The Bridge
Connecting Supporters with Mission Happenings
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A New Edition... Enjoy and pass it on!
In This Edition:
Oh, The Places You'll Grow: Garden Anniversary
Maria's Story
Noteworthy Mission Updates/Immediate Needs
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OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GROW!
Our Mission Garden Celebrates Its One Year Anniversary!
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“Dreams are the seeds of change. Nothing ever grows without a seed, and nothing ever changes
without a dream.”
--Debby Boone
We’re celebrating an anniversary—the mission garden is ONE year old! And my how it’s grown in just in this short time span! Here’s a brief timeline for its growth:
August 2017 – July 2018 – Feasibility studies, visioning with community members, organizational meetings with Cultivate Abundance, grant writing, container gardening with church and community volunteers, partial grounds clearing for temporary fence installation;
August 2018 –
GROUNDS CLEAN UP, GROUND “BREAKING” and GARDEN BED BUILDING!
September 2018 – First crops planted: pigeon pea, chipilín, papaya seedlings, sweet potato, fruit trees (mango, sugar apple, starfruit, Barbados cherry, banana, plantain and avocado);
October 2018 –
Additional garden beds and containers planted: okra, jalapeños, eggplant and leafy vegetables;
November 2018 – March 2019 --
Ongoing harvests by community women (cowpea, okra, eggplant, leafy vegetables, cilantro, chipilín) and additional harvests that were distributed to the farmworker community on Fridays;
February 2019 –
Long-awaited permanent garden fence installed!
March 2019 –
Pergola installed with passion fruit vines added to its columns;
April 2019 –
The switch from cold to warm season crops which include: cassava, malanga, experimental rows of Guatemalan corn, chayote and additional sweet potato, cowpea, okra, eggplant, jalapeños, leafy greens and cilantro.
August – Present 2019 --
In just one short but productive year, the Misión Peniel Garden, with the help of 400 volunteer hours from individuals, churches, other non-profits, high schools, university groups, dedicated community members, the partnership of
Cultivate Abundance
and ongoing prayers, has yielded over 600 pounds of produce, providing over 3,000 servings at a value of $1,500!
We thank God for the sustaining efforts of partnership with this flourishing mission garden and the ways in which those efforts bless our farmworker community with nutritious food each week! Many hands and hearts have come together to transform a vision into ministry!
Please visit our garden the next time you are at the mission!
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Maria's Story
Bridge Building Through Relationship Building
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“If we could look into each other’s hearts, and understand the unique challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance, and care.”
--Marvin J. Ashton
I believe in the power of story. I believe every person has a story worth telling… worth hearing. I believe that when we take time to listen and share our stories, relationships are built. And when we build relationships, our lives become fuller.
I first met Maria when she came to a women's holiday “tea” in December of my first year working at the mission. This was the start of what is now a bi-monthly fellowship gathering for Hispanic women in the community. Following that first gathering, Maria started coming by the mission more often to offer help sorting donations or to bring by a few oranges or tomatoes or something she had made at home, but very often, Maria came by to say hello on her way to other places that day.
But something changed when we started telling her about our mission’s plans to build a garden space in the back of the mission. If she hadn’t felt a connection to the mission earlier, it was very evident that she wanted to be a part of its development in some way. With her young son, Marco on her back, Maria came by to help those clearing away debris and getting garden beds ready for soil and planting. Maria worked alongside our mission partners,
Cultivate Abundance l
eaders,
Rick and Ellen Burnette.
With permission, I am sharing an excerpt from an article written by the Burnettes about Maria and her journey to Immokalee.
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“Before she came to the U.S. 18 years ago, Maria and her family worked a 20-acre farm in Guatemala growing patches of corn and beans rotated with barley. They also had some livestock and a garden full of vegetables. Unfortunately, even though their upland farm was productive, the local farm economy could not support their livelihood. These days, her homeland faces further challenges resulting from climate change-related drought and severe weath
er. Like many others, Maria faced the choice of staying on the family farm or migrating elsewhere for the sake of survival.
