Thanks WGF!

BREAKING NEWS for the Seeds School Garden at Peter Howell Elementary... We are so grateful to have secured another $1,500 grant from Western Growers Foundation for this school! This is our second grant from WGF! The future is looking good for more school garden projects in the coming year! Who is up for a Native Plant Corner to attract native pollinators (bees, butterflies, hummingbirds) to the garden? What are YOUR ideas?

Action

Get Excited

There's some pretty exciting things happening with Seeds Community Center right now! WE GOT OUR 501c3 STATUS! That means, in the eyes of the government, we are an official non-profit! We are also preparing for the big water cistern installation project at Peter Howell Elementary, it's going to be a huge project (which may or may not involve a crane).

That said, we need volunteers more than ever! The following is an excerpt from the Seeds quarterly news letter: Sowing Seeds Volume 2, Issue 2:

Action

As we celebrated the second birthday of Seeds Community Center on May 31st, we were reminded of how we got to where we are today and what it will take to move forward.

"A passive approach to Christianity will not produce fruit...We must practice holiness and obedience with intensity and great energy." -Chad Haynes

Some may fear expending great energy due to anticipated pain, failure, illness, danger or other phobias. But keep in mind Proverbs 26:13 (NKLV),

The lazy man says, "There is a lion in the road! A fierce lion is in the streets!"

While we may be uncertain about getting out in the "streets" and engaging in culture, we know that worrying about failure and being paralyzed by fear can produce procrastination. Most projects involve multiple steps and we may understandably be uncertain about whether the current step will actually lead to the desired outcome.

But at Seeds, we continue to dream big and move forward because we are faithful activators. We simply do not know yet how many more steps we may have to take to produce a given fruit. Accordingly,

Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

Ecclesiastes 11:6 (NIV)

We DO know that strengths, gifts, passions and skills of every kind will be required for Seeds to be successful in furthering our mission. Join us in the Seeds Community Center adventure!

Teams Forming Now!

We need some awesome and energetic people to help out with some exciting new projects.

Neighborhood Needs Assessment Project

Survey Peter Howell neighbors and businesses - Contact Christy about the many opportunities
e-mail Christy Harrison @ grace.begets.beauty@gmail.com

Water Harvesting

Learn about rain water harvesting for use in the school garden; volunteer day of system installation- date in June or July to be announced; no experience necessary. Contact Lauren Hixson at Ircase12@gmail.com

If you have any additional questions or perhaps a suggestion, please feel free to contact Seeds (check out the contact page to call or e-mail)

Fundraising Goal For Seeds

Seeds Community Center has set a goal to raise $1,000 by recycling with FundingFactory. So far, they have raised $512.00. You can help them reach this goal by recycling printer cartridges, cell phones, and small e-waste (check out the Support tab for a list of recyclables). Click on the Seeds logo below to find out more about the Seeds Fundraiser!

Seeds T-Shirt Photo Op

Hanging out with some fish

Send us a picture of you wearing a Seeds T-shirt! We'll post the pics on the WORLD WIDE WEB!

GET CREATIVE
Possible Seeds T-shirt Photo Ops may
include (but are not limited to):

-Standing next to a celebrity
-Skydiving or Underwater pics
-Awesome group shots
-Riding an animal.
-Funny Families

Providing free entertainment for the public!

Snow Volunteers

There are many ways to do awesome things while wearing your Seeds T-shirt! We wear our shirts with pride, but the shirts are only as good as the people wearing them.

Our hope is that our actions speak louder than our attire. If you have a desire to serve the great city of Tucson in any way, let us know. We would love to have you on our team!

