May It Be

Life is a Journey, a beautiful adventure. It climbs and falls like a great mountain range. We encounter tranquility and danger; challenge and intrigue. Perhaps this is why my favorite genre of film happens to be fantasy epics. I remember well the first date with my wife, Laura.  We went and saw Star Wars: A New Hope. Yet, I think my favorite fantasy epic is The Lord of the Rings.

The essence of this film is capture concisely by the Irish singer, Enya, in her song, “May It Be.” The lyrics written by Roma Ryan, encapsulate the Journey. They are:

-May it be an evening star Shines down upon you -May it be when darkness falls Your heart will be true -You walk a lonely road Oh! How far you are from home -Mornie utúlie (darkness has come) -Believe and you will find your way -Mornie alantie (darkness has fallen) -A promise lives within you now

-May it be the shadows call Will fly away -May it be your journey on To light the day -When the night is overcome You may rise to find the sun -Mornie utúlie (darkness has come) -Believe and you will find your way -Mornie alantie (darkness has fallen) -A promise lives within you now -A promise lives within you now

I will often listen to this song when I get to my office in the morning. It reminds me that I am on a journey and I need to stay true to the Light, guided by the Morning Star. But it is also a reminder that there is a promise which is living and growing in me. The seed of the Gospel is that which, when nurtured, produces a wonderful bouquet of righteousness in our lives. It is this hope of growth than keeps me journeying on with great expectations of what the Lord might lead me to next. There is nothing better than going on The Journey with Jesus.

Stream Team

Here at Trinity Church we have put together a Stream Team. We are not the kind of team that shags flies, but the kind that catches bugs and other invertebrates from the bottom of a stream. We have partnered with the West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC) to monitor the lower end of Rush Creek. Rush Creek is a part of the lower Grand River Water Shed which the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality wants to carefully monitor. However, state funds are quite limited for these types of projects right now so we thought that we could provide the personnel that are needed to do the job. We also feel that we have been called to be good stewards of God's Creation and want to get more involved in making sure that our local water shed is healthy and clean.

Kristi Klomp, Water Quality Programs Coordinator at WMEAC, came to Trinity at 9:00 Saturday morning and set up a classroom. For the first hour she showed us a power point which described the invertebrates that we would be looking for. Then we pulled on our waders and headed to Rush Creek which runs just a block west of our church. Once in the stream Kristi taught us how to catch the critters we were looking for by disturbing the stream bed in front of our nets. We emptied the contents of the nets into wash tubs and gave them to members of the Stream Team that were waiting on the bank. They would carefully go through the contents and sort out all of the invertebrates that they could find. They would take the different invertebrates and put them in separate sections of an ice cube tray so that they could easily be counted.

We continued up stream collecting samples for 100 yards. We found Caddisflies, Stoneflies and Mayflies. There were also leaches, snails, clams and even a dragon fly larvae. We were all amazed at how much life there is on the bottom of Rush Creek.

There is a theological document called the Belgic Confession, written about 500 years ago, which says that every animal is a letter of God's creation alphabet which tells us of God's nature. Maybe the insects we found are not the capitals of the alphabet, but they still give you a glimpse of God. Each letter in the ice cube tray is certainly worth preserving so that we can continue to discover God under every rock we might turn over. Our Stream Team is trying to make sure Rush Creek keeps teaching us about God and his creation.

Compost Barrel

In an effort to be a bit more eco-friendly around our house I have come up with a barrel composter to convert our organic waste into something quite useful. We hope to take our kitchen waste, lawn clippings, leaves and other organic material and fill up our barrel. Then after it "cooks" for a few weeks, empty it out and start over again. In this way we hope to not have to use a local yard waste service and be able to put out less trash on the curb.

The composter is really simple to make. It took just one plastic barrel, one 8 ft. 2x4 and one 8ft. 2x6, a 26" steel pipe and one 38" 2.5" PVC pipe. I ran the PVC pipe through the length of the barrel and it sticks out of both the top and bottom. The PVC is filled with 3/8 " holes so that there will be plenty of air movement through the barrel to help composting. I drilled several holes around the top and the bottom of the barrel for more air movement. The steel pipe runs right through the middle of the barrel and sits on a cradle I made out of wood. It is easy to rotate the barrel to mix up the material inside. I'm sure it will do what it is supposed to do, but I'll have to wait and see just how good it works. I'll make sure that I keep everybody com-posted. It's fun being green. -Gerry