Friends,

Pumpkin season is among us!

On October 11th a semitruck will arrive early in the morning at St. Luke’s and a small army of volunteers will unload thousands of pumpkins to sell in our grove. Our annual pumpkin patch is amazing on many different levels. The business model is a good thing unto itself. We work with a company called Pumpkin USA, who sources their pumpkins from the Navajo Nation, and we get to keep an increasing percentage of the profits based on the percentage of pumpkins we sell. We get to made money for our ministry, while benefiting the Navajo Nation and providing our local community with those amazing decorative gourds. So far, so good.

Something different is going to happen this year. Historically, our Journey to Adult (J2A) youth group took primary responsibility to working the pumpkin patch, and the proceeds would then go to help pay for their pilgrimage. The latest group went to Costa Rica, and they worked the patch for three years to earn money for the trip! This year, we do not have a J2A group coming up through the ranks. We have a critical mass that will be old enough in the next year or two to start the process, but for this year we need to re-think how our pumpkin patch will work.

I am excited to tell you that for this year the proceeds from the pumpkin patch will primarily go to supporting our Outreach Committee, which supports several wonderful organizations in the area, especially Rising Hope Methodist Mission and United Community. Our Outreach Committee is the work of the entire congregation, and I am officially encouraging you to help in our Pumpkin Patch so you can directly benefit this ministry.

If you have not already tried working in our Pumpkin Patch, you need to try it, because it is wonderful. You’ll probably find that donating a couple hours a week of your time will not feel like a burden. Most people find great gratification in being part of our community’s fall rituals. Some of the best things we do as a Church make money, and we try to make the beneficiaries of our fundraisers worthwhile; however, success should not be gauged how much money we make. Our mission as a Church isn’t to make money from selling BBQ, pumpkins or crafts, even if the money is going to a great cause. Our mission is to cultivate a Christian Community, and while the Pumpkin Patch does good work through raising money, it does the work of the Church by creating a venue for community to thrive.

If you come and work the pumpkin patch you will have the opportunity to be the face of the Church to a world that is increasingly lonely, isolated and polarized. Community must begin somewhere and why not start with pumpkins?

In the following weeks expect to see details about how you can sign up and learn how to help us use the patch to benefit our Outreach Committee and help our community to grow!

-Nick