taking inventory

As we begin the first project, “Icing on a Burnt Cake”, there is the need to take an ecological inventory of what is on the land now. What plants? What animals? What life is already in this place? The reason to do this is not too complicated. We want to understand what is being excavated, what is being torn out of the soil, and what (if anything) should be carried over into the new…

Thinking in terms of our faith and the metaphor of redemption; when we are redeemed, when we are new creations, we don’t wipe away every single part of our previous self. Sin, yes. But there is also good in us, put there by God, that is a part of our identity and should be carried into a new, redeemed life. It might be that a particular trait of our personality is necessary in our calling in our new life.

Let’s say you are an artist, with God given talents, and you become a believer in Christ. While many aspects of your life will be made new, you don’t want to simply do away with your artistic value, right? You might even find that in your redeemed life you have a new inspiration for the use of those gifts.

Anyways, the Youth Group of Ferry Memorial Church in Montague, Mi came out for the day and inventoried what plants, insects, and other things we could find in the roughly 1/3 acre of land. I think they were surprised by the diversity that filled the small space, and perhaps they saw God at work in Creation in a way that they had simply looked over before.

For the full list of plants and critters found, CLICK HERE

Now, this inventory was conducted over just a few hours in the Fall. My assumption is that we missed peak season for bugs and flowers, but even here we can see a great variety of flora and fauna.

The tricky part…what stays? What is replaced? What will help the ecosystem moving forward and what hampers it? As a starting point to this discernment I've included a simple breakdown of each species found and whether it is native or not, invasive or not. What would you do?

Thank you to the Youth at Ferry Memorial, my hope and prayer is that you stay invested in this project for many years to come!

Ferry Memorial Youth Group — September 24th, 2023