Urban Gardening

This is our first round of urban gardening that we are hoping to use to inspire as a model for urban renewal and transformation. In a sense, it’s also a way for us to communicate to those who are wanting to feed the homeless that we are wanting to show them a greater model. Our heart is to teach them to fish rather than to fish.

We want to begin an urban gardening community as we look for ways to bring about urban renewal and community development…

our great lawn

various vegetables including red/white/yellow onions, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts…

strawberries planted by the fruit tree

To view more pictures, click here.

Join the Conversation

Join the Conversation podcast with Bob Lupton

I wanted to share a message passed on to me that is absolutely connected to our heart at The Refuge.  Our role here in the urban part of Oklahoma City is to help foster this shift.  Enjoy the listening…

This listening will inspire you especially those of you who are leading churches and/or missions.  May God stir up His Church.

Spring Break week

This week brought in a lot of people from different groups and even outside of OKC. It was exciting to have many different youth groups come out!

Here’s a breakdown of all the people represented– each time, there are people who are astonished by all the groups coming out.

• Sun./Mon.…New Covenant Christian Church (overnight 1 night)….worked on sidewalk, brought a ton of stuff up stairs and downstairs, painted a nearby business…picked up trash

• Mon. – Wed.…Young Life (overnight 2 nights)….drywalled Tim and Leanne’s room, hallway, mudded…picked up trash, worked in the garden, painted trim on true light building

• Mon. – Thurs….Edmond First student ministries (10-3pm)….took stuff off shelves downstairs, scraped walls, picked up trash, worked on sidewalk, swept glass in alley and on Shartel, cleaned and organized downstairs

• Mon. – Tues.(10-3pm)….Britton Road Church of Christ….uncovered entire sidewalk on Fred Jones between California Ave and the alley behind the refuge

• Tues. – Wed. (1/2 day Wed.)….Forest Hill Christian Church…Super Freaky hard workers….Moved all the shelves to the back, created a makeshift wall around bike shop with various items….completely organized shelves, labeled everything, took everything out of the downstairs into the alley (except large items)….swept entire floor…..moved everything back in organizing it as it’s brought in, organized entire back of building, sanded and painted all 8 stages, picked up trash under the bridge, painted the 3 from doors, cut down the mound of weeds and debris in the field next to the church on Shartel/California, organized the tool closets upstairs…these guys were freaks! Amazing leaders.

It was a great week.  We are thankful for all the youth and leaders who came out to serve what God is doing here.  Amazing stuff!

with NCCC Sunday evening

painting finished!

For more pictures, view this facebook gallery

Here is NCCC’s album from their experience.

More photos in our group section.

Hello Spring workday

Major work was done today as hundreds of workers showed. Our workday extended longer than usual, but the visible change of the work of our hands was very obvious today fully welcoming the spring season.

Many picked up trash along the freeway where much trash had been piling up while others focused on the tree planting/garden work in our parking area. We also got the opportunity to paint a local business nearby.

Several trash teams spread out throughout the city

scraping, paint work @ nearby business

garden work and tree planting in our parking area

For more photos, view our facebook photo page.

Facebook

If you want to stay connected to The Refuge, you can find us on Facebook.com…Our group is called The Refuge OKC.  We look forward to be apart of His story in which He is writing to this day.

here is what others are saying

here is the story of guy who i had met when he decided to pull of the freeway.

you can read it in his words by clicking the link below:

Be the change you wish to see in the world

Prepping the Field

Scraping the high places, filling in the low places, and trenching in irrigation lines! Setting up for the group of 200 that will be coming on Saturday for planters and such. Work that needed to be done despite the freezing cold.

A Video of Channel 9 News on The Refuge

Click here to You Tube Video

We went ahead and added the Channel 9 News piece for those who didn’t get a chance to see it.

Tagging the City with Truth

For Urban Celebration, we got to share some stories. Ron Crawford with Cross & Crown spoke of his latest interactions with the kids as they drove past some graffiti that said, “Arm the Homeless.” He asked the kids what that meant. One kid was quick to speak that they should be armed with weapons, followed by him imitating the sounds of a machine gun. Another girl spoke up with the answer being Jesus.

That led us to a group of people going out onto the streets writing words of hope and truth with sidewalk chalk while others remained in the sanctuary continuing with song & worship.

Kansas City Sessions

This past weekend, a group from KC came down to see what life at the Refuge looked like. A bigger group of 50 from their circle came out a few weeks ago, so we’ve been keeping in touch with them since. It was fun to cast vision and pray and worship with them. They hope to live among the people in KC for the kingdom!

Below: Q & A: Them gleaning from us and vice versa

Words of hope and truth

Prayer & Worship