Union Chapel's Creation Care Ministry

Last Sunday you got a chance to hear our own Nancy Tatum give her testimony about how Union Chapel is expanding ministry to positively in impact our environment and our community with God's own creation: 

"Nature shows us a God of supreme intelligence, beauty, and intricate detail.  All life flows in a rhythm.  God wants us to enjoy his creation… 

We have a responsibility on Earth to stand in God’s place.  To take care of what He entrusted to us.  We are the stewards and caregivers, of his creation.  Each of us has been given a privileged place among all creatures to exercise that stewardship over earth…not to damage it or to keep taking from it, but to help restore and maintain it. 

As Genesis 2:15  tells us: "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

When I was a very young child, my grandma owned a home just two houses to the west of here on 86^th St.  I remember this place……..and the wetlands, frogs, sounds of nature that would sing out in the summer.  I also remember this church being here… a country church at the time. Union Chapel and the nature around it had a big impact on my young life.

Today, we are very fortunate at Union Chapel to have five acres of land.  Imagine this land once again in harmony with God’s original design — a natural meadow that can be a native habitat for birds, bees and butterflies. Imagine, too, how attractive, and important such a place would be in our community… a place of respite, apart from the hustle of city living where the community can come for healthy exercise or contemplative walks, where children can play and learn about nature… a teaching garden where our neighbors can learn to grow their own food.

Think about it: Nora really has no parklike settings for families to enjoy… no places to learn about nature. With development encroaching closer and closer to our property every year, this space is one of the few where such a thing might ever exist.

Here’s what we are proposing: A garden ministry to create a multi-phase project that could eventually involve 1.5 of Union Chapel’s five acres to restore meadow and habitat — and to create a teaching garden for our preschool and neighborhood, as well as a food forest with Indiana-native fruiting trees. With the help of local grants, the plan could even include a handicapped-accessible 1k walking path and contemplative gardens.

The mission of Union Chapel’s Creation Care Ministry will be to connect people of faith with God’s creation.

Our GOAL is to engage Union Chapel members, our IFAA and preschool families, and the local community in caring for and about all of God’s creation.

In restoring a portion of our property to a native habitat, we are showing God’s love and generosity — inviting the community to stop and smell the flowers, to see birds raise their young, to experience butterflies up close, to learn how to grow their own food, and to see how a unified ecosystem serves God’s purpose.

This will certainly be a long-term project, but we aren’t alone. We have initiated partnerships with the DNR, Marion County Soil & Water and clubs like INPAWS.  All of them offer grant money that is available to help with a project like this.

This rough drawing above shows the areas on our property where the project might have an impact. Of course, this is a working document and the final result may look a bit different. Many variables — like the proposed building project — may alter the plan. But, the dream is the same."

We would like to invite you to be a part of our Creation Care Ministry. We will need your help and most of all your enthusiasm!  Please give it some thought and prayer time.  If you feel passionate about our impact on this Earth and would like to make a positive change here at Union Chapel, there are many ways to get involved!

Sign up here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b084cafa922a0f85-creation

We already have neighboring schools and organizations on board for our first work weekend on March 10^th and 11^th between noon – 4:00 p.m.  Join us to build nest boxes and raised bed boxes.  Another way you can help is to bring a drill, shovel or work gloves we can use those days. Have a bad back? Make a snack for our workers! And we would love your prayers and your moral support by stopping by to say hello.