Waller family makes Charlottesville a stop on their ‘Journey’

Passersby on the Downtown Mall couldn’t help stopping Tuesday and listening to the Waller family’s songs of praise. They were like the Partridge family dressed in matching outfits, except triple the number. And singing wasn’t their life’s ambition. Their calling was something most people probably wouldn’t choose.

There are 13 in the family: Tommy Waller and his wife Sherri plus their 11 children — Brayden, Britt, Caleb, Havah, Josh, Mack Tanner, Nate, Olivia, Tessa, Victoria and Zac. The family visited Charlottesville after close friends invited them. On the mall, they played instruments while singing, occasionally taking breaks to chat with people who had stopped to listen and wanted to know their story.

Ten years ago, Tommy Waller and his family were living the normal suburban lifestyle in Tennessee. His career at Federal Express was heading in the right direction, but Waller was working 80 hours a week and his job was costing him quality family time.

“I was leaving home and they were asleep and I was coming home and they were asleep,” Waller said.

So, he decided to make a complete 180 and moved his family, which consisted of his wife and only seven children back then, to a rural Amish and Mennonite community in Tennessee known as Russell Creek. The family left behind modern life and learned to live off the land. And it was all for the sake of being a family.

“We felt like we wanted to see something different in our children,” Tommy said.

We wanted to be part of our children’s life, not parents that were playing Russian roulette with our children — just letting them go and hoping for the best.”

For six years, the Wallers continued living off the land, growing their own produce and selling it to make a small profit, milking their own cow, hunting their own deer meat, heating the water they collected on a wood stove and most importantly investing time in their family.

“It’s not about making money. You can gain a lot of material wealth investing in the stock market,” Tommy said. “But the reward for investing in your children is eternal.”

From home schooling their children to singing together to working the land together, both Sherri and Tommy feel they have discovered a deep relationship with their children and have let their faith become the focus of their lives — something they feel they would not have been able to accomplish living in mainstream America.

“Sometimes we just do things because we’re robotic,” Tommy said. “We’re so busy in our day-in and day-out routine. We miss that relationship with God.”

While most children their age may have been playing video games or surfing the Internet, the Waller children were truly learning a lesson in faith.

“I’ve learned a lot about the importance that [Dad] plays in life and what it means to be a Godly man,” said Brayden, 22 and the oldest of the children. “Mom has just really given me an appreciation for the word of God. She invested in my life and she made sacrifices to do that.”

And in turn, the children have inspired their parents.

“They inspire me by their faith … their creativeness, their own work ethic … and their desire to make a difference in the world,” Tommy said.

The Wallers’ life has been anything but robotic. Barely five years ago they decided to sell their farm in rural Tennessee and move to Israel, feeling it was their calling to love and serve that country. But the family is not preaching Christ to the war-torn nation; they are helping the farming industry and harvesting vineyards.

“It gives us an opportunity to identify with the land of Israel,” Tommy said.

The family currently travels back and forth between the United States and Israel. They will return to Israel soon and stay there for about three more months before coming back to the U.S.

The Wallers’ story of faith and family inspired Ken Carpenter of Franklin Springs Family Media enough to create a documentary film about them four years ago. Carpenter, who directed and produced the documentary, titled the film “A Journey Home.”

“Seeing the really unique way that their family functions … a way of approaching family life that is rarely seen in today’s culture, that intrigued me,” Carpenter said.

The film won the Jubilee Award for Best Documentary at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival in 2005.

While the family currently lives in an apartment in Israel with modern amenities, none of them wants to go back to their old ways.

Victoria, 14, wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s okay to be different,” she said.