Our United Methodist Men will be sponsoring a station at National Night Out this coming August. More details coming soon. Visit the National Night Out website for more details.

For the next six weeks teams of garden bees will be buzzing around our community garden space working to prepare the space for a June opening of the Parkrose Heights Community Garden. The following is a lineup of dates/times/tasks for all you who feel a little more spiritual with some dirt under your fingernails. We would love to have you join in.

May 2, Saturday – 9 a.m. to Noon: Finish setting fence posts. We’ve dug the post holes. They’re waiting and ready for concrete and posts. We need people to help mix concrete , a couple of teams of post-setters and many helpers/runners. If we finish setting posts early we’ll start installing the rail hangers (metal hangers that attach the wood railings from post to post).

May 9 & 16, Saturday – 9 a.m. to Noon: Sod days. Removing sod is a big job. We’re still in the decision-making process about how we’ll do it. Renting a sod cutter, rolling it, hauling it to a recycling center is one option. We’re exploring several other options as well.

May 23, Saturday – 9 a.m. to Noon: Fence rail installation and irrigation system trenches dug. The irrigation system will be installed professionally after trenches are completed.

May 30 and/or June 6, Saturday – 9 a.m. to Noon: Raised beds constructed, grounds prepared, sign installed, shed delivered. Seeds ready for planting. Sunshine and 80 degrees – right?

Of course all this will change because some things will take longer and some things won’t. 9 a.m. is the start time each Saturday. Work til noon if you can. If teams want to stay for a little longer, we’ll have lunch for you. If you can just come by for moral support, we want that, too.

If construction is not your thing we also have a couple of teams working on Garden Management (how we organize ourselves and operations of the garden), and Promotion/Publicity. Contact me if you’re interested. bill@parkroseumc.org

Many hands makes light work.

Peace, Bill

Our colleague Kevin Witt and I are beginning to plan a United Methodist Volunteers In Mission (UMVIM) trip to Guatemala in the fall of 2010. Kevin has been on several UMVIM trips to Guatemala and will provide leadership. There are many possibilities. Buildings need builders, children need day camps, health clinics need supplies.

In the 1950’s civil war erupted in Guatemala and would ravage the country economically and spiritually for over three decades. The United States contributed significantly to the destruction through two of our national obsessions at the time: 1) our fear of the spread of communism and 2) the greed of multinational companies from our country. We (through the CIA and others) trained, bankrolled, and supplied arms to hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans (and others in Central American countries) to resist what we feared were leaders with communist leanings. As history often repeats itself these armed vigilantes turned ugly and killed over one hundred thousand men, women and children. The United Fruit Company, which has morphed several times into what is now Chiquita Banana Company, initiated a campaign to eliminate any competition from local banana growers, effectively setting family against family until there was no competition left. Decades of civil war and oppressive business practices have left Guatemala one of the poorest countries in Latin America.

I like to think we’ve learned from our collective sins regarding these obsessions. In the mid-1990’s President Clinton issued a formal apology to the people of Guatemala for our political actions. And the Chiquita Company is now one of the leaders in Fair Trade practices in the Latin America. The United Methodist Church is on the scene as well giving witness to God’s Good News through Camp Lemoa, through health clinics, an orphanage, women’s weaving cooperatives, and others. Most of these services are in the highlands of Guatemala not far from a major city, Quetzaltenango. Many citizens of Quetzaltenango are gaining ground economically but the rural communities are struggling to find roots.

We would like to invite you to join us; in prayer and discernment and in a hands-on mission that promises to enrich your life and change it forever. 2010 sounds so far away, but actually it’s only around the corner so it’s time to start mobilizing. Let me know of your interest and questions. You can write me (bill@parkroseumc.org) or simply place a comment following this article. We’ll make it happen!

Paz,
Bill