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A Rocha has been partnering with World Vision for the past three years to provide families on low income with programming that connects them to food, community and creation. We recently hosted “From the Ground Up” — a Spring Break day camp at our Brooksdale Environmental Centre that welcomed many children from the Umoja Operation Compassion Society in North Surrey. Umoja runs after-school programming for children from new immigrant families. We also hosted a couple of families who live in a local RV park.

The jam-packed camp included a cooking class, bird-watching, sing-a-longs, planting blueberry bushes and exploring a nearby forest. Interestingly, some of the children were afraid to go in the forest, making us realise that many of them had never in their lives walked through the woods! One spiritually savvy child even said, “We should pray before we go in there!” But the children conquered their fears, enjoying the sights and sounds of God’s creation, even in its wooded wildness.

June 10^th was A Rocha’s 10-year anniversary celebration. I had been desperately preparing the new website, signage and other marketing material for our big event.  Maybe you can even imagine my last minute print jobs, website tweaks and stress. Lindsey could share the story well from the perspective of an outsider.  Anyway, the day was beautiful and 400 people showed up at A Rocha to celebrate 10 years , to hear our founders speak, to eat great food and to watch salmon being released into the Little Campbell River (on the Brooksdale property).

One fellow in that crowd of 400 was Travis.  His sister-in-law was a friend of Lindsey’s and it was their first time to A Rocha.  Before I even knew who he was, he came over to our new website booth and was genuinely eager to take a look and encourage my work (and the marketing agency of course). We connected a few more times that day because he had helped install some of the signage that was designed by our marketing team.

It is now the fall of 2011 and Travis is on staff with A Rocha using his handy-man skills! He has made numerous renovations to our heritage buildings and was eager to participate in the call to care for creation.

This story is significant because Travis and I have become good friends.  What is more significant is that I did not realize how much I needed a friend like Travis at A Rocha.  I now know what it means to carry each other’s burdens because of the way I interact with Travis.  Travis shares a desire to communicate the oh-so-difficult essence of A Rocha to more Christians.

We have great prices and a wide selection of native plants for your garden!  Also included is an optional tour at 12:30 of our Brooksdale Centre property (located on 16th Ave & 192nd St in South Surrey).  Plant sale times for both days: 10 AM – 2:30 PM.

When?
Saturday April 14th from 10:00am – 2:30pm
Saturday May 12th from 10:00am – 2:30pm

Where?
A Rocha’s Brooksdale Environmental Centre

19353 16th Ave

Surrey, BC V3S 9V2

What?
Variety of native plants like….

Pacific Rhododendron
Huckleberry
Blueberry
Coastal Strawberry
Maidenhair fern
Deer fern
Bleeding Heart
Oregon Grape
Indian Plum
Oregon Iris
Lupine
Pacific Dogwood
Vine Maple

A Rocha Community Organizer, Peter Scholtens, will be giving participants a brief introduction to A Rocha and our work in Hamilton. We will do a walk through a heavily urbanized area to the community centre, which hosts a tool lending library. Then we will discuss what was seen on the walk, talk about a few more local issues, and then talk about international environmental justice issues.

When: February 24^th, 10:30am

Where: Jamesville Community Centre, 209 MacNab St. North, Hamilton, ON L8R 2M5

Learn more about the Seek Justice Conference by clicking the link below.

http://truecityhamilton.ca/posts/2011/justice-through-environmental-stewardship/

As the executive director of A Rocha Canada, it has been my privilege to attend A Rocha’s International Leader’s Forums and meet fellow “A Rochaites” from around the world. Having been raised in Nepal and having an affinity for that part of the world, I formed a particular friendship and appreciation for the founder and leader of A Rocha India, Dr. Vijay Arnand, a man of great passion and kindness.  It was therefore a great shock and sadness to learn of his sudden death on 21 December, following a cerebral hemorrhage. Vijay was an inspiring team leader and a very talented specialist in large mammal research. You can read about his passion for elephant conservation in the latest copy of A Rocha International News.

Please join us in thanking God for Vijay’s life, and in praying for his widow, Sunita, his son Roshan (aged 10) and daughter Alisha (aged 6).

Could you also remember Rev Prem Mitra, the Chair of A Rocha India, and the rest of the team, as they begin to plan for the future.

