Church Garden in the fight against Climate Change

Can we learn something from the courage of young people?

It’s early spring 2019. One of my youngsters was bleeding after cutting his hand on a crowbar. As he stands wiping off his blood, he proudly says, “Now you can say that the kitchen garden is built of blood, sweat and tears.” The other young people laugh and say it’s worth it. They say they are willing to sacrifice a little for climate and the environment with their fragile gaming and student hands. After a few weeks, we have erected a fence around an area of seven by fifteen meters. This is the story of a youth ministry and their organic garden.

While the voluntary work is going on in the garden, parents come to the youngsters and wonder what I have said to them. They are struggling to get them to help around the house, but here they are willing to serve. When one of the mothers had asked her daughter what she was going to do one afternoon, she had replied: “I’m going to Bogafjell Church and save the world, Mom.” In May, the garden was finished, and we had sown various vegetables in six pallet frames and potatoes in the free land bed.

“What are you going to do with the snails?” “What do you want to do with all the diseases that can get on the plants?”, “What about all the hatching?” “How are you going to keep this?” are questions often asked by adults. The men joke that you’ll have to use pesticides eventually and claim it’s not as simple as we make it sound. But when autumn 2019 came and we served carrot cake and stew with ingredients from our own kitchen garden in Bogafjell ward, suddenly new questions were asked.

So what exactly do we do? We look at God’s creations (nature) and try to temper. We do not dig, weed minimally, and we nourish the micro life of the soil and not just the plants. After all, it is the soil that takes care of the plants. In nature, in general, plants and the soil fix this in interaction, but in a kitchen garden where we want to extract one-year-old and perennial edible plants, the micro life in the soil constantly needs replenishment of nutrition. The replenishment is from compost. Bacteria, fungi, and viruses break down the organic material that is slowly but surely being converted into soil. From this soil, the base-layer for new life is formed as well as the vegetables in the kitchen garden. The method we use is called “No Dig” (cultivation without digging) and is regenerative. That is, when we build soil and do not dig in it, CO2 is stored in the soil where it belongs and can help the plants.

READ THE STORY OF THE SOWER AND THE SEED IN MATT 13:1-9

1 That same day, Jesus walked out of the house and sat down by the sea. 2 So many people gathered around him that he had to go out in a boat and sit in it, while the crowd stood inside the beach. 3 And he spoke to them in many parables, saying, “A sow man went out to sow. 4 And when he sowed, something fell by the road, and the birds came and took it. 5 Something fell on rocky ground where there was little soil, and it immediately shot up because the soil layer was thin. 6 But when the sun rose, it was burned and withered because it had not been allowed to take root. 7 Something fell among thorn bushes, and the thorn bushes grew up and choked it. 8 But something fell into good soil and bore fruit: something hundred, somewhat sixty, somewhat thirty times that sown. 9 He that has ears, listen!”

PRAYER:

Dear good God. Thank You for everything that grows. Thanks for all the seasons: spring when everything sprouts, the summer when everything is green and growing, the harvest when everything is harvested, and the winter when everything rests. Thank You for the pleasure we get in looking at flowers and tasting all the good that is being grown. Help us always take care of Your creation and manage it right. May You protect the farmers and their work. We pray for those who suffer distress in the world due to food shortages as a result of natural disasters or conflict and crime.

We worship You. Amen.

DISCUSSION:

1. What do you think about young people’s commitment to climate and the environment?

2. Soil is important for food security and in 2015, the UN shouted a warning that this is under threat as we both degrade and destroy food soil at an excessively fast pace. Does it matter in this context that a kitchen garden is being built in Bogafjell church?

3. Can we learn something from the courage of these young people?

4. In what way were you inspired to try to cultivate in new ways; in the garden, on the farm, or around the church?

F Ms. Grace Auma – Project Leader, Nairobi, Kenya