TULSA, Okla. — At 2,500 degrees, a hammer’s strike can turn cold metal into something new. But at Tulsa Metropolitan Ministries’ Guns-to-Gardens program, the metal doesn’t just change shape; it becomes a second chance.
For four years, the ministry has been transforming hundreds of weapons into tools that nurture life, offering a unique path from violence to healing.
“As you’re transforming the shape, you can think about the intentions of healing, and transforming the energy from violence to healing,” said a participant in the program.
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The ministry accepts firearms from community members for various reasons.
“People want to turn them in sometimes because they’ve inherited the guns… they will bring us a firearm,” organizers explained.
On Nov. 8, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Forest Park Christian Church, anyone can turn in a gun to be forged into garden tools during the Guns-to-Gardens event.
Tulsa Metropolitan Ministries
“This is a purpose of healing and being able to transform that work into a tool that will grow life rather than take life,” said a program volunteer.
Crista Patrick, the ministry’s executive director, says the act of forging is deeply personal. Her husband and many of the blacksmiths are veterans, and this work honors loss by creating something that heals.
“There is a high percentage of veterans that end their time on this earth through suicide… so it was especially poignant to be able to do this work to help people heal those that are left behind from gun violence,” Patrick said.
Tulsa Metropolitan Ministries
After each event, blacksmiths carefully reshape the metal into shovels and hoes — each strike deliberate, each curve purposeful. Once the guns are transformed into garden tools, they are given back to survivors of gun violence as a symbol of planting a new beginning.
“Getting to actually hit that metal and have your own transition… feeling that the metal gives way and mold, can be really, really transformational… being able to state the name of someone they’ve lost can be very powerful,” Patrick said.
The program represents metal made into tools that grow life — and stories that keep growing, too.
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