Jesse Lee Church normally buys truckloads of pumpkins from our Navajo mission partners every Fall. COVID restrictions made it impossible to safely unload the pumpkins this year, so we got creative and made a homemade pumpkin patch and a museum-in-the-street exhibit to raise funds and awareness for the Navajo Nation.
People came from Ridgefield, and surrounding towns in Connecticut and New York, to help the Navajo and have some fun painting their homemade pumpkins at our decoration stations in the patch. Families who drove a distance to come to our pumpkin patch said they were happy to go out of their way to be part of this creative effort to help the Navajo. Local families said Jesse Lee’s homemade pumpkin patch made them feel proud and grateful to live in a town like Ridgefield.
In two weekends, we sold 800 of these gorgeous homemade gourds. We also earned a lot by auctioning off some artisanal pumpkins that were painted and donated by local artists Ira Joe Fisher, Claire Sigworth and Donna Ward. These works of art sparked a bidding war that boosted our fundraising efforts even more.
Altogether, Jesse Lee raised nearly $13,500 in the pumpkin patch and is so happy to be able to donate the proceeds to COVID relief for the Navajo Nation and deliver on our promise to help them, especially this year when they need it most.
In addition to a great fundraising effort, something else took root in this year’s patch. When people come together to give generously of their time, treasure and talent to help mission partners in need, the Holy Spirit moved into the project blessing everyone involved.
The parents who came to the patch were so happy to have a fun, safe activity like painting their wooden pumpkins in the patch with their kids. Some families stayed at their decoration stations for hours to enjoy a little dose of happiness in what has been a difficult time. It was an opportunity to slow down and savor the simple pleasure of being together, while also being safely apart, on a couple of lovely Fall weekends in Ridgefield. People loved the patch and asked us to keep the homemade pumpkin patch going even when we have our real pumpkins back. One woman said, “It feels like a much-needed dose of happiness and normalcy during the pandemic.”
In addition to finding a way to deliver on the promise to help our Navajo mission partners, the Jesse Lee Homemade Pumpkin Patch was a place where God’s grace shined bright and inspired hope, healing and joy when we needed it most.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this a remarkable mission outreach effort.