Lodi News Sentinel Article
Ever see a big black gorilla in the south end of Lodi?
You can now - at the entrance of The Home Church, on West Lane between Armstrong and Eight Mile Road.
The gorilla can be found at the entrance to a new attraction called Noah's Park. It is open to the public, not just members of the congregation.
Noah's Park has a theme of an ark of the same name. There's a plastic ark which children can climb on, and some artificial animals.
As Pastor Tim Pollock admits, the staff took some poetic license by having fewer animals at his park than Noah took on his ark. Critters you can find around the ark include two hippos, a gorilla, a bay elephant and a giant turtle. And today, two giraffes are scheduled to be installed through the roof of the two-story ark.
Pollock said he wanted to construct not only a family-oriented playground, but one that is biblically based.
"We really have a goal to strengthen families," Pollock said about his church's philosophy. "I really believe that God placed in our heart to make something for children that is extra special."
Jonah Fogg, 5, glides down the slide as he plays on Noah's Park at The Home Church on Sunday.
Associate Pastor Luke Pollock, Tim's son, noted that the original ark took Noah 120 years to build, was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.
Noah's Park, at The Home Church, took only nine months to build. It's 35 feet long, 15 feet wide and 15 feet high.
The playground can accommodate up to 75 children with its nine play features, Luke Pollock said. Features include a climbing wall, bounce buttons, slides, swings, crawl spaces and life-sized animals.
There is also a fenced toddler playground area with a specially designed play structure and colorful, impact-absorbing tiles for children 2 through 5 years old. The main ark is for youngsters 5 through 12.
There are also some seats for parents to watch their children and socialize with other parents, Tim Pollock said.
Church volunteers did all the labor installing the ark, which was built with 30,000 pounds of recycled plastic and steel and more than 200 yards of bark, said John Burnett, the church's volunteer construction building foreman.
