Rev. Cheol Soon Park's challenge to the church is timely, relevant and very inspirational. He said there is a great demand for change within the local church. “Change is not an option anymore, it is an imperative … it is time to change our understanding of church, ministry and worship service.” His profound words were like apples of gold in pictures of silver. His idea is to challenge every session, minister and member to start one thing new this year. One thing that is necessary yet has never been tried for various reasons. He wants each local church to start one thing that would convey the message we are willing to change and serve.
The outreach committee of First Sackville, Lower Sackville, N.S., put into practice that challenge last summer. Three Bills (Mackay, Jardine and Field) helped to put in a potato field (90 feet long by 30 feet wide) and a cucumber patch (30 feet by 30 feet) at the Springfield Lake Recreational Centre, Middle Sackville, for Feed Nova Scotia. The garden was created by soil (from Conrad Brothers, Dartmouth and Lower Sackville Trenching Company), scrap material, volunteer labour and a lot of hard back-breaking work. In October the harvest produced 800 pounds of potatoes and 24 dozen cucumbers for the Halifax Regional Municipality Food Bank.
Why not just buy the potatoes and cucumbers? The garden is not only good for meditating, an opportunity for exercise, a great place to get rid of stress and tensions, an excellent way to get people involved in the community, but also an important way to witness to the community that the church is there to share and real happy to give. Over 40,000 people in our province use the Food Bank each month and the numbers are increasing due to the economic crisis and the high price of food and fuel. In a province of plenty, there are thousands of children who do not have plenty, who go to bed with the basic necessities that count most in life. Like potatoes.
One evening while a ball game was being played on a nearby field four strangers appeared out of nowhere. They were dressed like Hutterites and asked what needed to be done. They told me to go watch the ball game while they did the work. When I returned an hour later, I saw the field was cleared of unsightly weeds, three concrete benches moved, huge stones rolled away and a mound of sand relocated. They even built a reinforced wall around the garden, 12 inches high. To this day I have no idea who they were or where they were from.
Before they left the garden, I asked them how I could thank them. One of them, Peter, said, “Son, you can thank us by finishing your project as the potatoes and cucumbers will come in handy for a lot of people in the fall.” My sister, Jackie Davies, said, “Roy the four men were not strangers, they were angels.” I believe her.
Rev. Park challenged us: “We should not be afraid of change because change brings new possibilities.”