Peace,

Markku

Title: Caring for God’s World with Prophetic Hope

Presenter: Rick Faw
Seminar Type: Adult Seminar

Description: All over the globe environmental challenges are rising steadily. How can Christians engage these serious issues with hope rather than despair? How might churches respond in ways that are practical and prophetic? This seminar will briefly outline the Scriptural warrant for creation care while illustrating how urgently communities everywhere need this neglected aspect of Christian mission.

Date/Time: Saturday January 28th, 2012–12:30 PM
Room Number: Room 09, room Capacity: 90

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Title: A God Filled Life: The Kingdom of God in Everything

Presenter: David and Shauna Anderson
Seminar Type: Adult Seminar

Description: The story is too often told, the presence of God in people’s passions and callings pushed aside in order to ‘put God first’ through mission work, later through painful experience (and bitterness) missions is set aside. This seminar focuses on preparing for mission through understanding the scope of God’s kingdom, which is as large as life itself.

Date/time: Saturday Jan. 28, 2012–12:30 PM
Room Number: Room 10 Room Capacity: 105

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Title: Opening Windows to God’s Wonderful World

Presenter: Ruth DesCotes
Seminar Type: Grades 4/5

Description: Engaging children directly in the world around them is basic to awareness of global needs. This workshop provides experiential learning where children encounter God in His creation and catch His vision to care for children living on the margins. Through a hands-on interactive program, they will learn how to make a difference and contribute to the well-being of people in other parts of the world.

Presenter’s Bio: Ruth has over twenty-five years experience in the area of children’s education as a teacher, early childhood educator, and Christian education co-coordinator. She also has a background in camping, wilderness canoetripping and outdoor education. Ruth is working to create children’s programs for camps, churches and other communities. She lives at the A Rocha Brooksdale Environmental Centre in South Surrey with her husband Rob.

Date/time: 10:15 – 12:00 noon
Room Number:  Hall A, level 1

Dear fellow Creation Keepers

 It is time once again for an update. Some of you may have received a shortened version that I send out as my yearly newsletter. If you did not and would like to please let me know and I will put you on the mailing list of my personal supporters. Better yet come over for home grown mint tea and cherries and I’ll fill in some of the details.

A good start and a leap of faith

2011 started off right with a trip to Brooksdale Environmental Centre in Surrey, home to A Rocha Canada. Times with my colleagues (who are also my friends) are such a blessing and my trips to Surrey are a quiet eddy amidst the busy-ness of my life. At this year’s A Rocha staff retreat I took a huge leap of faith. Literally. I climbed a ladder, stood on a
tiny platform with one of my colleagues and lept through the air to a trapeze 10 feet out. Unfortunately I did not catch the trapeze…but have no fear, I had a wonderful ground crew holding onto the rope attached to my harness and I floated down to safety with nary an incident. With so many metaphors about life as a Christian, working and living within community and the challenges of living so far away from the support network that is A Rocha I will be unpacking this experience for years to come. I returned inspired, challenged, refreshed and ready for a new year of creation keeping in Houston.

Thinking globally

It’s sometimes hard to think bigger than our immediate circumstances with so many things vying for our immediate attention. But what we do locally is so interconnected with what
happens on a global scale that we can not do one without the other. This year I had the exciting opportunity to think both denominationally and globally as a member of the Creation Stewardship Task Force for the Christian Reformed Church of North America.

The good people on the Creation Stewardship Task Force

In February we were given the daunting task of presenting recommendations to Synod 2012 (the governing body of the Christian Reformed Church in North America) for church, individual and denominational action on creation care, with a particular focus on climate change. The group, consisting of scholars, scientists, lay folk and CRC staff, all worked well together despite differences and came up with what I feel to be an excellent document. With three 16 hour (one way) trips to Grand Rapids, hours of conference calls, writing, editing, commenting and discussing it was one of the most challenging and satisfying projects I have been involved with in my entire life.

Our report is up on the Synod website (www.crcna.org go to the resources link and find Synod Resources) and our only action now is to wait for the churches to review it and find out whether Synod will adopt or reject our recommendations or send them back for revision in June of 2012.

Acting Locally

Upper Bulkley Streamkeepers

This year I continued my efforts to be a streamkeeper of the Upper Bulkley watershed that runs right  through Houston, by volunteering with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on overwintering studies and doing a baseline survey of a short portion of Buck
Creek. Since this creek was once a spawning ground for Salmon I am curious to see if it could be again. As we wandered from the mouth, where it  meets the Little Bulkley River, towards the town of Houston it became apparent that alterations have been made. The natural meandering of the stream entered the straight rigid  walls of a dyke and the forest became a walkway, cleared of trees and shrubs. Both the dyke and the clear banks are vital to protect the town from the yearly spring floods and to allow for easy access to keep the bridges clear of floating debris. We discussed several things that could be done to make this area more habitable for salmon while still keep the integrity of the dyke and I was reminded that sometimes it may feel difficult to balance the needs of wildlife with those of humans but it is possible and absolutely necessary. When we try to pit one against the other nobody wins.

