July 2007
a monthly e-news publication

Did You Know?

Being a community fond of potluck dinners, we’re always experimenting with ingredients we have right here on the farm. Here’s a quick summer salad using Koinonia pecans and fresh produce from local markets or your own garden: Rinse and dry 1 pound spinach leaves, ripped into bite-size pieces. Add ½ Vidalia or purple onion, minced; 1-2 peaches, diced; and 1 cup Koinonia pecans, broken into small pieces. Season with your favorite dressing, and enjoy with good friends!

July’s featured community member is Brendan Prendergast, who has been a part of Koinonia since February 2006. Father to 2-year-old Ida and 6-month-old Kellan, and husband to Sarah, Brendan is also a jack-of-all-trades, working mostly in Koinonia’s Heart to Heart home repair ministry. We know him to be humble and honest, caring and dedicated… as well as proud landlord of a 500-member worm farm, and creator of a new, four-member “chicken tractor” for the organic garden!

Reaching Out

The Koinonia Community Outreach Center’s Summer Youth Camp has been a wonderful success. At full capacity of 27-30 children in grades K-8, the six junior counselors plus Kathleen and Jim from Koinonia have had their hands full! We’ve welcomed guests such as Jo Knox (nature art), Darrell & Joy Faires (music), the local sheriff’s department (conflict resolution training), and Vacation Bible School groups. There has also been a sock hop, a talent show, and the ever popular “Splash Day” in the pool. Pictured planning the next day’s camp are the junior counselors, clockwise beginning at left: Mike, Tresha, RaSheena, Mary, Tesha, and Moneishia.

Great news: the Heart to Heart home repair ministry is finished with major rehab at our neighbor LaTonya Anderson’s house! The rededication ceremony will be in a few days—next month you can read all about it, plus learn what project the Heart to Heart team will be tackling next.

At the Farm

RAIN! We are overjoyed to share that the drought was broken by steady rainfall on June 2nd, and we have had several good soakings since. We even had, perfectly timed, the inch needed to moisten our organic peanut field sufficiently to allow us to plant the seeds. Soon, on the morning of June 18th, Koinonia gardener Michael Grainge announced: “At last—peanuts! Emergence this morning. Weeders now welcome!” We’re still behind on our annual rainfall, but things are much greener now. We thank everyone for their kind thoughts and prayers for southwest Georgia during the drought.

Havilah Giannetta, Beth Greaves, and Chris Schelin are our three community interns this summer. They’ve impressed us with their camaraderie and their ability to have fun while working hard! Pictured, Chris—also an M.Div. candidate—gets a little closer to heaven on some scaffolding, working the power sander. Next fall’s session is beginning to fill up, and there’s already interest in spring 2008… exciting! If you are considering a Koinonia internship, be sure to visit our intern information page.

It’s been a month of firsts—1st Baptist Church of Dalton, GA, 1st Presbyterian Church of Rockford, IL, and 1st Christian Church of Tucker, GA, that is! These eager crews have included youth, seniors, and everybody in between, and we’ve been blessed to have their help teaching Vacation Bible School at the summer youth camp, deep-cleaning Koinonia’s guest housing, helping with the Heart to Heart home repair ministry, and much more. Would your group like to take a service & learning trip to Koinonia? For more information, visit our visitor information page.

The Koinonia community has been pulling together some Saturday mornings to get things fixed up around the farm. Our first big project is washing, prepping, and repainting the “Red House”—green! Pictured, Ellie Castle and Beth Greaves chat while sanding the doorframe; and later, Dave Castle, Beth, Emory Lowmaster, and Bren Dubay cool their heels in the yard after a morning’s labor.