Well, we didn’t get much winter rain here in Sonoma County, but we seem to have been making up for it with spring rain. The result was that after some good soakings earlier in the month, the weeds and bushes were all overgrown and in desperate need of some hard pruning. Perfect timing: on Saturday, April 28th, Christians from around the county gathered together in Howarth Park in Santa Rosa to volunteer for the Spring Clean project. Endorsed by the city and county, but organized and sponsored by local churches, the idea was to have an opportunity for Christians to show the love of Christ by helping out to improve things around the county and not letting only the government take care of everything. The event was put on by the Pastors Prayer Fellowship, a group made up of local pastors who are trying to bring unity into the often fragmented Christian body. People from different churches in the county all came together into one crowd that showed up at the main parking lot in Howarth Park at 7:30am in the morning, fulfilling God’s commandment:
“Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”…Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.
God’s creation was perfect in the beginning, and His first commandment was for us to have dominion over it. So we the volunteers at the Spring Clean project were intending to do our part to put that commandment into action.
Several of us at Grace Fellowship showed up at the event with shovels, rakes, and clippers. After the volunteers had all come, we were called together to pray for the Lord’s strength in our work, and then we were given our assignments. I and some others were assigned to clean up the West County Trail across the valley. When we got there the immediate obvious problem was enormous blackberry bushes that had overgrown into the path. The bushes were extremely thick and prickly, but we had thick gloves and determination. We took our shears and began hacking away, and—it certainly seemed like God speeded us along—a couple of hours later we were done! The County Park Service guys were amazed with what we were able to do in such a short time, and, throughout the morning, I took pictures to post on the Web. And here they are:
Christians from different congregations come together. (This was only a small part of the crowd.)
Our people from Grace Fellowship.
The blackberry vines prior to cutting.
Hacking away….
Hacking away some more….
The work is done!
The finished result.
The finished result cont’d.
It was hard work, but worth it! I’m looking forward to doing it again.
Afterwards, (almost) everyone went back to Howarth Park for a BBQ, but I didn’t go…if someone wants to add to the story and describe the BBQ and live music, they can!
God be with you this week!
Our Santa Rosa, so grand a city,
But some of her parks–so such a pity.
They heard the call, this strong stout bunch,
Cutting and cleaning–done before lunch,
To willing hands and good hearts of duty,
Thank you so much for all this beauty.