We feed, rehabilitate and love Argentina's forgotten

The garden has a very important place in Scripture for it is intimately connected with the whole of salvation history.  It is the scene of the creation, the fall and the redemption of the human race.  The garden features from the first pages of the Scripture.  When God had created man, the crown of his creative activitiy, it was in a garden that he chose to place him.  (Gen 2:8, 15)

The garden theme occurs throughout the Bible, sometimes in the literal sense, and others in the figurative sense.  Reflection on both these approaches to the garden can enrich our appreciation of its significance and perhaps give us some insight into the role that the garden plays in God’s creation, and therefore in our own lives.

The hebrew word for garden ‘gan’ comes from the verb  ’ganan’ which means to surround., protect, defend.  Thus a garden was usuallly a place surrounded by wall or hedges and so protected and set apart for the owners.  King usually had garden around their palaces and king’s garden is menitioned a number of places.  (Ether 1:5, 2 Kings 25:4, Eccles 2:5)

All the bible plants grown naturally in Misiones.  So it was decided to avail of this blessing and create a Bible Garden.  This has great potential as an eco-tourism project and as a place of spiritual refreshment and as a source of vegetables and fruits for the three homes.  It is hoped to grow in the garden, some of the trees, plants and flowers that feature in the Bible.  The garden actually consists of five individual gardens.

• Garden of the Song of Songs: This is a series of love poems, in which the two lovers are now united, now divided, now sought, now found.  It has been accepted as an elaborate allegory of the love story of God and his people.  This Bible garden will try to creates the story in the trees, plants and flowers.
• Garden of Olives: The Garden of Olives was seperated from the Garden Of Gethsemani by a road and was higher up the mountain.  It was open and smaller than the pleasure garden of Gethsemani.  It was full of grottos, terraces and olive trees.  There were seats, benches and roomy caverns suitable for prayer.  Whoever wished, might find a place suitable for prayer and meditation, but Christ chose the wildest spot to pray.
• Garden of Gethsemani: The Garden of Gethsemani on Mount Olivet was a recreational park surrounded by a hedge.  It contained some magnificent shrubbery, and many fruit trees.
• Garden of Calvary: Two gardens and two trees, stand at the still point of the creation and redemption, with joy and sorrow past beauty.  Jesus on the Cross is the tree of life. The limited space of the cross, freely accepted by Christ, spanned the gap between heaven and earth.  It is through that space we must all go some day to reach the promised land in resurrection.
• Garden of the Resurrection: It is not without significance that in one of the first resurrection appearances, Jesus is taken to be a gardener (Jn 21:15).  In our garden, we have recreated the empty tomb as it was in a graveyard that the best news was given to the world.

At present, substantial work has been completed on the Garden of Calvary and the Garden of the resurrection and we have planted the first vineyard.  The grape, being one of the important fruits of the Holy Land, recurs throughout the Bible.  It is first found in the story of Noah (Gen 9:20); it was one of the fruits brought back to Moses to show the fertility of the Promised Land (Num 13:21-24); the prophets use it as a symbol of the fruit of the vine which ‘gladdens the heart of man’ (107) and Jesus speaks of himself as the Vine (Jn 15:1-6).  Vines were usually grown on terraced slopes surrounded by thieves.  Like the fig, they were also grown over the doorways to give shade.  When a vineyard became unproductive it was abandoned and the dry vines were used for fuel and for making charcoal  (Ezek 15:4; Jn 15:6).

The Promised Land is described in Bible as the Land of Milk and Honey (Exodus 3:8) and we have installed our own beehives and are producing our own honey which is used by our own residents which is providing great nutrition.