Praise God!

I had a meeting today at the Long Beach Planning Office thanks to Kevin Nicholson. I met with Derek Burnham, the Long Beach Planning Officer, to go over our plan and get approval from the city for the garden. I have to admit, I was a little nervous. What if they don't approve it? What if it's going to cost a lot of money for permits? What if this is all going to end here? I prayed and I prayed and I prayed...and I realized that God had this planned way before me and He wasn't going to let some red tape get in the way of His plan.

Needless to say the meeting went great and I got nothing but positive feedback for what we want to do there. We have a full green light to do everything we had hoped to do at this garden and more! I am realizing more and more how well received we are by this city and it continually blows me away. God is good!

Ganahl Lumber - Donation

Thanks to Ganahl Lumber for a $75.00 donation to the garden!

A Rocha - Santa Barbara

A little while back my wife drove up to Santa Barbara and visited "A Rocha Santa Barbara," a local extension of "A Rocha International." They are a Christian Conservatory organization with a true compassion for God's creation. Rich Dixon, his wife Jill, and fellow friend Marty Robertson hosted us and took us on a tour of what they are doing in Santa Barbara. We learned so much from them and gained a greater understanding of what our purpose would be here in Long Beach. They are going to be a great asset for us and have a genuine desire to help us any way they can.

P.S. You knew as soon as you walked into their house that they were an awesome family..chickens in the front yard, kids in the kitchen helping prepare lunch, and Marty skateboarding home...

A Simple Walk: Our First Meeting

We had the first meeting for the Agape Community Garden today. A group of us met at "The Garden" church, talked about what brought us to this church and also what drew us to be part of this community garden. It was great to hear everyone's heart in why they were here and to discover the variety of experience and visions everyone brought. What an awesome and amazing group of people all of you are!

We talked about the garden being a way to build genuine relationships with people and how it will also serve as a compass to living a more simpler life. One that is not focused on hoarding our possessions, but on giving our possessions to others in need. One that is mindful of how we live and how our actions affect the environment around us. One that realizes it matters that we care for and love what God created and said was good.

We took a walk to the future site of the Agape Community Garden and along the way prayerfully asked God to show us where He was already moving, why He was calling us to this place, and what needs He wanted to bring to our attention:

We saw and heard kids playing and laughing, we overheard a man praising God, we saw families walking along the streets, street vendors pushing carts, and a vacant piece of land in the middle of it all...

We arrived at the lot, stood in a circle, and simply asked and prayed for God to reveal to us more of the vision for this land. Here are some of the prophetic visions and prayers that were lifted up:

A parallel to the hard ground under our feet and the hurting hearts around us. As we soften this land, it will also soften the hearts of this community for You. May restoration and truth be seen and felt on this land, may it be contagious and may we see more of You. We see this garden becoming a place where people will experience You through all of their senses. May we not be a burden on this community, but a Light to You. We pray against the Us vs Them mentality, and may this community see Your love through us. We thank you for the blessing and provision of this land, this urban jungle. We ask for empowerment for this community, that we put aside our agenda and expectations, may Your wisdom be instilled in this community.

It was incredible to feel God moving through our prayers. As we were in the circle, Chris prayed that this community see God's love through our work. Just after she finished praying, a woman walked by and said aloud, "Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord." Wow God, You are incredible. We hope and pray this garden becomes a place where we simply love for loves sake.

First Steps

Many of you have expressed interest in this vision, but don't exactly know practically what it's all about.

With this empty lot we will first prepare the land for use, then integrate into the community through various projects and outreach. It is not a typical community garden where individuals have their own space of land for their own specific purpose. This is a garden for the community that will incorporate food donation, community meals, creation care, worship and prayer gatherings, and neighborhood outreach. Here is a list of some general activities that need to take place and also ones that have been proposed:

• Trash Clean-Up
• Leveling the Land/Prep-Work
• Creation Care Theology Curriculum
• Neighborhood Outreach
• Garden/Layout Design
• Constructing Planter/Flower Beds
• "First Fruits" - Donation Set-Up
• Composting Set-Up
• Construction of picnic tables for gatherings
  

These objectives should keep us busy for a while and we will see what new needs come up around the community as time progresses. Too often people come into something like this with a firm mindset of what they think the needs are without any prayerful consideration or asking the community itself. We want to be open to God's movement in this community through the entire process and include the community in this as much as possible.

There are many other objectives and visions for this garden that will unfold as we get underway, but this gives you a general idea of our initial introduction to what we want to accomplish. Right now, it looks like we will officially be able to start using the lot in early August. Pray that the process continues to go smoothly!

What's in a name: Agape Community Garden

Trying to name this garden was difficult! Went through so many options, prayed about it and found out all I had to do was ask my wife. I woke up this morning and told her we needed to have a name for this garden ASAP. Still laying in bed and half awake she says, "You should call it "Agape Community Garden." WHOA! YES! It totally made sense. Thanks my wife!

In English, we really only have one way of saying "love," but with many different meanings based on the object being loved: "I love you." "I love to eat french fries." "I love to sleep in." See what I mean?

Agape defined is the kind of love God shows us through Jesus Christ. It is a kind of love that is selfless and that is passionately committed to the well-being of another. In the following verses, "love" is translated from this Greek word "agape."

"For God so loved (agape) the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." —John 3:16

"Love (agape) the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love (agape) your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:37-40

For those of you that attend The Garden, Darren reminds as often that we need to be a church community that "learns to love well." In loving others well through an agape kind of love, we show and exhibit the love of Christ that lives in us.

We got an empty lot!