Missy's Smile

The following has been contributed by our garden director Carol Smith, who has moved mountains to get the garden at Howell off the ground, along with her husband Tenney. The two have been a dynamic duo and fantastic part of Seeds!

~~~~

(Names changed to respect the privacy of our new friends)

How does it feel to be eight years old and one day away from starting 3^rd grade in a brand new neighborhood?  And to struggle with English?  And to be afraid?  Today, we met that little girl in the school garden.

If you follow us on facebook, you already know how thrilled we are to have received a Community Seed Grant from Native Seeds/SEARCH! Thanks to this vibrant local organization, the Seeds Howell School Garden Program is growing a Three Sisters demonstration garden this summer and fall.  Just like Native American farmers, we planted native seeds that complement one another in the garden as well as nutritionally.  We will also be planting native sunflower seeds received in this grant after last season’s sunflowers fade and ripen to seed.

On July 14^th, before the Peter Howell Elementary students return to school, Seeds volunteers prepped the soil and planted native squash (Tohono O’odham “Ha:I”), sweet corn (Yuman Yellow) and common beans (O’odham Pink).  We had a fun day of community and camaraderie – even in the face of the biting ants – and prayed that we’d have a garden growing for students, teachers and staff to enjoy upon their return to school August 2^nd.  God was already at work preparing the harvest.

17 days after the planting and the day before school started, Tenney and I headed to the courtyard to check the Three Sisters’ progress.  I confess I was tired and a bit wrung out from several days of working in the garden, attending meetings, keeping Seeds operating behind the scenes and the rest of living life.  But as we walked through the hallway and despite my preoccupation, I noticed a young family peeking out the window into the courtyard.  Mom, Dad and Daughter were admiring the fresh mown grass, picnic tables and curious about those crazy tall sunflowers from last season, now heavy and laden with ripening seeds. 

At the prompt of the Spirit, I asked, “Would you like to see the garden?”

Yes!  Mom and Dad herded a reticent Daughter through the courtyard doors behind us as I babbled on about the foot high corn, the huge squash plants and the multitude of beans reaching for the sky.  I turned around to see Daughter’s reaction.  She looked me straight in the eye but I saw tears streaming down her cheeks as she clung to Mom’s familiar leg.  My heart was broken.

“What is your name,” I asked softly. 

“Missy,” she whispered as the tears began to evaporate and she stroked her braids.  Slowly, slowly, we got to know each other just a little bit. 

We introduced ourselves as school garden volunteers to Julio and Polly Valdez who have just moved into the Peter Howell neighborhood.  We welcomed them enthusiastically.  They responded with friendly interest and lots of questions about us, the garden and the school. 

Missy and I continued to share a moment in the garden inspecting the huge sunflower heads packed with seeds.  We considered roasting the seeds for snacking and hoped the birds wouldn’t eat them all before we did.  Julio interpreted for Missy more than a couple of times as we got to know each other.

Then the five of us exited the courtyard and strolled toward the front door.  We told them about the Walking School Bus program and how to get more information.  At the office, we stopped to say our farewells.  When I held out my hand, Missy gently put hers in mine.

“It was very nice meeting you today, Missy.  I hope we get to garden together this year,” my voice a bit husky with a full heart and gratitude for such a meaningful experience.

We stood there a few more moments, all seemingly a bit reluctant to part.  We were grinning.  The entire Valdez family was beaming, but the biggest smile of all belonged to Missy.  

This photo is NOT Missy but represents the harvest reaped as we shared God's glory in the garden and loved on a scared little girl.

Let us not become weary in doing good things for in the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)

Generosity

Did you know that 21.3% of our city's population was below the poverty line in 2010?*

That's nearly a quarter of Tucson.

As Seeds begins to think about what it means to love our neighbors, one of the first questions that comes up is: what does it actually look like to be a neighbor? 

The following is a powerful excerpt from a book called 7 by Jen Hatmaker. She discusses the incredible generosity of the early church in comparison with some of the disparities we see today. She prefaces it with the idea of balancing the "feast" and the "fast" in our faith; that we feast on the precious mercy of Christ, on His blessing over our lives. Yet we also fast as we understand that we are not our own, that everything we are is God's.

Without further ado:

~~~~~~~

At some point, the church stopped living the Bible and decided just to study it, culling the feast parts and whitewashing the fast parts. We are addicted to the buffet, skillfully discarding the costly discipleship required after consuming. The feast is supposed to sustain the fast, but we go back for seconds and thirds and fourths, stuffed to the brim and fat with inactivity. All this is for me. My goodness, my blessings, my privileges, my happiness, my success. Just one more plate.

