Green Preacher's Creed

The Green Preachers Creed

We are a small group of theology students at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Shatin, Hong Kong. We feel that part of our jobs as church workers will to bring our congregations into closer contact with the natural world and make them aware of environmental issues.

We do this because we feel that it is part of God’s work. We believe that God has placed us on earth not to be exploiters of the planet but to be good stewards of creation. Psalm 8 puts it: You appointed them over everything you made; you placed them over all creation..(v. 6).

Perhaps the most common Biblical text chosen to direct us as stewards is found in Genesis 1: 27 - 28).

So God created human beings, making them to be like himself. He created them male and female, blessed them and said, “ Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control.” What we need to remember is that although God has placed us in his creation and given us everything, we are still to be creation’s managers. We do not own the eart, it still belongs to God. We are merely placed here as stewards to watch and care for it temporarily.

Dr. Jerry Schmalenberger writes that it should be like guarding something that has been loaned to us by a friend. We should take good care of it so that someday we can return it in as good a shape as when we borrowed it. The earth and its resources are not ours to do with what we please but loaned to us by God. We will be expected to give it back to him with an account of how we cared for it. (Schmalenberger,1987, p. 7)

In the creation story Adam and Eve are told that the creator God will require an accounting of their stewardship. What this tells us is that God is saying,” I have given you a world to live in, take care of and preserve for future generations; use is wisely will all the skill you have and love and manage it well.”

Unfortunately we have misinterpreted the scriptural admonition to “bring it under control” as justification to misuse and abuse our planet rather that guard, preserve and love it. Signs of this abuse are everywhere.

For Christians it should be a religious question to consider how to manage the resources, how we produce food, how mining is affecting the land, what we are doing about waste, and how we are harming the earth with uncontained development. (Schmalenberger,1987, p. 11)

We need to become aware of our relationship with God’s creation and how our pursuit of the “good life” is affecting the sustainability of the quality of life for everything on the planet.

Content Index

Green Preacher Blog

1) Green Preacher’s Creed
2) Index
3) Miracle leaf
4) Church Garden
5) Teaching about Hunger
6) Clean-air Game English
7) Clean-air game Burmese
8) Clean-air Game Chinese
9) Clean-air Game Philippines
10) Dealing with students with special Needs
11) Leaf Prints
12) Newspaper clippings
13) Environmental Stories
14) Shamrock
15) Environmental Hymns
16) Photography – designs in nature
17) Nature Hike
18) Creating a nature-friendly story
19) Symbols for life taken from nature
20) Extra
21) Extra
22) Extra
23) Extra
24) Reflections
25) References

Planting a Miracle leaf

On one of our nature hikes we discovered a Miracle Leaf plant growing at the side of the path. We picked a few leaves, placed them in a small clear plastic bag, added a piece of paper towel and a few drops of water and placed the leaves in a sunny window.

Within two weeks the leaf had sprouted tiny roots. in the following week the leaf had sprouted new plantlets. it was truly a miracle.

The Sunday school outing

The Church garden

Teaching about hunger

Clean-air game (English)

Clean-air game (Burmese)

Clean-air game (Chinese)

Clean-air game (Philippines)

Dealing with youth who have special needs

Connecting Students with Special Needs to the Environment

The benefit of connecting students both in school and in church to the natural environment both for education and leisure and recreation for student who has disability have received some empirical attention it could be positive change in relationship development and learning. Exposure to the natural environment develops their recreation skills. For giving them a short of period of outdoor activities to nearby natural places had profound benefits for individual to make a progress from their disabilities. Outdoor activities can assist individual to improve maintain physical and psychological health and well being. The purpose of these kinds of study and activity is to take a broad look at outdoor setting that contributes positively to children outdoor activities experience. The students with disability they consider it as wonderful part of their life and for them it is additional into knowledge for having exposed to the natural environment. Though, need to give more attention to them so that make sure that they will be enrich their learning experience. 90% of people with disability are capable of independent or semi-independent living, and all citizens, need to understand the impact of their actions to the natural environment. The learning experience may include their knowledge of environmental issues to help them understand the impact of their environmental decisions on community life.

