By Scott L. Miley
The Herald Bulletin
ANDERSON, Ind. —
From a seed — a few hundred of them, in fact — New Horizons United Methodist Church is hoping to feed the hungry and nourish other souls into planting gardens.
The congregation at 611 E. 53rd St. recently planted a 50-foot-by-60-foot garden with carrots, beets, more than 150 tomato plants and a variety of vegetables intended for a food pantry and the Christian Center.
“A lot of people at the church liked plants and they liked to garden and we had all this land,” said the Rev. Karen Powell, interim pastor at the church. She spoke as she worked in Tuesday’s warm sunshine with six others in the garden at the four-acre church property.
Powell had seen gardens work in other churches and asked if any congregation members would be interested.
“We took what we liked to do and take the gifts and resources we already had and see how we could serve somebody else with that,” she said.
The garden has already yielded discussions about God’s abundance.
“Pastor Karen has been working with us and focus on where we have an abundance instead of complaining about what we don’t have,” Roger Tatum said. “We had an abundance of land out here. And we planted a garden to show where we had been blessed so that we could be a blessing.”
Tatum’s reference to blessings comes from Genesis 22:17, where Abraham followed God’s voice and was blessed by becoming the father of many nations. In turn, his blessing was promised to his descendants.
Tatum added, “We hoped this would inspire others in the community to do more of the same, that the idea could kind of mushroom.”
To plant the idea with church youth, congregation members purchased Tickle Me plants, which can grow vibrant pink flowers, to show youth how plants grow. Known as a Sensitive Mimosa, the plant moves its branches in response to the touch of hand. Also included were congregations at Crossroads and New Hope United Methodist churches.
Besides peppers, pumpkins and squash, there’s also clumps of hair lining the garden.
“According to a gardening book, it’s supposed to keep the animals away and we know that could be an issue here,” said Janet Lawson, looking south to a woodsy area.
They also use shredded paper to use as mulch and cut down on weeds.
Though the congregation members are doing all the physical work, there might be a spiritual hand guiding some of the garden tools.
Said Mickey Lawson, “It’s not our garden. It’s God’s garden. We don’t have anything to do with it. We just get to plant it. He said, here, now you take care of it.”
