Award winning prayer garden @ Creekside Church of the Brethren
February 20, 2012
For Immediate release

The award-winning Creekside Prayer Garden is open to the public every day year around. Water features are in operation from mid April through mid October. Photo: Judy De Pue/New Vistas Landscaping

Elkhart, Indiana -- Creekside Church’s Prayer Garden design wins the 2011 Indiana Nursery and Landscaping Association in the Landscape Commercial Design Build category awarded in January 2012.

This unique prayer garden was designed to create a place where sensory cues help people to focus on being in God’s presence. The site chosen by the designer was a
gently sloping grassy corner of the church property, facing a towering sycamore that overlooks a neighboring tree lawn, and borders a Concord township cemetery. The church wanted an outdoor, “set apart” place, conducive to prayer and meditation.

In our designer’s research into meditation gardens, the importance of different ways to use the garden became significant. According to Elizabeth Murray who led a workshop on her book, Sacred Spaces, a leader would stand in the garden to develop their ideas, while a teacher would sit and meditate. A visionary would reflect while they stroll along the paths, and a healer would benefit from a spot where they could lay prone in the garden. The design for this Prayer Garden includes areas to meet all of these needs including a slightly sloping artificial turf area for lying still, next to the lower pond.

The Prayer Garden was designed and built by Creekside Church of the Brethren member Judy De Pue owner of New Vistas Landscaping of Goshen, Indiana.

The garden is located behind the Creekside Church of the Brethren on CR 113 in Elkhart County between CR 28 and CR 26 via a paved path and open to the public at no charge every day. Water features in the Prayer Garden are in operation from mid April through mid October.

Creekside Church of the Brethren is located on CR 113 in the Dunlap area of the City of Elkhart. For more about Creekside Church visit our website at: www.creeksideconnected.com.

Contact: Pastor Janet Shaver
Telephone: 574-875-7800
Email Address:

Photos available here

For more information contact the church newsroom at