CAEP, missionaries unite to plant Lynn church garden

LYNN – The land surrounding the Zion Baptist Church will be sparkling this summer thanks to the efforts of church missionaries and local youths from the city of Lynn.Members of the College Application Education Project in Lynn joined teen missionaries from the Passport Missionary Group out of Alabama this month to conduct a clean-up of the church grounds and get efforts for a new community garden off the ground.Passport Missionaries is a group that visits the Zion Church, located on Adams Street Extension, every year, so it was a natural fit for the group to team up with CAEP, which recently moved its headquarters into the church.”They have been coming to Zion for many years to do community service, so it was a natural fit for us. They are very, very capable people,” said CAEP Founder Arthur Akers. “At CAEP our students work hard on community service, so we worked with them to clean up the area.”The two groups, totaling more than 30 students, helped clean up the grounds of the church, powerwash the building and get started on a community garden that CAEP hopes to complete this summer.On the heels of successful urban gardens at the Ingalls and Ford elementary schools, Akers and his group have been working with the Food Project to put together a similar effort at the Zion Church.Volunteers and summer workers helped to weed and dig up the garden area and prepare the land for an eventual harvest that Akers says could happen later this year.”It was real helpful in what has been a real trying time and during a tough transition for us over to Zion,” he said. “We are very gracious for the help of the food project and for the help of Passport.”CAEP, which provides tutoring, help with college applications, summer work and community service opportunities for middle and high school aged students, moved to Zion Baptist Church this Spring after several years at the United Methodist Church on Union Street.