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!