Equipped

Though the growing season never officially ended (I have spinach plants that have survived our less than harsh winter w/o any protection, and spinach & salad greens that germinated in the hot box-turned-cold frame last November, that have baby leaves almost ready for harvesting), this week marked the exciting start (continuation?) of a new growing season.

Seed starting equipment has been rolling in, and I'm now equipped with enough trays to grow up to 1000 transplants this spring.

To accommodate the increase in the seeds being started I also added more grow lights.

After finally settling on a recipe, I was able to mix up my own seed starting mix (shredded sphagnum, vermicompost - from my worm bin, vermiculite, perilite, with a bit of lime and manure), and yesterday I planted my first seeds; two varieties of cabbage.

Tonight I made a trip out to pick up maple sugaring supplies, and this weekend I'll be tapping the sugarbush.  This will be the second earliest I've tapped, but I'm still quite late getting into the game with the warm February we've had.

I've got a half dozen maple sugaring seasons under my belt now, and my seed starting experiment worked pretty well last year, so it was fairly easy to know how to get equipped for success this spring.  However, it's not always so easy...

Although I've worked extensively educating children and running successful programming for them, the GRACE After School program this year has really tested me.  It has left me at times feeling unequipped to deal with the depth and breadth of the issues facing the kids, their families, our staff, and the Church.  Behavioral issues and conflict stemming from disturbing family situations have left me completely baffled and feeling like I don't have the tools to successfully handle everything; and I don't...

However, others in the Church do have the tools.  There are folks that I can turn to as volunteers, just helping give the kids the attention and love they so crave.  There are friends that live in the neighborhood and are invested in the kids lives.  When we've had a particularly rough day, I can go to them and ask them for help working with the kids through this rough spot.  There's even folks at the church that work with social service agencies that can get the kids additional professional help to deal with severe issues they face.  

How humbling it is to know that only together are we fully equipped to deal with the challenges facing us.  How encouraging it is to be around people who are using what God's equipped them with. How inspiring it is being around people who step into the roles they've been equipped for.  May we all respond and use what we've been equipped with to be a blessing!

Lots

God has provided us with lots!

The fall harvest seems to be the time I most recognize this reality. Recent visits to the garden yeild tomatoes and peppers, squash and beans, carrots and collards, onions and beets. Land, which a year ago lay as an overgrown grassy lot, now provides such bounty and goodness.

At the farmer's market a few weeks back, I bit into my first fresh Honey Crisp apple of the year. It sent me into an immediate moment of praise and worship; our God is the Provider of lots of good stuff!

Well, this week God literally provided us with lots! At the city auction I bought four vacant lots in the neighborhood near the church.
These lots make up a quarter acre of land, which leaves us with lots of space for the kids to explore, lots of space for growing our own food in sustainable ways, lots of space to offer our neighbors room to grow their own food, lots of space for enjoying the abundance our Creator, Sustainer, and Provider gives us. Three of the lots are adjacent to each other at a corner two blocks from the church. The 100'x85' block that they make up will be used to offer plots to others in the neighborhood that want to grow food for themselves, or for a profit.

The other lot is a few blocks away (close to the house we hope to buy) and will be used primarliy to grow food for ourselves.

So as we enter this harvest and Thanksgiving season, we have lots to be thankful for; the abundance the land provides, and the provision of abundant land.

May we all experience the abundance God offers.

"Community" Garden

El jardinero (the gardener) is what the neighbors around the church know me as, and working in the community garden has given me fun opportunities to begin building relationships with them.

The neighborhood kids that worked hard helping us create the garden are now enjoying the fruits of the harvest. I've gotten Hector (the young guy on the left) hooked on pesto, but only after double-dog daring him to try it for the first time! The little veggie stand we put out at weekly BBQ's offers neighbors healthy local food choices. A real need in a neighborhood where a good deal of grocery shopping takes place at corner stores - not usually known for having extensive produce sections.

Another real need in the neighborhood is jobs, and training in job skills for the youth. A dream of mine would be to employ a few neighborhood teens by helping them run a small farm stand, or microbusiness selling produce to local restaurants. Today we took a small step towards that goal, as teens employed by the city's summer youth employment program, most of them from refugee families, worked harvesting veggies and turning the compost pile.

The garden project is also adding a splash of beauty to the neighborhood. Kids in the after school program created a mural with the help of local mural artist, Cornelia Dohse-Peck. Then last week, a youth group from Rochester helped install a native-plant garden in front of the church building. Small things like this can send a powerful message about the value of our urban neighborhoods.

I still have a lot to understand about the real needs of our community, and even more to learn about what it takes to meet those needs. But it has been a blessing to see the garden project begin to bless others in the neighborhood.

May we all be blessed with a chance to grow relationships that cause us to grow.

Visions Becoming Reality

We've been very busy lately creating the Grace Community Garden. In early April many from the church and community came out to help us prepare the garden space. The huge pile (6 cu. yds.) of soil that came later in the month has been used to create raised beds (as well as the kids favorite play space, and a bike jump for neighborhood teens!).