We met Maria during the early days of Cultivate Abundance’s work in Immokalee. She’s a regular at Misión Peniel, the farmworker ministry of the Peace River Presbytery and the key partner of Cultivate Abundance. Walking the half mile from her trailer to Misión Peniel with her young son, Marco – a five-year old with Down’s Syndrome – Maria participates in the Misión Peniel women’s group that meets twice a month.
When we proposed the idea of starting a community garden at Misión Peniel, Maria was all in. From the very beginning she was integral in the development of the site, advising on crop selection as well as sowing seeds, planting seedlings, pulling weeds and harvesting produce.
With a doorstep garden at her small trailer home, she eagerly participated in the Cultivate Abundance container garden program, expanding her small garden to include additional vegetables to supplement the diet of her family. Whenever we have work at the Misión Peniel garden, Maria is there, often with Marco in tow. When it is time to sow seeds or plant more container gardens, Maria is there. When Rick tosses out plants he thinks are too far gone, Maria is there to rescue them and give him a scolding.
Recently, we asked Maria what benefits the garden brings to her. She replied that working in the Misión Peniel garden makes her feel like she is part of the community. Becoming a little emotional, Maria shared that when she’s sad and misses her family in Guatemala, working in the garden - hands in the soil - helps her feel better. The produce from the community garden, as well as from her home containers, provide fresh, nutritious food for her family and helps to save money.
Maria dropped by last week and told us that she had lost a lot of plants. The trailer park owner had sent someone to spray herbicide around the homes, including her container garden. We were indignant that someone would kill her garden. Surely there’s something we can do about this. But Maria didn’t want to make waves.
The work of addressing food insecurity is not easy; even in America. And we often get a big reminder of that fact.
Believe it or not, it is not easy to grow food in South Florida. Part of the year, the climate is hot and wet. Then there are the dry cool-season months with a risk of frost. The “soil” is pure sand. The large farms around us invest a lot of capital to overcome poor soil and bad drainage, as well as the lack of water during the dry season and the risk of wintertime frost. Meanwhile, we small-scale food producers get by the best we can with what we have. And, as is often the case, when our gardens do become productive, there’s something that will come along and mess things up; whether it’s feral chickens (a problem we are constantly dealing with at Misión Peniel) or some guy spraying herbicide around a trailer.
Although she hasn’t given up on home container gardening, for now, Maria has claimed some space in the Misión Peniel garden so that she can continue to grow her own food and help others do the same. Basically, she is choosing to persevere just as she has done her whole life.”
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Maria has grown to be an integral part of Misión Peniel. She is part of a group of home garden consultants, participates in “Talita Cumi” (the women’s fellowship group), attends Sunday evening worship and has recently been hired to assist with building maintenance. We have been invited to her family's birthday parties. We are walking with her through the process of obtaining permanent residency in the US. Together we affirm God's presence working in our lives and beyond. We thank God for the opportunity to build relationships through the mission. We not only have a mission connection; we have a heart connection!
This is certainly a blessing of “Peniel” (the face of God) in our midst!
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Noteworthy Mission Updates
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Critical Needs
Children’s Diapers, sizes 3,4,5 and 6 only (we have plenty of 1,2 at this time) and Men’s Work Clothing (small, medium and large shirts and pants in good condition).
Friday Volunteers Needed
...to help serve on
Friday, September 13,
2-6:30 p.m. (we are in need of 7 more volunteers to join another church group that day). Please
contact us
immediately if you can help!
Christmas Angel Tree Sign Up Open
We are beginning to register churches interested in participating in this year’s “Angel Tree” for Christmas. Last year we had five churches participating by designating how many gift tags (each representing one child’s needs) they would be willing to receive and then return to the mission with the noted gifts. We will be registering families in October with children, newborn -12 years old for a
new clothing outfit
and distribute them on December 20. We have chosen to distribute new clothing as there are multiple community organizations distributing toys for children.
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Get in Touch Today!
208 Boston Avenue
Immokalee, FL 34142
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