WILLIS, Va. -- Phil Lancaster and his wife, Pam, had long dreamed of living in a community where they could home-school their six children and be with others who shared their Christian values.
What they needed was a push.
In the end, it was the widespread fear over Y2K that prompted the Lancasters and dozens of other families from across the country to collect their rations and build a place they could call their own, deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
"We were thinking, 'If we're going to build a community, now's the time to do it, before this disaster hits,' " said Lancaster, 51, who came from Missouri in 1998. "In a way, Y2K is responsible for bringing us together."
Now, more than a year after Y2K proved to be no disaster at all, the community is flourishing with new families moving in regularly. More than 30 have come to the ever-expanding cluster of farmhouses, modest new homes and trailers, most within walking distance of one another.
"We want to live in an old-time neighborhood, one where everyone knew their neighbors and they shared the same values," said Lancaster, who publishes a Christian men's magazine from his home. "We want to be on the cutting edge of where our culture needs to head and that's reforming our communities."
The community, built on 440 acres of a former dairy farm, is called Rivendell, taken from the name of the refuge and learning center in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
It was the brainchild of Ken Griffith, a single 28-year-old Virginia Tech graduate who grew up near Floyd County.
Griffith sought financing and put up some of his own money to make the idea work. "Rivendell is a way to bring these families together and to build a church community," he said.
About 80 percent of people who live in Rivendell go to the nearby Covenant Church, a tiny, old, white building with worn wooden pews and a tin roof.
Members of the tight-knit community visit each other daily. Potluck dinners are held at the church once a month and the women have tea time and attend Christian homemaking and mothering classes. The men get together to hunt.
The community's goal is to build a self-sustaining Reformed Christian culture made up of strong families who focus on home business and homesteading. Many families also believe in home-birth. Several large families with seven or more children live in the community where most adults oppose birth control.
Many of the men in Rivendell work from home so they can spend more time with their families. Those who can't work at home commute about an hour to Roanoke or Christiansburg. Most of the women are homemakers.
"I think it's important to be at home with your children and allow them to see Daddy working to support the family," said Brian Carpenter, who runs a Web hosting and designing business from his small trailer.
Carpenter moved to Rivendell from New Jersey in June with his wife and four children amid heavy skepticism from family members and friends.
"When you tell them you're moving to a Christian community with other like-minded people, the first thing they say is, 'Are you nuts?' " said Carpenter, 33. "The first thing they think of is Waco or Jim Jones. It's nothing like that."
Residents of Rivendell point out there's no mayor or leader of the community, which should dampen fears of a cultist movement.
Pam Lancaster said the community strives to be self-sustaining, but Rivendell residents are not trying to isolate themselves from the rest of the world.
"We never saw it as trying to run away, but to gather with people who have the same views," she said. "Part of the reason our country is where it is today is because of the breakdown in the home. We want our children to grow up in a steady community with the health and stability our country once had."