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About

God’s Calling and Leading

Our Story

Just when it seemed that the seven-year search for a property suitable to locate a sanitarium would end nowhere, a horse showed up in the right place.

Eden Lifestyle Sanctuary was established in 2011 as a non-profit ministry for health education associated with the Taste of Eden vegan cafe in Norway, Maine. After a couple of years of conducting health classes at the cafe, it was realized that something more was needed. We needed a country outpost where guests could come and enjoy God’s way of life without all the distractions of their usual routine in the world.

For five years, we searched for the perfect property to conduct this medical missionary work. Then, in 2017, I dreamed about such a property. In the dream, I was walking down the road. Taking a left onto a dirt road, I saw a black horse standing on the corner. I climbed onto the back of the horse, and he carried me down the dirt road. The horse took a left down a wooded lane that opened into a field on the left and a house on the right. The field had gardens and berry bushes, and several people were working in the gardens. Here was the place we had been looking for! So for the next year or so, my husband drove us down every dirt road we could find looking for the left-hand lane with a field at its end.

By 2019, it seemed nothing was ever going to work out, and we left the search for sanitarium land in the Lord’s hands. Shortly after reaching this conclusion, we met an Adventist realtor. She offered to show us some properties. What did we have to lose?

Eden Lifestyle Sanctuary Building Project
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
3 John 1:2 KJV

The first place she took us to see was located down a dirt road just a couple of miles from our home. As we turned left onto that road, we both noticed the horse standing on the corner. Too bad it was a brown horse. Down the dirt road we went and took a left down a wooded lane. To our surprise and delight, this lane opened into a field on the left and there was an old foundation on the right where the house once stood. It all looked like the layout in my dream, but I wasn’t sure because the horse was the wrong color. We prayed about this place for a few days and decided to go look at it again. When we did, there on that corner was the black horse from the dream. God had brought us to His place.

Much more confirmed that God chose the place, from the way He financed the purchase of this property when we had nothing to the way He sent all the right helpers at the times they were needed to design, plan, and start building. It is clear that the Lord is moving this work forward. Soon, Eden Lifestyle Sanctuary will be buzzing with activity, providing opportunities to people of all ages. There are going to be educational opportunities in the way of agriculture, healthful cookery, herbology, lifestyle and natural remedies, and gospel medical missionary work. Also, guests will be welcomed to stay for 10 Days to Wellness events to revitalize their lives. The Lord is going to equip a people to go out and give the gospel message of hope and healing with power.

— Sonya Tardif

Eden Lifestyle Sanctuary Building Project

The Sanitarium

These are some things that we will be offering in our sanitarium.

  • 10 Days To Wellness
  • Healthy Lifestyle
  • Education
  • Hygenic Cookery
  • Herbology
  • Hydrotherapy
  • Massage
  • Natural Remedies
  • Gospel Medical
  • Missionary Training

“It is that thirsting souls may be led to the living water that we plead for sanitariums, not expensive, mammoth sanitariums, but homelike institutions, in pleasant places.”
— Medical Ministry, page 323

The School & Farm

The vision for ELS includes establishing a farm and primary school onsite that would provide a source of useful labor outdoors, fresh healthful food, and true education for children. Work on the farm will begin this spring with planting of fruit trees and berries.

“It is God’s plan that agriculture shall be connected with the work of our sanitariums and schools. Our youth need the education to be gained from this line of work. It is well, and more than well, — it is essential, — that efforts be made to carry out the Lord’s plan in this respect.”
— Counsels on Health, page 223.2

Eden Lifestyle Sanctuary Building Project