As an added bonus of volunteering I am now working as a casual employee of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans giving presentations to five schools in the Houston, Burns Lake, and Granisle area as part of their Stream to Sea Program. If you pray please pray for the adjustments our family is working through as I go back to work at a “real job”  for the first time in 12 years. It is a wonderful job that gives me the chance to do what I love (teach about caring for the earth), still have time to spend at home (it’s only 2 days a week with school holidays off), and contribute significantly more to our family’s finances (helping us to work towards debt free living).

I am still able to work with A Rocha and it also frees any fundraising efforts to be put towards travel. Next year I hope to be even better at keeping in touch with and encouraging Christians working on conservation projects in the North by Northwest.

Bulkley Valley Christians in Conservation

Considered north by my Surrey colleagues Houston is actually only half way up this beautiful province of ours. And although I am not able to cover everything north of Surrey one of my goals this year was to bring my work closer to home and try to connect with more people between Prince George and Prince Rupert (still an 800 km distance between the towns).

One of my incredible joys has been a developing friendship with Curt and Betsy Gesch in Telkwa (just 50 km west of Houston). Betsy and I were on the UNBC chaplaincy committee for the past few years and her wisdom and encouragement are a blessing to me. Curt’s passion for creation care and his wacky way of ignoring what others think and experimenting with growing plants and trying activities that others say can’t be done is an inspiration.
One delightful day Curt (sensing my need for some time away from my children) invited them to spend the day at his hobby farm. After baking cookies, picking peas, going on a nature walk, collecting eggs and butchering a rooster they decided the day was not complete without making a haystack with a giant cardboard box and a roll of string. Needless to say my children can’t wait to visit Mr. Gesch again.

One Sunday afternoon over a  cup of relationship coffee (see www. relationshipcoffee.biz) my friend and I were sharing how we felt so alone in our journey as creation keepers here in the North. Since perception is often not reality I decided try to prove us wrong. I went back to my list of Christians I knew who are working on conservation in some way or another and was pleasantly surprised that after 7 years of building up a network in the Bulkley Valley there were 20 people that came to mind. Pulling these busy people together proved to be a challenge but after two disappointing turn outs (1 and 3 people) a group of 10 finally  gathered over a wonderful eclectic potluck dinner and discussion prompted by the book For the Beauty of the Earth.

The plan is to meet informally several times throughout the year to share what we are working on and pray for each other. If you pray please join us in praying for conservation work in northern B.C. And if you know of anyone in the area who might be interested in joining us for good discussion, fellowship and of course yummy food please let me know.

I was also invited join Curt Gesch at his church in Telkwa to share during a service he was leading reflecting on our call to be keepers of the earth as God keeps us based on passages in Hosea. What a blast. I love doing this kind of thing and was honored to be allowed to share with congregations. Since then we’ve been able to “take our show on the road” and present at both Terrace and Prince George CRC.  If you know of more churches who might like to explore creation care I welcome your suggestions and prayers.

HOPE

After a year and a half of hard work HOPE finally became a non-profit society and held its first annual general meeting early in 2011. My job as secretary became official and I continued to volunteer as Market Manager for the Pleasant Valley Community Market and as Project Coordinator for the composting education project.

With 8-10 dedicated vendors and a few floating in and out each week this year’s market was the best yet. Better signage solved our parking woes and freed up more time for visiting and
promoting the market. Since this was my fifth year involved as the market manager I have decided to step down and let someone else take over the reigns. Next year we hope to be able to hire a market manager and I am positive that a fantastic candidate will be found to bring the market along on the next leg of its journey. I am excited to have more time to explore my creative side and become a vendor myself. Watch for cards and other “Recyclogic” products that I will be selling as fundraisers for A Rocha. (Recyclogic products are made with as little new material as possible. It’s been a dream of mine to sell my ideas and products so this is a real treat.)

