Recent News

Don't throw away your tangled, frayed  or burned-out Christmas lights this year! This holiday season, the Village of Downers Grove is offering recycling of Christmas tree lights and extension cords.

A receptacle is available at the Public Works Facility, 5101 Walnut Ave through February 1, 2014. Items may be dropped off, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Acceptable items are: Mini-lights (also known as Italian lights); C7 lights; C9 lights; Rope lights; LED lights; and Extension cords.

Visit the Village of Downers Grove website for more details.

Thank you to the entire congregation for your contributions to the Giving Tree this year. We took two carloads of gifts to ChildServ and another two carloads to the People's Resource Center. Your gifts help make Christmas brighter for so many children. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

We will continue to collect clothing items for PADs into the new year. Please bring any donations to the office. Thank you!

We are putting together a team of volunteers who have a passion for Youth Ministry. We will provide any necessary training - no experience needed. Our Youth Ministry is growing and God's Spirit is moving. Please contact JJ for more information.

Timmy (The name means one who honors God) traces his genealogy back to the Andes Mountains of Peru, South America. Timmy’s ancestors’ last name was originally Tomatl, which meant round and plump to the Aztecs. In the 16th Century, Spanish conquistadores took the tomatoes back to Europe with them. In the 18th Century, tomatoes were brought to Quebec and Louisiana by the French. Now the tomato is the most widely grown fruit (Yes, technically Timmy is a fruit.) in the Americas.

Timmy and his relatives suffer and die if the weather is too cold. For Timmy to fulfill his career objective of being a food relished by others and eaten as part of the earth’s ecosystem, he must be grown in a warm climate. Some of Timmy’s second cousins are grown in local greenhouses, and spend much more of their life in the warm confines of their home than on the road. However, Timmy, a Better Boy tomato, was conceived in California and transported to Chicago to fulfill his career objective. In fact, 40% of the world’s tomatoes are grown in California. At first, Timmy thought travel would be great. Then Timmy learned that to prepare for the trip he would have to be washed in chlorinated water, then dried with blasts of warm air and covered with wax. Timmy also learned about the large negative environmental impact this travel has on the earth and he became sad and no longer ripe for use. In particular, long-distance transportation of many of his Tomato family is contributing greatly to greenhouse gas emissions, air acidification, and smog. For example, global warming pollution for food transported by airplane is 500 times greater than pollution from transportation of locally grown foods!