Connecting Students with Special Needs to the Environment

Based on an article By Lynn Dominguez and Mary Lou Schilling in Green Teacher Magazine.

Environmental education may be necessary to assist in the development of environmental Stewardship. To the students with disability, they consider it luxury to the fact that they already have traditional subjects, and so they thought this additional education is impossible. Though, students with disability need to understand that these may supplement and enrich their learning experiences.

The Program

Program may run for 2 hours daily for a period of 5 weeks. This will initially be implemented in the church, classroom and progress to include field trips to local parks which is just a walking distance of the church, classroom. The students should explore a variety of different habitats like access to a river, fields and woodlots. There should be a hands-on discovery methods and techniques and this included the following thematic areas:
Air, Water, and Soil:

The impact of each to human and wildlife should be discussed; how to keep environment clean; and garden and tree planting.

Water cycle and water sheds:

This activity includes demonstrating the water cycle, an action-oriented activity exploring the impact of toxins on wildlife and natural habitats, and construction of water shed models that will demonstrate how toxins are carried in a water system and potentially into drinking water.

Recycling and product packaging:

This focuses on the identification of recycling symbols and codes, knowledge of recyclable items, sorting of recyclable products, creative or homemade strategies for recycling, and product purchasing to minimize unnecessary packaging.
Water quality testing and river clean-up:

This curricular area included water quality testing, a river clean-up, and instruction in canoe-paddling which was intended to facilitate water clean-up and to introduce lifelong outdoor activity to students.

Tips on exploring the outdoors:

1. Develop buddy systems following people with out disability to assist people with disability. This system provides instructional assistance, enhance safety and foster inclusion.

2. Focus on the process rather than the outcome of the activity. For example, during paddle down a river, encourage the children to become aware of the natural habitat rather than placing primary focus on the length of the trip and the quality of the paddling stroke.

3. Repeat and review more often than you would with regular students. To reduce boredom, use a variety of approaches to teach the same skill or concept.

4. Encourage participation by all children in the classroom. Active participation reinforces abstract concepts that are first introduced in the classroom and then apply it outside. This will also enhance interaction between members to enhance communication and social skills.

5. Consider both mental and chronological age when selecting activities. It is important to respect student chronological age while directing information to their mental age. This is important with teenagers with mental retardation.

6. Use field trips as sensory learning experiences to help students become more aware of the environment. Encourage students to touch, smell, and listen especially with their eyes closed.

7. Provide the most normal learning environment possible. Students with cognitive impairments do not easily transfer information presented in the classroom to the natural environment that’s why most functional learning environment is to be created.

8. Adapt activities to the physical impairments of the individual:

For people with vision impairment, use tactile boundaries, brightly colored objects and specific visual cues.
For those who are hard of hearing, provide extra visual aids, avoid hand gestures and assure proper lighting and positioning.
Be aware of secondary medical conditions that may limit participation.
When a person displays decreased strength and endurance, reduced the length of activity session and build in rest periods.
When a person displays a decreased balance, it maybe appropriate to provide a wider base of support, lower the center of gravity or use stability bars.
If a person displays decreased coordination, you may wish to increase the size of the equipment and use lightweight, stable equipment.
9. Teach new concepts at the beginning of a session when participants are most alert. This is important to assure attention to task and improve learning.

10. Use step-by-step instruction. Activities may need to be broken down into sequential training steps to accommodate students’ attention deficits and to assure success.

11. Remember that success and fun are the basic ingredients of any recreational or environmental education activity. Make activities fun so that students will maintain their enthusiasm and want to return to outdoor classroom.

Making leaf prints

Making Leaf Prints

Every leaf is unique. Here is a simple way to look at a leaf in a new way.

Take your group on a short excursion where they can find some leaves. Ask each member to collect several leaves with prominent veins. Then reassemble the group at some work tables that have been covered with newspaper.

Lay the leaf upside down on newspaper. With a stiff paint brush, paint the leaf with acrylic paint making certain that all the veins are covered.

