Living green

The MB Herald asked several readers, “As a Christian, how do you live in an environmentally friendly way?” Here are their responses.

Working to restore the beauty of creation. Native plant garden, Saanich Community Church, Victoria. Photo: Burl Jantzen

Restoring natural habitats

I’m involved in habitat restoration on the west coast of Canada as an expression of stewardship, worship, gratitude, and praise to the Creator!

On Vancouver Island, B.C., Garry oak ecosystems are threatened by urban development and invasive, non-native plants. So, I work to restore.

In October, kneeling in rain-soaked moss to pull Scotch broom seedlings seems like a futile task. But visiting the same meadow in spring reveals beautiful wildflowers that have benefitted from this labour.

Habitat restoration is also taking place on the church property at Saanich Community Church, Victoria. On this site, mature trees hint at the plant community that existed prior to development. Assisted by my son and others, we built a fence, spread mulch, and created a native plant garden. As native shrubs and perennials are added and the garden matures, the site is being redeemed.

For me, this garden is a spiritual metaphor, a reminder of the Master Gardener’s work in restoring vitality and beauty to the degraded landscape of our lives.

—Burl Jantzen

Gleaning the fields

In 1999, I was introduced to the Fraser Valley Gleaners (FVG), a non-profit Christian charity in B.C. My heart immediately responded to feeding hungry people in the world, since I had experienced hunger growing up in the Ukraine under a communist regime.

God has blessed Canadians with an abundant food supply and large quantities of produce, some of which remain unharvested or domestically unmarketable. FVG practices good stewardship of our land’s resources by utilizing such produce, combating both waste and need.

How do the Gleaners work? A variety of locally grown produce is donated by the agricultural industry. Volunteers then prepare the produce for drying. The fruits and vegetables are dehydrated and turned into dried soup mix or apple snacks. The finished products are packaged, put into 45-gallon drums, and made available to humanitarian organizations around the world. FVG produced more than seven million soup servings in 2005.

—Jake Martens

Farming organically

We operate an organic vegetable farm just south of Winnipeg. Eight of us work hard to nurture the land, air, and water entrusted to us by God.

Rather than using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, we farm organically. For example, we make our own “compost tea ” by brewing sheep manure in a barrel of water, and using it to water and fertilize young plants.

We’re also concerned about global warming. This winter, we embarked on our five-year plan to eliminate the use of fossil fuels on our farm, thus decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.

Our first endeavour concerned the greenhouse furnace. One of our partners collected used vegetable oil from various restaurants, processed it, then converted the furnace to use this bio-diesel fuel rather than oil.

Another way we work towards decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is by shortening the distance from where our food is grown to where it’s eaten. The average forkful of food Canadians eat has travelled more than 2,000 kilometres. Our food travels a maximum distance of 20 kilometres.

—Wilma and Dan Wiens