New life in the desert at San Juan Bautista Lutheran Church in Tucson

By Annette Chavez

There is new life in the desert here at San Juan Bautista Lutheran Church in Tucson, Arizona. Maria Martinez and her grandson, Mario, joined Pastor Mateo and yours truly. We worked together and planted seven gallon size trees. There are two palo verde trees for the to make shade on the south side of a building on our campus.

Farther afield, we put in four palo verde trees. They will complement some trees that are already there on our west side. Closer to the west side of the sanctuary, we put in a desert hackberry. I don’t know what it will look like but it is a desert xeriscape plant. They will need weekly watering for now, twice or three times a week in the summer for just the first year. Then they will be able to survive on their own.

We are so grateful to the school that donated them. And of course, our hard workers made this a breeze. Thank you to Maria and Mario, our church building is going to look even better.