Carefully remove the painted leaf to a new clean section of newspaper. Carefully lay a sheet of office copy paper onto the leaf so the the paint does not smudge. Rub the sheet of paper. You should be able to see the form of the veins pressing through the sheet.

Carefully remover the sheet of paper from the leaf. (If the paint is too sticky you might have to remover the leaf from the sheet).

Try it again with different leaves and different colours of paint.

You will now have several leaf prints to frame or give away as gifts or cards.

This activity might lead to a a discussion about the diversity of leaves. Are any two leaves the same? Why are the veins on different kinds of leaves in a different pattern? What are the feelings of the members of the group? Have they been inspired by the activity?

[We have suggested acrylic paint because it cleans up easily with water. Classroom poster paint will also work if it does not dry too quickly]

Collecting newspaper clippings

Writing and environmental story

Plastic bags and environment

When I was a student in Middle School, we had to go public field for
celebration of Union day. We all students were happy because we could escape
from the class and we went there making time along the way.

We ate some snacks and threw all the plastic bags beside the road.
More over after we finished the program we were provided some sweet sticky
rice with a plastic bag. Then we just left the plastic bags there on the
ground. When we the students left I looked back and saw many colorful
plastic bags spread all over the ground. When the wind blew up, these
plastic bags were flied as a circle where the air carried them. By seeing
that I was enjoying for they looked like a kind of painting colorful
picture. During that time I did not know that this event will effect to our
environment.

Again when I plough the ground for planting vegetables in my garden, I
found many plastic bags down in the beneath of the ground. So I learned the
plastic can not be rotten and also can not melt the soil. As plastic bags
can take up to one thousand years to break down, it will remain if I do not
remove them.

Now I realized that all these were the careless behavior of the people
in protecting the environments. So, I collected and keep the plastic bags
after using them and put them in a place. As for the big plastic bags I use
them again as garbage bags at home and some useless ones for to start fire
for cooking.

As my father is a farmer he had two cows to plough the paddy fields. Every
day after finish plaguing, my father made them free to the pasture and they
come back by themselves every evening. Some years later one of our cows
getting thin slowly and did not went to eat much of food. That cow become
weak and could not get up anymore.

At last the cow died and we discovered that there were some plastic
bags in this cow’s stomach. Plastic bags once ingested cannot be digested
and remain stay in the cow’s gut. Plastic in an animal’s gut can prevent
food digestion and can lead to a very slow and painful death.

Therefore we have to be very careful when we use plastic bags and
should not throw them carelessly. We should have rubbish bin every where, so
we can put our rubbish. It is harmful for the creature those live in air,
land, water if the people use carelessly.

Therefore as human beings living in the world which need our care and
protection, we have to be very careful in using plastic bags and should not
throw them wherever we want to throw. If we are careful in using the plastic
bags that mean we are protecting our environment. If we are careless in this
case we will be the one who suffer because of the changes environment.

So I wish and pray everyone should take their own part in protecting our
environment by keeping probably all the plastic bags which we used.

Presented by Esther

Myanmar

Growing a Shamrock

One of us had a Shamrock going outside the seminary residence when he arrived. Since the plant was used by the Irsih missionary, St. Patrick to explain the mystery of the Trinity, we felt that all missionaries should have one. So we recycled newspaper and rolled a plant pot, filled it with good potting soil and planted a tiny root collected from the parent plant. Four out of five had good success. But we're still waiting!

Singing environmental hymns

In the Bulb there is a Flower

In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed an apple tree;
in cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there's a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

There's a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;
there's a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery,
unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;
in our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity.
In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,
unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

(Natalie Sleeth 1986)

All Things Bright and Beautiful

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful: God made them all.

Each little flower that opens, each little bird that sings,
God made their glowing colours, God made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountains, the river running by,
the sunset and the morning that brightens up the sky.

The cold wind in the winter, the pleasant summer sun,
the ripe fruits in the garden: God made them every one.

The rocky mountain splendour, the lone wolf's haunting call,
the great lakes and the prairies, the forest in the fall.

God gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell
how great is God our maker, who has made all things well.