Not so with the early church who stunned their Roman neighbors and leaders with generosity, curbing their own appetites for the mission of Jesus. They constantly practiced self-denial to alleviate human misery. In the Shepard of Hermas, a well-respected Christian literary work in the early 100s, believers were instructed to fast one day a week [to provide a meal for the hungry]...

In the early 200s, Tertullian reported that Christians had a voluntary common fund they contributed to monthly. That fund was used to support widows, the disabled, orphans, the sick, the elderly, shipwrecked sailors, prisoners, teachers, burials for the poor, and even the release of slaves.

The difference between Romans and Christians on charity was widely recognized by unbelievers. The pagan satirist Lucian (130-200 c.e.) mocked Christian kindness: "The earnestness with which the people of this religion help one another in their needs is incredible. They spare themselves nothing for this end. Their first lawgiver put it into their heads that they were all brethren."

These Christians did not limit their assistance to members of their own subculture either. The Emperor Julian, who attempted to lead the Roman Empire back to paganism, was frustrated by the superior compassion shown by the Christians, especially when it came to intervention for the suffering. He famously declared: "The impious Galileans relieve both their own poor and ours...It is shameful that ours should be so destitute of our assistance."

What would the early church think if they walked into some of our buildings today, looked through our church Web sites, talked to an average attender? Would they be so confused? Would they wonder why we all had empty bedrooms and uneaten food in our trash cans? Would they regard our hoarded wealth with shock? Would they observe orphan statistics with disbelief since Christians outnumber orphans 7 to 1? Would they be stunned most of us don't feed the hungry, visit the prisoner, care for the sick, or protect the widow? Would they see the spending on church buildings and ourselves as extravagantly wasteful while twenty-five thousand people die every day from starvation?

I think they'd barely recognize us as brothers and sisters. If we told them church is on Sundays and we have an awesome band, this would be perplexing. I believe we'd receive dumbfounded stares if we discussed "church shopping" because enough people don't say hello when we walk in the lobby one hour a week. If they found out one-sixth of the earth's population claimed to be Christians, I'm not sure they could reconcile the suffering happening on our watch while we're living in excess. They'd wonder if we had read the Bible or worry it had been tampered with since their time.

But listen Early Church, we have a monthly event called Mocha Chicks. We have choir practice every Wednesday. We organize retreats with door prizes. We're raising three million dollars for an outdoor amphitheater. We have catchy T-shirts. We don't smoke or say the F word. We go to Bible study every semester. ("And then what, American Church?") Well, we go to another one. We're learning so much.

I think the early church would cover their heads with ashes and grieve over the dilution of Jesus' beautiful church vision. We've taken His Plan A for mercy to an injured lost planet and neutered it to clever sermon series and Stitch-and-Chat in the Fellowship Hall, serving the saved. If the modern church held to its biblical definition, we would become the answer to all that ails society. We wouldn't have to baby-talk and cajole and coax people into our sanctuaries through witty mailers and strategic ads; they'd be running to us. The local church would be the heartbeat of the city, undeniable by our staunchest critics.

~~~~~~~

As Seeds considers being a neighbor, let us consider living out the generosity of our faith. What does it really look like to live with less so that our neighbors may have enough? What does it look like to trust God for what we need and to be free in sharing the rest? We want to avoid being an organization that gives out of our excess, but rather we want to be a people who genuinely come alongside the under-resourced, understand them, grow in loving them, and cultivate community alongside them. Let us pray earnestly about how we might do this!

* http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/0477000.html