Nov. 23, 2009 issue
Bethel College and church plant garden together
By Bethel College staffNORTH NEWTON, Kan. — Rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of those who gathered to break ground for a new cooperative venture between Bethel College and area residents.
From left, Chad Childs, Bethel College vice president of student life; Dwight Platt, Bethel College Mennonite Church member and Bethel professor emeritus of biology; and Bethel Environmental Action Club members Leah Clark and Maggie Goering take part in the the groundbreaking for Sand Creek Community Gardens. — Photo by Melanie Zuercher
The project, called Sand Creek Community Gardens, is being planned and supported by a group representing Bethel College and Bethel College Mennonite Church. The garden will be located in an empty lot just east of the church and south of the Warkentin Court residence hall parking lot.
The 22 people who wielded shovels at the Nov. 9 groundbreaking included student members of Bethel’s Environmental Action Club; Bethel faculty, staff and administrators; Bethel College Mennonite Church’s pastors and members of its Creation Care Task Force; and former Bethel President Barry Bartel, who strongly promoted the project while in office.
Church member Duane Friesen, a retired Bethel professor, North Newton resident and enthusiastic gardener, has been coordinating the community garden project. As he welcomed people to the groundbreaking, he read words from the medieval Christian mystic Julian of Norwich: “Be a gardener… . Continue this labor and … carry it to God as your true worship.”
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