With a generous grant from the Regional District Bulkley-Nechako HOPE was able run a composting education program as part of a waste reduction initiative this year. With 40-50% of solid waste being compostable material we felt that teaching people to compost was the best way to reduce waste quickly. 20 people and all three elementary schools participated in “wormshops” learning to use red-wiggler worms to compost material in their homes and schools. ___ people participated in an outdoor composting workshop where they built an outdoor composter and learned how to use it. A big thank you go to Kara Jenne and Lori Koop for being fantastic instructors.

As the icing on the cake HOPE won the Go Green award for the second time in three years at the Chamber of Commerce Business Awards this year.

Nature Exploration Day Camp

Houston Christian Reformed Church hosted vacation bible school with a twist this year – A Rocha’s Nature Exploration Bible Camp (available at www.arocha.ca) one morning a week for 5 weeks all summer. Each day began with a few songs, a faith builder and a skit done by our fantastic youth on themes including birds, plants, mammals, water creatures and insects. Afterwards the children were divided amongst 4 rotating stations where they did a craft, hiked in the woods, played a game and learned a bible lesson. A highlight for me was watching one of the men from our congregation lead his group on a nature treasure hunt or dig through the garden soil to see what kind of six legged (or more) creatures they could find. Feedback from the parents was positive and the leaders found that once a week was less stressful than a full week blitz. The kids loved doing something a little out of the ordinary and had a blast playing and learning in God’s great outdoors.

Houston CRC garden

Our church garden continued for the third year in a row and some of us are actually getting the hang of this weeding and watering thing. This year the Meal-makers ministry had a garden plot and harvested over 100 pounds of potatoes to use for meals they cook every second Friday for seniors in our church and community. We also got a deer fence up so next year we can plant cabbages and other deer favorites without loosing as many to our four legged friends.

I read recently that “ministries can not function in isolation” and I am reminded again and again how important your financial and prayer support is to getting God’s work done. I so appreciate you.

I hope this finds you well and enjoying the winter.

Wishing you a very blessed, peaceful and rich Christmas season.

Cindy Verbeek

Northern B.C. Representative and Community Mobilizer

The second story is about a small church in Ottawa called Trinity Church of the Nazarene.  In April, we hosted a community gardening workshop called “The Plot Thickens” at this church.  The modest attendance was a bit discouraging but I was later joyfully surprised by something that goes beyond numbers.  This workshop inspired Christian communities to create gardens on their property and thereby engage their community, especially those with more vulnerable food needs.

The workshop that we conducted spurred on the Nazarene Church to build a 7000 square foot food garden in a high traffic area of their neighbourhood.  Members of their community regularly stop by to garden, watch, pick food or ask questions.  Listen to the words of the pastor:

“Well, we are at the end of our “trial year” of community gardening, and it seems that it was a great success . . . and A Rocha was a big part of it. Thanks again for being part of what we did. Your seminar early this year was the impetus that got us going. I’ve probably already told you that I thought that the seminar would spur discussion and that by now we’d be talking about how to get things going next year — little did I know that there would be such interest that we’d “jump right in”! (Pastor Frank)

I am excited about the impact they are having in Ottawa because it gives me hope for the future of A Rocha in Ontario! For all our friends in Ontario, I am sure that it will not be long before you are getting your hands in the Ontario dirt with A Rocha.

A Rocha’s Brooksdale Environmental Centre hosted our annual Christmas Open House this past Saturday.  Hundreds of “friends of A Rocha” joined us to celebrate. Hayrides and Christmas carols were some of the highlights!

We also had a draw for a lovely gift basket; congratulations to Arlene Harbrink for winning the prize. Thanks to all those that entered the draw and submitted your ideas for “greening” Christmas.  The list of ideas is posted below, please share them with your friends!

- Use newspaper as giftwrap and decorate it

- Don’t buy anything

- Stop buying Christmas Trees

- reuse cloth bags for gift wrapping

- rent a Christmas tree (live) or use Douglas Fir branches that are on the ground from storms

- I wrap my Christmas presents in my old school notes (which my family finds pretty amazing!)

- make your own gifts out of recycled or reused materials

- limit lights to accents and wrap gifts in newspaper

- reuse Christmas Cards as tags

- more events like the Christmas Open House at A Rocha, where “greening” is showcased

- recycle wrapping paper and reuse bows

- Stop shopping

- “Buy less..make memories”

- give lessons for gifts to reduce waste

- use artifical trees

- Use space heaters, sweaters and slippers

- Give a kitchen compost collector & bin

- Minimize purchases and packaging