We have always had a few
vegetables and herbs in our gardens. The
house that we are living in now has a nice garden, but too small… and I don’t
think that our landlord would be happy if we turned over the grass to plant
some carrots! We had put the idea of a
proper vegetable garden out of our heads when we saw a sign just outside of our
village advertising garden allotments.
I rang the number on the sign
and set up a time to see the allotments.
Jane was very nice and she explained how things worked, where we could
find the wheelbarrows and where the toilet was.
We were excited about what kinds of veggies we could get from a large
allotment but we were just as excited by all the growing gardens around us.
Because, in addition to
wanting lots of veggies, we wanted to find new ways to meet new people. As we dug the paths and formed the beds we
got to meet our allotment neighbours. We noticed that there are feelings that
all the gardeners seemed to share. When
I met Steve and Tom, for example, they both had a look in their eyes that
seemed to say “What did we get ourselves into?”
The fences are low between
the gardens and the conversation comes easy.
Aside from the time pulling
weeds and building trellises for the peas to climb, we’ve also spent time
praying for our garden neighbours. We
pray that God will bless their gardens.
We pray that we will be a light there.
We believe that every contact
that we make can leave a trace of Jesus behind.
