Tomatoes: The Legend of Louie

A personal story shared by one of Christ The Rock’s master gardeners, Tammy Borden.

I confess, I’m not much of a vegetable gardener.  I much prefer the delicate beauty of flowers and using them to design a stunning landscape.  For some reason, a pepper plant swaying in the breeze doesn’t bring me the same delight as that of the tender blossom of a bleeding heart or daffodil.

But then there is the tomato… Yes, I know, to the true botanists out there it’s not technically a vegetable, but a fruit.  Although, in 1887, the U.S. Supreme Court did apparently rule that it was indeed a vegetable. So legally, it seems, the tomato is not a fruit. Ah, but I digress.

For me, it’s not the most attractive of garden plants, so that’s not why I cherish it so much.  And it’s not so much that I even like the taste of tomatoes.  I would much prefer a freshly pulled carrot after wiping the dirt off on my sleeve, or those sweet sugar snap peas plucked right from the vine.  Yes, my love of the tomato runs deeper than my taste buds.  My love of the tomato is because of love itself.

Compassion Gardens have begun!

Posted by Patty Dempsey

Our Campus Garden planting team digs in.

What a great morning we had planting our brand new Campus Garden!  On Saturday, May 30th, fifteen people (some not shown in picture)  joined together to help plant our 30×50 foot Campus Garden. Our vision for the garden is to invite anyone in our church to help.  As food becomes ready to harvest, we openly invite you to take some of the food if you need it, take some to give to a family you know who could use it, or help bring the rest to a local food pantry.  If you don’t have your own garden or simply want to work together on a garden with other people, here’s your chance.

Planting takes planning!

Last Saturday on our planting day, even in the on and off drizzle we had a lot of fun.  It was especially exciting to hear people connect through their own garden stories and sharing of garden tips.

We had beginners working alongside experienced gardeners, and everyone got down and dirty in the mud!

Gardening is for the shoe-hardiest among us!

The Campus Garden is just one of the gardens in our new ministry called Compassion Gardens.  If you’ve seen the grounds of our church lately, you have noticed the transformation that has been taking place not only with the Campus Garden, but the Hmong Gardens as well. 

CTR Reaches Farther at Double Portion

We just received a wonderful letter from one of our Community partners who came to our reaching farther challenge weekend a few weekends ago, and we wanted to share it with you:

Dear Christ The Rock,

           Participating in the Reaching Farther Challenge Weekend was an uplifting experience for everyone from Double Portion. Everyone who worked at the booth was overflowing with enthusiasm and joy in describing their experiences. They talked about being blessed by the church service with the understanding gained from the goats and sitting on the floor, and they were touched and gained insight by visiting the booths of other missions. Everyone considered it a blessing to be a part of the Reaching Farther Challenge Weekend.

          The connections and relationships made at the booth have breathed a new life into Double Portion. Our volunteers who met the “Rockers”, as they called themselves, were impressed that those who came to the booth didn’t have to be persuaded to serve the needy.

OAKS spreads its branches

“As she stood in what was left of her belongings after the fire had destroyed everything, she made the statement that the Lord had impressed on her heart recently not to hold on to the things of this world too tightly. Wow! Was that ever true in one of the most heart wrenching attempts to help a husband and wife who had just lost it all.”

Stories like this one are an incredible reminder not only of how change can happen in an instant, but also that we are all called to help when one of our neighbors is in the midst of a storm. Or in this case, a fire.

This is just one of many stories you’ll find on the new OAKS page, as our Organized Acts of Kindness and Sacrifice ministry spreads its branches and unites its volunteers with our CTR Body online. The new site is in its infancy, and will eventually allow you to click on a calendar so you can see the needs and opportuntities to help people right in your own neighborhood or community.

This ONE’s for the girls–a ministry taking flight

Posted by Nancy Leschke

We have a little bit of a reputation with the women who work in the strip clubs. Most refer to us as “the church ladies.” But as they are getting to know us, we are building relationships that are allowing God to move in amazing ways.

Here are three brief stories about how us church ladies are reaching to those women who hunger for Him through a ministry called This ONE’s for the girls:

A young woman approached us recently at one of the clubs where she’d been working. She said that she started attending a church in Green Bay two months ago but felt like a hypocrite and wondered what the other people would think if they knew where she worked.

Cool link!

A great church experience is always exciting to read about, especially by those who are passionate about sharing via the written word! More people are discovering the joys of journaling their thoughts electronically these days, in the form of blogs–like the one you are reading now.

A blog is simply two words (Web and Log) shortened into one. Bloggers are everywhere. By some estimates, there are 5 Billion blogs worldwide! But there’s no way to tally them precisely.

Some people in our own body are bloggers, like Jen of Wisconsin.

Christmas Gifts for the Girls

As all of us go about our Christmas preparations, the team members of this One’s for the girls have been busy planning our Christmas gift nights.  We visited one Fox Valley club already, with plans to visit three more in the Valley and one in Green Bay.

Would you please pray for us on December 10, 17 and 18 as we visit with young women who work as exotic dancers?  We deeply desire that each woman would feel God’s love for her, and that the Gospel message attached to each gift would sink deeply into each heart.

The Re-Birth of OAKS

From raking leaves to giving rides to church to helping people move in an emergency situation, Christ The Rock volunteers have rolled up their sleeves to help those in the Fox Valley when they’ve called.  Two years ago we decided to call this ministry OAKS, which stands for Organized Acts of Kindness and Sacrifice.

Pastor John Slotten and volunteer Dean Roddy organized the OAKS volunteer base to answer the many calls for painting walls, fixing broken plumbing and any number of requests for help.  Since that time, the volunteer pool has grown almost as huge as the needs that are called in.  But within the past several months the need has become so tremendous that it was time to fortify OAKS and plan for this ministry’s growth into the future.

How is it working? Check out this story about an ex-convict who called for help:

Since his release from jail, this man has struggled to put his life back on track

Worshipping Him together… never gets old

Time continues to pass, many things change in our lives… but we’re surely glad that God stays the same.  How blessed are we that we continue to gather together in worship to our King?  Always good…

This was a snapshot of our time together @ Crossing Friday night

More time together…

We’ve been seeing that in a lot of instances, people are seriously just longing for more connection with each other.  Real, authentic, loving friendships – it’s kind of hard to find sometimes.  However, it’s been totally beautiful watching week in and week out people spending time together.  When TV, video games, surfin the web & lots of other distractions pull at us, it’s so rewarding to see others investing in one another.  I’m sure pumpkin carving doesn’t sound like bundles of fun to everyone, but we sure had a good time friday!