On Sunday, April 18, after completing the Greening Congregations process, Wooden Cross was honored with an Earth Ministry banner, which is currently displayed in the church.

Oceans

God’s world is majestically blue. But his oceans are facing unprecedented threats.       It doesn’t take too much work to crunch these numbers. Take a look for yourself—and then pass them along to friends and family to see how much they know about the biggest blue spaces on our planet.

70 percent of the earth’s surface is covered by oceans.

1 percent of the earth’s oceans are protected.

1 billion people worldwide depend on the ocean for their main source of protein.

52 percent of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited. Another 20 percent are moderately exploited, and 19 percent are over-exploited.

3/4 of tropical commercial fish depend on mangrove forests for food, habitat, breeding or nursery grounds.

Up to 35 percent of the world's mangrove forests have been destroyed in the last 30 years.

1,400 pounds is potential weight of a northern blue fin tuna. Top predators like this one are vital to the ocean food chain.

90 percent of large predatory fish populations—including cod, shark and blue fin tuna—that have disappeared worldwide due to unsustainable fishing practices.

1 in 4 of all marine species live in coral reef ecosystems. (It’s no wonder reefs are often called "the tropical rainforests of the ocean.”)

20 percent of the world’s coral reefs have been lost to date. Another 20 percent are degraded.

70-80 percent of the oxygen we breathe is produced by the ocean.

150,000+ is the combined size in square miles of pollution-caused "dead zones"—marine habitats that no longer support oxygen-using species. That’s larger than the state of Montana.

97 percent of all water on earth is located in the planet’s oceans.

1 the number of "blue planets" called Earth.

Works cited: Conservation International

Wildlife Habitat Certification

This past year, the Creation Care committee worked with our youth to

foster an appreciation for all of God’s creation. In cooperation with the

National Wildlife Federation and with the help of the Sunday school

teachers and students, Wooden Cross has become a Certified Wildlife

Habitat. We have now joined the thousands of homes, schools and churches

who have been recognized for creating havens for wildlife in their own

neighborhoods by providing the essential elements for healthy and

sustainable wildlife habitats.

These elements include:

Food Sources - Native plants, seeds, fruits, nuts, berries, nectar

Water Sources - Birdbath, pond, water garden, stream

Places for Cover - Thicket, rockpile, birdhouse

Places to Raise Young - Dense shrubs, vegetation, nesting box, pond

Sustainable Gardening - Mulch, compost, rain garden, chemical-free fertilizer

Kait Teachout kicked off our Sunday school eco-program by constructing a study guide for the Sunday School teachers to use as a reference.  In their effort to provide the essential elements for a healthy wildlife habitat, Lori Hudson and her first and second-graders, and Kristen Berendsen and her third and forth graders created beautiful handmade bird feeders, which they filled with birdseed and strung from the trees. Elizabeth Woolf’s fifth and sixth graders, assisted by Rena Connell, hung a mason bee house and a suet feeder.  They also fixed a bat house to the light pole for the native bats of our area, the little brown bat and the big brown bat.  Natasha and Steven Carlson and their Sunday school classes hung another suet feeder for the woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches, and a squirrel feeder for the indigenous Douglas squirrels.  While these feeders are a great supplement to the natural foods that wildlife finds, native plants provide the best food source, offering seeds, berries, nectar, pollen, and insects.  With this in mind, the Sunday school kids planted deer ferns, evergreen huckleberries, knick-a-knick, salal, red flowering current, red twigged dogwood, snowberry, a Cascara tree, a Bitter Cherry tree, a Beaked Hazelnut tree, and an Indian Plum.

These combined efforts have brought us to our certification goal.  With disappearing habitat, and wildlife struggling to survive, we can all be proud of our students helping God’s creatures to thrive.

Creation Care: Heat

Summer's here!  Time to reset your thermostat.  Check out money and energy saving ideas in the July "Heat" article.

Creation Care:  Lightbulbs

Scripture:  “You are the light of the world.  A city built on a hill cannot be hidden.  No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, where it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Parent in heaven.”  (Matthew 5:14-15)

We challenge ourselves, particularly the economically secure, to tithe environmentally.  Tithers would reduce their burden on the earth’s bounty by producing ten percent less in waste, consuming ten percent less in nonrenewable resources, and contributing the savings to Earth-care efforts.  Environmental tithing also entails giving time to learn about environmental problems and to work with others toward solutions.  --From the ELCA social statement “Caring for Creation”

Fact:  Replacing a single incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL) will keep a half-ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere over the life of the bulb.  If everyone in the U.S. used energy-efficient lighting, we could retire 90 average size power plants.  Saving electricity reduces CO2 emissions, sulfur oxide and high-level nuclear waste.

Creation Care Challenge:

Immediate-Replace your regular incandescent lightbulb with a compact fluorescent.  They can screw into regular sockets and cast great light.  Another benefit along with the environmental benefit is that the bulbs last a long time (up to 10 years or more).

Long term-Watch how you use lights in your house.  Turn off lights when you are not in rooms or at home.  Try to do a full retrofit of the lighting in your home and business, both to save money on energy, but also to save energy, and thus the environment.

Prayer:  Lord of Light, you have called us to be light for the world.  Help us to be lights for the created world, to use light and energy responsibly and to use our resources carefully and wisely.  Amen

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