04 May Anchor and Emmanuel Team for Relandscaping Project

Some of the workers. Pastor Tim Hallman of Anchor is third from the right, and Pastor Bob Bruce (Emmanuel) is second from the left.

On Saturday, April 22, landscaping trucks and equipment and about 30 workers descended on Third Street in Fort Wayne, where they relandscaped five homes. This was a joint project between two United Brethren churches: Anchor Community Church, which is located on Third Street, and Emmanuel Community Church. The crew cleaned up yards, laid lots of fresh mulch, put in new plants, raked up leaves, and generally left the homes looking great.
Pastor Tim Hallman of Anchor and Chris Moore, an associate staffperson at Emmanuel, initiated the project. But Tom Clounie, an elder at Emmanuel who owns a large landscaping company, Clounie Landscaping, then made it happen. Hallman identified five homes along Third Street and talked to the owners for permission to relandscape their yards. Tom then brought in the equipment and organized the work. They started early that Saturday morning and finished by noon.
About 15 people from Anchor participated. The others came from Emmanuel, with Tom Clounie adding a few of his regular employees.
Anchor Community Church started in 1998 with a core group of about 40 people from Emmanuel. The church had existed there since the 1930s as Third Street UB church. It was closed in May 1998 for five months, underwent extensive renovations, and then reopened with new leadership and a new vision in October 1998.
For more photos from the project, follow the link below.

With all the equipment, nobody in the neighborhood could miss the fact that something big was happening.

Sweeping up after completing one of the homes.

Pastor Tim Hallman of Anchor (left) with Chris Moore, one of the staff ministers at Emmanuel.

One of the homes after the landscaping was finished. Notice the fresh mulch and the new plants around the front of the house.

Tom Clounie using a tractor to remove old mulch, leaves, and debris.

Another one of the homes after the work was done.

And finally, a well-deserved meal back at Anchor.