Friday Afternoon at the Garden

I am writing this post from Dearborn MI, my hopefully soon-to-be home.

Williamson Street Community Garden lies just two blocks from the world famous Shatila Bakery. If you like baklava or other Middle Eastern sweets, you have to visit Shatila. Most of the residents in the area hail from Palestine, Iraq, or elsewhere in the Middle East.

We pulled up to the alley entrance of the garden with a load of supplies, everything you need to finish a wooden bench and secure a wooden rack for two compost barrels.

As we were unloading the car, an old Arab man from two houses down smiled and waved at us. He showed us a couple of big tomatoes from his own garden. We didn't have any ripe tomatoes yet. A few minutes later, he stopped by to chat with us for a bit.

The kids started coming after about 15 minutes. First one or two, and soon seven or eight, ranging from ages 3 to 10 or so. Shaddy, the 18 or 19 old brother of a couple of the kids came across the street and stayed a while.  He made plans with my companions about going together to a police auction the next day. He was hoping to score a motorcycle.

Shaddy left and one of my coworkers got out the trash picker sticks. The kids started getting excited as kids often do. He had been keeping them in suspense for a few days with a promise that they could use the trash pickers around their neighborhood.

The kids took off with the trash pickers They returned a few minutes later to get a bag to actually put the trash in. Then they went up and down the street picking up trash. They made an impromptu game of it, assigning point values to pieces of trash based us size and uniqueness. The fast food napkin was worth one point. The coke bottle was worth about five points. The rusty muffler that had fallen off of a car, twenty.

After the job was done and the trash pickers put away the kids just stayed. This was their place. They felt safe and comfortable with us. We played with them, giving them piggy back rides and racing each other with kids on our back. Brown skin rubbing against white skin, shrieks, giggles, lots of smiles.

As we worked at the garden several other neighbors stopped by or greeted us as they passed. A mere three months ago, the city gave our fledgling organization, Neighborhood Growth Initiatives, permission to put up our first community garden on this empty lot. A lot has happened in that time.

We got a grant to place 40 raised garden beds. Most of them are tended by individual members of the neighborhood, with a few community plots open to all. They are all full of vegetables, several ripening.

Neighborhood gardens are about a lot more than just food. They create a sense of community. They bring people together. Many of the neighbors are from different nationalities and may not actually know each other. How many of your neighbors do you know? Neighborhood gardens get people out and meeting their neighbors. That reduces crime. It eases ethnic tensions. It makes the streets safer for kids.

A lady  with a black and white polka dot hijab (head scarf) called us over as she was about to get into her car. She handed us a small wad of cash. "I really want to help you guys out." She said. "You are doing good work here... really good work."

We plant vegetables and hope. Jesus said he came to bring "good news to the poor." (Luke 4:18). We can't fix the worlds problems, but we can bring something good to a neighborhood, maybe even a city. When we do we aren't just doing some humanitarian good deed. Our work goes beyond meeting a temporal need. We are following Jesus, working in his name, and bringing a hope that glistens with eternity.