Praise God! After 4 months of searching for a lot, contacting owners, and writing letters, we finally found an owner of an empty lot willing to let us use it for a garden! It's an enormous amount of space (almost 8,000 sq ft.) near 5th St. and Cerritos Ave. The owner, Suzanne, immediately liked the idea of having this place be turned into a garden. Incredibly she is letting us rent the lot for $1 a month! It looks like we will have this space for up to 3 years. It is the perfect amount of time to develop this for the community. The lot sits in a low-income housing area with lots of need all around. We feel God is moving in the area and cannot wait to be apart of it. Pray that this land becomes a Light to this community and for this vision to take root, literally!

Beginnings: The Story

I first met Darren Rouanzoin in November of 2007 at ROCKHARBOR Church when he was starting down the road to discover the possibilities of a church plant in the city of Long Beach. Our LifeGroup from ROCKHARBOR met in Long Beach, and Darren had heard of some the amazing things God was doing in and through our group. Right away, I knew he had a vision and passion for Long Beach. What exactly this journey would look like was still up in the air, but the commitment to seeing it through was clear. I attended some dinners Ronald Hallet had put together for the LifeGroup leaders in Long Beach to discuss vision for the future and the possibilities for growing a "church" community in the city.

The ideas and vision resonated with me, however, there was something missing in my heart to dedicate my time to Long Beach. Sure I lived there, worked there, hung out there, led LifeGroup there, but I still didn't feel a strong dedication to Long Beach. Crazy huh? Needless to say I was torn. Looking back now, it makes perfect sense, but back then I wondered why my heart wasn't feeling a commitment to Long Beach. God's timing and purpose is incredibly orchestrated beyond our comprehension.

Their vision soon turned into The Long Beach Project. I went to a few of their prayer night gatherings, but still didn't feel from God that it was the right time to commit.

Time passed, I married the love of my life Lydia Larson, and was feeling very comfortable...too comfortable. My comfort gave way to mediocrity and soon to a stagnant stand still in my walk with God. I prayed and prayed and prayed to what felt like a brick wall. It felt that not even an echo returned to me. I basically gave up and settled with this feeling. My wife felt it, my friends saw it, and sin in my life grew because of it. Through my wife, my LifeGroup and God moving through the messages at ROCKHARBOR, I began to find freedom and started tearing down the strongholds and barriers that were put up around me. I began to feel a longing for God to move in my life. It was soon after that I had a vision. A vision for a "place of peace" in a desperate area. A beautiful creation pointing to our Creator. A garden focused on relationships and a journey to love well through true community like I had seen in Vancouver. I still didn't know what this all meant or what my part in it would be.

Mike Erie spoke one night and asked people who felt God calling them to leave their seats at ROCKHARBOR and join The Long Beach Project to come to the front to receive prayer and a blessing to "be sent out." My heart began pounding and I felt the Spirit stir in me to stand up. I hadn't discussed it with my wife, I didn't think of the things I was going to have to give up, and I didn't make a list of the pro's and con's. I simply stood up to God's calling and received a prayer to be sent out. Into what? I did not know.

This vision of the garden became clear as soon as I accepted the calling to attend The Long Beach Project. It took a little convincing to my wife, but she knew God had a plan for us and followed my lead. After one service we both felt an instant connection. We began having conversations about God and our marriage that we never had before. God began moving in me and giving me a clearer picture of the reason He called us to Long Beach.

Taking from some of what I experienced in Vancouver, I wanted to find an empty lot, plant a garden, create a place where the neighbors could enjoy and be involved, build relationships through the garden, and have this place be a beacon of Light pointing to Jesus. I wanted to make a place exhibiting His creative and unique love for us.

I emailed Darren in March of 2009 about this vision and the ideas I had. He emailed me back, excited, and said that we had to meet up soon. We met for lunch and discussed the possibilities of this garden. He told me that this vision was incredible because he received another email just before mine. The first email was a prophetic vision from a girl who saw Isaiah 58:11-12 as a picture of the church.

"The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings."

Through that email the idea of calling the church The Garden resonated with him. Then he received my email about wanting to start a community garden in Long Beach. God was so clear in his purpose for our paths to come together at this very moment. God doesn't work by coincidence but by faith. Amen!

With that, the vision of the community garden was put into motion and has become in integral part of The Garden church plant. We are so excited to see what He is going to do with it.

Planting the seed for "the garden."

Back in August of 2007, Marion Harper invited Liz Pham, Steve Grindle, myself and a few others to experience a community called Nieu Communities. They lived a way of community that is the closest I’ve seen to Acts 4.

The experience that stuck with me most was a simple community garden Nieu Communities partnered with. The name of the group that runs the garden is called Jacob’s Well. They found an abandoned lot in the middle of a drug infested poor neighborhood in the Downtown East Side district of Vancouver and started caring for the land. They got the community involved and opened up a kitchen where they prepare meals from the harvested food and eat meals together with recovering drug addicts.

It’s become more than just a place to plant, it’s become a place where relationships are built on caring for the land God has given to us and restoring lives through Jesus in the process. There’s a vision in Jeremiah that Jacob’s Well guides itself by. “Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit” to “seek the peace of the city…for in its peace you will have peace” (Jer 29:5,7).

We also visited a Christian conservatory organization called A Rocha. They are an international organzation working to show God's love for all creation by caring for what He loves.

Both of these ideas resonated with me, but exactly what God was calling me to back home was not clear at the time. Little did I know where it would lead...

Long Beach - The Introduction

My name is Jon Rosene. I grew up in Santa Clarita and moved to Long Beach in 2005 to enroll in school at CSU Long Beach. I thought I was only coming for an education, but God had different plans. Soon after moving down here I accepted Christ in my life and it's been one heck of a journey since then. I also met the love of my life, Lydia Larson, in this city and somehow got her to marry me. The story He's developing with Long Beach is one that I am privileged to be wrapped up in. This blog is an attempt to capture a piece of the story God is writing for this incredible city.