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A Day at La Casita Garden Club

by guest blogger Doug Odell, President of the Church Council at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Salem, Oregon

It’s hard to believe that the La Casita Garden Club just finished its ninth year educating the kids of our neighborhood. I remember when Holy Cross collaborated with many people across our community to transform a broken down playground and a neglected building into a gathering space and a learning center for our neighbors.  Salem Leadership Foundation, Mano a Mano, Catholic Community Services, East Salem Rotary Club, McKay High School students, and many others helped us breathe life into the space once the graveyard for forgotten dreams. Continue reading “A Day at La Casita Garden Club”

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Education – a rising tide lifts all boats

Maybe one way we can change the world is through education.

Our ability to heed Christ’s call to love one another is dependent, in no small measure, on our ability to understand one another.  Understanding, in turn, requires education. More than a decade ago, Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Salem, Oregon began an endowment fund, in part, to foster educational opportunities for those connected to our church community.   We believe that education is more important than ever today, given the fractured and contentious world we live in where understanding and empathy seem to be in short supply. Continue reading “Education – a rising tide lifts all boats”

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Our Future Mission

a special blog from our Council President, Doug Odell

In an email to the bishop last December I described how the Holy Spirit has worked through Holy Cross to connect us with our neighbors:

We took an empty building and made La Casita, a place for the neighborhood to meet, to check out children’s books, and to learn in our garden. We built a relationship with Washington Elementary, providing school supplies, volunteers, and food for 30 homeless kids on the weekends. The neighborhood comes to our gym for movie nights, coat giveaways, and clothing exchanges. Our building is used for basketball, wedding receptions and zumba. Roughly 150 people attended our last Thanksgiving Eve potluck, with 90 staying for the service. They weren’t all church members, from either Holy Cross or Manantial de Aguas Vivas. Many were our neighbors, who heard good things were going on at our church. Continue reading “Our Future Mission”