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful: God made them all.

Cecil Francis Alexander, 1848)

Photography - designs in nature

Nature hike near the church

We discussed how simple it is to help our congregation to make a connection with nature. We think it is important to go for short nature hikes around the church if there are opportunities. It is not important that we know the names of all the natural things living there. It is more important to recognize the wonderful world of nature.

In the first photo Ester is teaching us how to get the fish in the pond to come close. She is clapping her hands.



In the second photo Allan is pointing out a simple pattern on the leaves of a bush.

Creating a nature-friendly story

We talked about how stories can be harmful to the environment. Why are the wolf and the snake always seen as bad animals? As a group, we created a new story about a snake where the snake is OK - not so bad.

We should consider telling stories which might help to clear up some misconceptions about animals who are always seen as bad guys. Here is our story:

The Night the Little Girl Danced with the Snake.

Once upon a time a little girl lived with her parents in a small house at the edge of the forest.

One very dark night at the end of October, a very hungry snake slid into the village searching for something to eat. He saw the little girl all by herself in the middle of the house lit only by the light of a single candle.

The snake slid closer and closer. His tongue flicked the air as he searched for food.

The little girl saw the snake but was too young to be afraid. Instead of running away, she held out a candy to share with the snake. The snake was surprised because he had never been offered candies before. So he ate the candy and licked his lips. It was very good. The little girl offered him another and he ate that too. She gave him another and another. By this time they were both smiling at each other and the snake had wrapped himself around the girl to get a closer look at his new friend.

Just then the mother came into the house and when she saw the snake wrapped around the girl she screamed to her husband. The husband came running into the house with his machete raised to kill the snake. But he was afraid to cut the snake for fear he would cut his daughter by mistake. So he thought of something else. He ran to the corner of the room to retrieve his flute.

The little girl and the snake seemed to be unaware of all the excitement. The went on sharing candies together and smiling at each other..

The father began to play his flute and the snake began to sway his head to the music. The mother began to sing along with the flute because the music seemed to be working. The girl noticed that the snake had a rattle on his tail so she began to shake the rattle and hum to the music as well. The snake began to hiss along to the music.

This continued for some time. The father played the flute. The mother sang. The snake hissed and danced. The little girl shook the rattle and sang and swayed to the music.

Villagers heard all the music coming from the house and began to look in to see what was happening. Soon all the villagers had joined in making music along with the quartet within the house.

Snakes from the forest were attracted to the music from the village. When they saw the friendly dance taking place within the house, they too started to sway, shake their tails and hiss to the music. They moved to the house so they all could be together at the concert.

Soon all the forest was dancing to the music. They had a great time that night.

And to this day, one night a year on Halloween, the snakes and the villagers put aside all their bad feeling and dance the night away as friends.

Symbols for life taken from nature

Planting a willow tree for chapel

Chapel at LTS is always decorated with a beautiful floral arrangement. Many of these weekly arrangements contain curly willow branches. We asked if it would be possible for our class to plant a small curly willow near the chapel. We decided to try to root the stick of a willow and try to make a new plant. Then future students would be able to use this fascinating plant to decorate the chapel.

First we placed a stick from a curly willow in a glass of water.



Many roots developed in the water within two weeks.

Extra

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Reflections

Reference

References

Alexander, C. (1848). All Things bright and beautiful. Hymn 291. Voices United. Toronto: The United church of Canada Press.

Avalone-King, D. (2000). The Clean Air Game: A quick introduction to air pollution- its sources, impacts and solutions. Toronto: Green Teacher (63) p. 23.

Dominguez, L and Schilling, Mary Lou. (2001). Connecting students with special needs to the environment. Toronto: Green Teacher (66) p. 24.

Kriesberg, Daniel. (1997). Teaching about hunger. Toronto: Green Teacher (50) p. 29.

Pike, G. and Selby, D. (1988). Global teacher, global learner. Hodder and Stoughton: London.

Sleeth, Natalie. (1986). In the Bulb there is a flower. Hymn 703. Voices United. Toronto: The United church of Canada Press.