Longard Log: June 2012

Longard Log

Leon and Tina Longard

Building Bridges from the Local Church to the Soul of it's Community

Bountiful Provision

When we first tilled a 20ft x 80ft plot for the Diakonos Garden (our food pantry garden), I began to wonder where we would find all the plants for this project. We had started some seedlings, but I wasn’t sure if we had enough for the whole space. The answer came a few days later.

One of the members of Franklin Park Church happened to be at the local Meijer store the day the Bonnie Plants representatives were rotating their stock. She noticed eight flats of plants they were planning to throw away. She offered to buy them at a discounted price for the garden, but they were not allowed to sell these plants. When she told them the garden was for a food pantry, though, they gave her all eight flats for free! It was an amazing, surprise blessing. We quickly planted over sixty tomato plants, forty pepper plants, three rows of okra, and four rows of broccoli. We had enough plants to fill the majority of the open space in the Diakonos Garden and give extra plants to clients at SPARC to plant in their own yards.

We are thankful to God for His provision for the needs of people in our community

Shalom in the City

June 21—23 we will be participating in the “Seeking the Shalom of the City” conference in Chicago, sponsored by Christian Associates. Leon has been invited by a friend to be a panelist for their discussion on addressing issues of poverty in your community.

Pray for renewed vision as we interact with others doing similar ministry. Pray also for protection as we travel there and further north for

vacation after the conference.

Ministry Goals

Train lay people to work with their pastors in fulfilling the mission of Jesus in their communities.
Network with multiple churches to pool resources for community outreach.
Make tools like the Alpha Course, Celebrate Recovery, and KidzClubs accessible to people on a main street level.