Update from West Lafayette, IN
Beth and I received an update from Chris Turpin who headed up the gardening part of the project that we did when we worked with Covenant Church in West Lafayette, IN when we did the service project with the residents of Schuyler Ave. Apartments back in May of this year. Below is the e-mail we received from her. So cool to hear how the church is following through with commitment on what started when we were there.
I thought you might like an update on the gardening part of our church project through Covenant at Schuyler Inn. We had our big project in May. A few weeks later we met to tie up loose ends, BUT gardening never ends. My friend Kathy Heid and I returned on a regular basis all summer to weed, deadhead, trim…that sort of thing.
Well, we met on a regular basis to work the gardens all summer. We got so we knew many of the residents, and felt like we were beginning to build small, fragile relationships. We also began to notice that every time we returned, more and more of the weeding was done in the small plots, and by the end of the summer the residents were doing the work themselves!!! We just came and admired! The pots we provided were even kept watered ALL summer…no small task! Also, the residents were putting a few tomato plants or a few of their own flowers in the ground by their apartments. Needless to say, we were thrilled! One man Mike even made us coffee when we came, if he saw us.
One morning we were working in front of the main office when the owner came in to work. He stopped to talk and thank us for all the work that Covenant had done and how the flowers had made a difference in how it all looked. He also said that unlike every other summer, the police had rarely been called to the Inn this past summer. He said the only difference in his mind was the continued presence of Covenant all summer, everything looked nicer, and people were acting in accordance. At least, that was his analysis. My prayer is that God really is beginning to work on the hearts of the residents. I know how hard hearts can be because God continually has to work on my own hard heart!
Kathy and I plan to put together a questionnaire at the main office for the residents when they go in to pay for their rent to get an idea of what they might want to add to what we did last year, including providing tomato plants for them.
So there is a brief update from the gardening duo at Schuyler Inn.
Blessings at this wonderful time of year…..Chris Turpin
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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