As the weather finally warmed up and dried out, the kids were able to paint the rain barrel with their own unique designs.

With these elements in place, the garden plan that I spent countless hours putting together this winter is being put into action (and amended constantly!), as many hands help plant seeds.


And after planting our first plots of spinach and salad greens in April, we've already begun harvesting our first crops. The first neighborhood barbeque was held at the church last week, and we were able to share a salad with spring mix from the garden!



To date we've created three 15'x4' raised beds for vegetables and along with the garlic started last fall we've planted, spinach, greens, radishes, turnips, carrots, lettuces, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, beets, beans, and now cantelopes. Seeds for tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers have been started indoors. A 3'x 5' herb bed, and a 2'x4' sunflower bed have also been created. The cherry tree the kids planted last fall has bloomed and begun forming cherries. The butterfly garden has had more perennials added, and two large compost bins have been made out of old pallets.

I made many visits to the garden site early this spring and looked longingly over the grounds. I anxiously waited to see that muddy overgrown lot redeemed and transformed into something beautiful and productive. It has seemed like forever as this cold soggy spring has thawed out, but now we are already sharing the firstfriuts of the harvest!

What a picture of our Christian walk. In Christ we can see a vision of what it looks like for the Kingdom of Heaven to be lived out right here on earth. As His followers, there is a great deal of longing in us for the time when that vision will fully become reality. But the good news is, that through the Spirit, we are already tasting the firstfruits of that Kingdom life. Redemption and transformation are already taking place.

May we be filled with visions and anticipation for what God wants to accomplish through us, but may we also be filled with the Spirit that transforms those visions into reality!

Grace Community Garden

The winter months have brought a flurry of garden planning, grant writing, and seed ordering as we continue creating Grace Community Garden on Potomac Ave.

Now spring is right around the corner, and as seed orders arrive we're beginning to plant! Faith and Zoe helped created soil blocks for seed starting during the after school "kid's club" last week. We practiced multiplication as the blocks were created four at a time - 4x2, 4x3, 4x4 ...



At home, the boys help rip up bedding for the worm composter, getting a hands-on lesson in recycling. The three-bin system was built by students at the kids club, and my sister was generous enough to donate the worms - thanks Beth!

The older students have created cold frames, or mini-greenhouses, that protect early plantings from the frost (clear plastic goes over the top). There werelots of measurements to make - who knew using fractions could actually be so useful!

Believe it or not the first plants have already sprouted. Onions planted in toilet paper rolls last Saturday, and kept moist in their own plastic bag greenhouses, began germinating over the last few days. They are growing in the seed starting station situated in a south facing window in Faith's room . It is outfitted with grow lights, organic seed starting soil, plenty of seeds, and soil blocks waiting to be planted. Next up are the collards, followed by tomatoes and peppers.

"Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal." - Jesus

Resurrection is occurring again. The death of last fall is being recycled to give what is needed to produce life again this spring, and that which seemed dead to the world is being brought to life again. Our work with the kid's club on the community garden is just one way we are planting seeds, being reckless in our love, and seeing life - real and eternal - growing in our neighborhood.

May we all recognize and experience deeply the mystery and miracle of resurrection this spring!

Metamorphosis

Miracles of transformation have been occurring all around us! In late September Jess found three monarch caterpillars in a farmer's field near East Aurora. By late October we were wondering if they would ever emerge from their chrysalis. Eventually all three did and were sent on their way to their wintering grounds in Mexico.

At Grace Community Church the community garden has been transforming the empty lot behind the church. A butterfly garden, garlic bed, and cherry tree were all added this fall. Next to the church the once abandoned house has been removed and the lot is open for the church to transform into a play lot for the neighborhood families.

Then this past weekend was the last of a series of fall tree plantings done by ReTree WNY. A great group of folks, including tons of kids from the block, helped us plant 30 trees in the Grant-Ferry neighborhood.

The miracle of metamorphosis. The simple sedentary transfromed into magestic migrants. The abandoned and neglected transformed into beautiful and productive.

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
- St. Paul's letter to the Romans

May we all experience the tranformation of God's renewing work in our lives and world around us.

Skiddy Park Tree Lighting

Bringing light to a dark place! This evening it was amazing to see swarms of kids braving cold blustery winds to decorate and light the Christmas tree in Skiddy Park, a park known more for the crimes committed there than community celebrations.

It was great to see so many investing in this truly community event: my old friends from Sunnycrest Park Association organized the event, Syracuse Parks and Rec powered the lights, carolers came from St. Lucy's church, hot cocoa and dounuts from the Red Cross, the S.A.L.T. District artists donating two Christmas trees complete with lights and decorations for two families in the community, and then myself from Baltimore Woods Nature Center bringing wildlife friendly tree decorations.

Vincent House and P.E.A.C.E. Inc. brought tons of kids, some of whom recognized me from the visits I make to their classrooms with the nature center's "Nature in the City" program. They freely shared stories of how they remember exploring nature with me. It was great to see hope coming to these kids and into the communities of Syracuse!