By Michelle Norman, CBF field personnel
It was a particularly warm June evening as our team gathered for the inauguration of Espai Arrels (“Place of Roots”). Surrounded by concrete in the heart of the city, a new community garden had taken root on the patio of a Baptist church. Old donated pallets were trans
formed into raised garden beds by a CBF volunteer PIVOT team from North Carolina alongside local volunteers. Later, a PIVOT team from Missouri, working with leaders from our local nonprofit, planted the first vegetables.
Each Sunday, children from the church’s Sunday school have eagerly checked on the growing plants. For many of these city children, spending time with nature is a rare experience. Watching tomatoes and strawberries slowly ripen has become both a practical lesson and a meaningful connection to God’s creation.
On that Friday evening in June, people began arriving to celebrate the beginning of this new project. Church members from three congregations joined friends and neighbors from the community, children, representatives from the neighborhood association, and about fifteen young African men who participate in another program led by ou
r nonprofit. Christ-followers and those who do not share our faith gathered together to celebrate a place where roots could grow—roots in the soil through fruits and vegetables, and roots in community through relationships. It was a beautiful picture of God’s diverse creation.
The purpose of the community garden has always been about more than growing food. It is about reconnecting with creation, building community, and creating space for relationships to flourish. On that June evening, we caught a glimpse of that vision becoming reality. People who might never have shared a space because of social and cultural divisions gathered around a common table, seeing one another in new ways and listening to each other’s stories. God was present, and the joy of God’s creation was found in the midst of the concrete.