March 20, 2024

March 16, 2024, Calvary Food Pantry -- St. Patrick's Day came a day early at the Pantry on Saturday. Not only was Lois distributing some holiday items, but green peppers and "green" salad were offered to the neighbors. Linda prepared tasty vegan bites and bean salsa for the neighbors to sample.  Some nutrition tips and a recipe were offered too.

On Thursday night in the Lord's Acre of Fletcher – our garden – collards were planted and lettuce was harvested. Join us on Thursday afternoons at 4:30 for gardening and fellowship time. How fortunate for our 124 households to have access to fresh organic produce! Families on Saturday represented 434 individuals and nine new families.

 On behalf of the Executive Committee, thank you to our volunteers and our area churches, civic groups, local merchants, and families for all you do to feed our community helping to reduce food insecurity.  We thank you and appreciate your food and monetary donations.

- Kathy Noyes

 March 19, 2024, The Lord’s Acre -- We have hundreds of Parris Island romaine lettuce to plant in our new raised beds. They’ll love it there! Please join us Thursday at 4:30pm. The weather will be beautiful and the fellowship is warm and welcoming.

Twenty-four middle school campers and advisors from Lutheridge’s “Faith Alive” weekend worked last Saturday in the pantry and garden, spreading wood chips to suppress weeds and mud. Eventually, to paraphrase Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, “Weeds find a way.” But, for now, thanks to these dedicated servants, our garden looks pristine!

Beholding in the Garden

I was listening to a naturalist in a documentary suggest that the proper way to be in nature is to be in attitude of “beholding.” Here’s a quote about the “true gardener” from Duke theologian Norman Wirzba that starts in the same place.

The true gardener, inspired by God, demonstrates the kind of curiosity, delight, and devotion in which no detail is too small not to be attended to, and no life so insignificant as not to warrant celebration. Like God, gardeners find their Sabbath rest in the garden, are committed to its well-being, and know there is no other place they would rather be and no work they would rather perform. When we garden well, creatures are nurtured and fed, the world is received as a blessing, and God is glorified.—from Food and Faith

- Doug Kearney