary meet in kitchens, bedrooms, barns, and hearts.