Digging In To Make a Difference

Gardening season is upon us! Every season is busy season at CSM, but some seasons are busier than others. This past month has been one such season! The warmer weather of Spring brings two things that make life busy for a Volunteer Coordinator/Gardener... lots of volunteers and planting season! In the last month, CSM has had over 1,000 volunteers come through our ministry to help with our food ministry, garden ministry, housing ministry, diaper bank ministry, Bundles of Hopice and to help with our many partnering churches and their various community projects as well!

It has been a pleasure to work with so many people in such a short amount of time and what a blessing to us and to the communities that we serve! We appreciate the teams from Wells Fargo, the Senior class from Jackson Olin High School and the youth group from The Station Church coming make all these projects possible. This time of planting seeds and plants in our 7 community gardens has kept me and CSM staff and volunteers plenty busy.

NRS raised bed gardens ready for planting!

Our partnership with New Rising Star continues to stretch it's roots deep into the fabric of our ministry, and this past month we continued that momentum by connecting with NRS and Station Church in Hoover to construct a new community garden across the street from "The Star" next to the Day Care Center. With the help of 70 middle and high school students, we were able to install a new place for the staff of New Rising Star to continue to improve their efforts in reaching the East Lake community in so many different ways!

On one beautiful day this past month, sea of hot pink seniors from Jackson Olin High School rolled in to spread out around the CSM campus. The Well Fargo customer service department that came to help with Spring garden prepping and painting were excited to “get their hands in the dirt” to help others, and they said it was a bonding experience for them as co-workers. We overheard one of the team members say, "Gardening here is good for the mind, body and soul!" Yes! We agree… volunteering helps everybody!

Thanks to everyone who continue to connect with CSM and the communities we serve! God is planting in deep soil through the Christian Service Mission, and we are blessed to play a small part of His great story for yet another month! Glory to God!

Michael giving instruction and motivation to the Jackson Olin senior class

Michael Bowen
CSM Volunteer Coordinator and Garden Ministry Manager