Community gardening creates opportunities to share the gospel

Jenny Burr
Special to Spur Ottawa

Gardening and evangelism go hand-in-hand at Britannia Baptist Church. The church rents a community garden plot in their neighbourhood, which is an area marked by crime and poverty. The garden serves two purposes: it helps church members get to know their neighbours while giving them opportunities to share the gospel and serve a local need.

“This was our fifth year having a plot in the community,” says church pastor Terry Orchard. “We mainly grow tomatoes for single African refugee moms.”

Recently, while harvesting tomatoes in the church’s plot, Orchard noticed the adjoining garden’s tomatoes were also ripe. Since he knew the women who tend the plot, he picked some of their tomatoes and delivered them, on his way home.

“[This lady] works hard to help support three adult children who are living with her,” he says. “One of them is a shy young woman who had been hospitalized twice for severe depression.”

While Orchard talked with the mother, her shy daughter sat close by and listened.

“I started talking to the daughter and quoted a line from a well-known Science Fiction novel about the paralysing effects of fear on the mind,” he shares. “She immediately named the novel. A connection was established and I brought the conversation to the permanent release that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, could bring to those enslaved by fear who choose to have a personal relationship with Him.”

The young woman said she wanted to become a Christian, so she prayed with Orchard inviting Jesus into her heart. In the weeks that have followed, the woman’s life has powerfully changed, says Orchard. She is happier and her family now see her smiling.

Before getting to know Jesus, this young woman rarely left her house and never attended church. Now she attends church regularly and even prayed aloud at a recent prayer meeting. Most recently, she has expressed an interest in joining the church’s young adult group and joined in the church’s sixth anniversary celebrations.

Orchard adds, “some older, mature Christian women are regularly in contact and visiting with her.”