Tag: JoinTrees

  • Trees for Food, Peace and Ecological Healing

    Trees for Food, Peace and Ecological Healing

    By Jon Zirkle 

     
    Mennonite Men’s JoinTrees campaign is proud to support a project in Kenya from Wakulima ni Sisi (We Are The Farmers) called “Trees for Food, Peace and Ecological Healing”.  Not only is this project generating native and edible trees and perennial crops but also providing education about regenerative agriculture to farmers, schools, and local communities in Kenya and beyond. 

    Samuel Lasiti and Ariana Perez Diener are the leaders of this project.  I spoke with them a few months ago by Zoom to learn more about the project and their lives in Kenya.  They shared that their location is quite dry and it is a challenge to retain the little moisture they receive from rainfall.  Practices like mulching, using biochar, and digging swales help slow down and retain precipitation.  Samuel and Ariana are promoting native trees and plants which are better adapted to the climate.  They are certified in permaculture, are trained in coppicing and silvopasturing, and both have worked on diverse farms in the US and elsewhere.  They also have been offering trainings to local farmers on sustainable practices for over a year now.  They plan to grow many trees from seed for this nursery project.  Clearly they care deeply about God’s creation and being stewards.   

    “We do a lot of seed collecting when we go on walks,” they told me.   

    Farmers in this part of Kenya face many challenges.   Overgrazing is a problem, and it is tempting for farmers to graze their animals in areas where trees have been planted.  Most tree nurseries sell exotic trees and the nearest tree nursery is over two hours away.  And in this part of the world, it’s possible for elephants to come through the area, making it important to put up fencing on new plantings.   

    These challenges don’t appear to stop Samuel and Ariana and the We Are the Farmers group to have big ambitions.  With help from the JoinTrees grant funding from Mennonite Men, they plan to plant over 24,000 trees, plant trees in partnership local schools, teach workshops for farmers for 50 farmers in the area selected for training.  These farmers will receive 200-250 trees for their farms depending on how larger their farms are.   

    Mennonite Men is so excited to support this work and to be part of a growing community of Earth stewards to raise and plant native trees, increase food security, and be part of healing God’s creation around the world.   

    To learn more about We Are The Farmers and their impressive work, visit their website at https://wearethefarmers.org.   

  • Creation, Healing, & Abundance

    Creation, Healing, & Abundance

    In its final chapter of Revelation, the Bible ends with imagery of the tree of life.  I love that Scripture is bookended with creation, healing, and abundance. 

    Mennonite Men’s JoinTrees campaign is rooted in the biblical call to care for God’s creation.  Our campaign is not only intended to reduce the harmful effects of climate change, but also to be life-giving to creatures, people, faith communities, and ecosystems.  Tree planting efforts create jobs as well as hope.  Together, the JoinTrees campaign enables you to participate in reconciliation and restoration as active agents in repair, rooted in love.  

    As our fiscal year comes to a close July 31 and a new budget cycle begins August 1, we hope for a strong finish and a strong beginning.  Tree planting efforts in central Illinois, Elkhart County (Indiana), Kenya, and Indonesia are being funded and getting underway.  Many of the trees being planted will help reduce pressures to cut down native forests.  

    Please pray for the JoinTrees ministry of tree planting and creation care, including our partners in North America and across the globe.  Gifts from individuals, family estates, companies, congregations, and conferences towards the JoinTrees campaign are welcomed, and these gifts make a difference! 

    And as always, JoinTrees grant applications can be found on our website.  

  • Blessing the Trees at Greencroft

    Blessing the Trees at Greencroft

    Submitted by Anne Birky

    In the fall of 2021 the small and new Greencroft tree committee started to correspond with Steve Thomas  in response to concerns about a high, piercing chirp (think one chirp from an very angry crow every 8  seconds, 24/7 except on Sunday mornings) from a foundry behind the Greencroft Oak and Maple courts.  Steve was then the US director of Mennonite Men. Also included in those conversations was the  supervisor in the forestry operations at NIPSCO (our local source for electricity), the wildlife biologist for  Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources, a persistent and frustrated resident in one of the courts who  had been in conversations with the foundry manager regarding noise abatement, the Goshen city forester  and Greencroft’s director of Resident Life Services. 

    Steve submitted a grant proposal that fall of 2021 to Mennonite Men JoinTrees, it was approved and the  money was set aside. It appeared to those of us living here that there was no substantial progress for a  sound & visual barrier made of trees. Our dreams and hopes for managing the foundry’s noise faded.  Residents had been complaining about the noise for at least 50 years. An untended, wild hedgerow had  grown up; it muted the noise a little bit but not enough for a legal limit in a residential setting.  

    After 2021, things changed: the director of Resident Life Services retired, the supervisor of forestry  operations at NIPSCO took another job, the Greencroft tree committee disbanded, mostly due to health  issues and a new tree committee formed. The chirping from the foundry continued, day in and day out.  Fortunately for us, Steve, the city forester and Greencroft’s director of facilities and plant operations really,  really wanted this project to come to pass. They kept our dream alive!  

    Steve revisited the proposal again in 2025 to plant 400 Norway Spruce and 215 Eastern Red Cedar trees  on land north of the foundry and in the bean field just south of the Greencroft boundary. Steve  established a good relationship with the plant manager and within 10 minutes, he helped Steve obtain  official permission from the landowner in New York to plant on the land. Steve arranged for a tree  company to plant the trees with their tractor; they planted over 600 trees on 2 1/2 acres in 2 1/2 —3  hours. It was impressive and fun to watch the planting!  

    About 15 of us gathered to bless the trees about 9 days after they were planted. A former Greencroft  CEO (now a resident) was there; Steve Thomas came; the city forester attended. Most of the members of  the first tree committee were there and quite a few of the watering volunteers came too. Some grateful  residents from the courts who listen to the constant chirping attended.  

    Steve reminded us that the ancestors of these trees are our elders; they have been on this earth longer  than we have. He asked us to consider what we can learn from them.  

    The city forester thanked us—his elders— for planting & caring for these trees. He told us he’s 52 and  when he retires here in 20 years, these trees will be just great! 

    BLESSING THE TREES 

    Norway Spruce and Eastern Red Cedar trees, we give you our blessings.  

    May you grow well—roots down, leaves up. May you care well for each other and for Greencroft  residents. 

    We give you thanks for doing what trees do: stay in one place, grow, provide a place for the birds to  build nests, inspire us, show us how to wait, (pause while others offer specific thanks). We thank you, trees, for your wisdom of photosynthesis. We thank you too for your shelter for us.  Especially right now we thank you for the sound barrier you will eventually provide from the noisy factory  nearby.  

    May we water in anticipation of our children, our grandchildren and others who will come to live at  Greencroft.  

    We give you thanks, Creator of our universe, for our planet which is our home. We are grateful for our  little corner of the world.  

    We give thanks to you, Sacred Mystery, for light, for the sun, water, oxygen, for your breath of life, (pause  while others offer specific thanks).  

    We give thanks, Creator God, for these trees and we give thanks for our energy to prepare this land for  the people who will come here after us.