The Treehouse Community Garden

We recently were given the opportunity to work with The Treehouse Community on their plans for a community garden in the Baxter neighborhood.  The Treehouse Community is a group of individuals living in a home together that is focused on praying, sharing, growing and ministering to each other and their neighbors by attending to physical needs as well as emotional and spiritual ones.  Their vision is to create a shared green space in the Baxter neighborhood, where currently there are no sources for nutritious, affordable food within walking distance, making it an official "food desert."  Wayne was able to sit down with them and sketch design ideas for bringing their vision to life.  Here is what he came up with, as well as some photos of the drawing session....

 Site Plan

 Aerial Perspective

 Shed Concept A - Perspective

 Shed Concept A - Elevation

Shed Concept B - Perspective

The plans for the garden include twelve raised vegetable beds intended to be used by families in the area.  The Treehouse Community is also planning to partner with The Baxter Community Center to teach gardening, nutrition, cooking, and canning classes to all ages.


We were happy to partner with them and hopefully achieve their goal, as stated on their blog, to "see God's kingdom advance here on earth, starting with a few seeds, a bit of soil, some water, and the sun."


For more information on this project, please visit The Treehouse Community's blog - treehousegarden.wordpress.com.

Faith in Deeds Ministry Campus in India

We recently had the opportunity to work on a project with a ministry in India called Faith in Deeds.  Faith in Deeds Inc. is a faith-based, not-for-profit organization committed to the support of disenfranchised children of India by providing the children with a family atmosphere in which they can be discipled in the way of the Lord Jesus, by educating them in a manner that they can make properly informed life-decisions based on a Biblical world view, and by inspiring them to love each other and to share the love of Jesus throughout their community.  

Faith in Deeds was able to purchase a 5 acre parcel of land in Andhra Pradesh, India, and Visbeen Associates worked with them to design a new campus that includes a boy's dorm, girl's dorm, playground, community center & clinic, Christian school and green space for gardening and raising animals.  The first phase of the project will be the boy's and girl's dorm.

  Their current rented ministry location

 How the children currently sleep in their dorm rooms. Very typical in the local culture.

The crowded city

 Children from the FID home with the founder of the ministry, Thomas Mollhagen (originally from South India, adopted into a family from Grand Rapids, MI) and his wife Dana.

 Their newly acquired land for the new campus with a corn field on the border of the property

 The pump and irrigation pool on the property with kids from the FID home

 Taking a tour of the land with the kids on the day they dedicated it to the work of the Lord

 Our design concept for the new campus

We will keep you updated on the progress of this project here on our blog and on our facebook page, so check back!

For more information on the ministry, visit Faith in Deeds' website - www.faithindeeds.org - or facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Faith-In-Deeds-USA/339566304349?ref=ts.

Madie's Castle Wish Comes True

VAI Working drawings for the castle design

Madie celebrating the completion of her castle play house!

10-year-0ld Madie Flores

Under Construction

Helpers putting the finishing touches on the play house in Madie's backyard

Harry Miller holding VAI's drawings in front of the under construction play house