The busy pace of modern life easily distracts us from looking closely at the ways that God takes care of us and all of creation.  We can get so preoccupied in our busyness that we don't even see God's amazing gifts.

Caring for the creation that God has entrusted to us helps us to focus on the wonders of this world.  There are many simple ways that we can be good stewards of the earth.  Trinity has begun implementing some of these simple ways in becoming more "green".  On any given Sunday during our fellowship time, you will notice that the Styrofoam cups have disappeared.  In their place now are reuseable coffee mugs.  To go in these mugs, we purchase only Fair Trade, organic coffee.  For our Wednesday evening GROW nights, we have also gotten rid of Styrofaom dishes and now re-use ceramic or plasitc dishes.

Genesis 1:26-28 (taken from The Message) "God spoke: 'Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.'  God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God's nature.  He created them male and female.  God blessed them:  'Prosper!  Reproduce!  Fill Earth!  Take charge!  Be responsible for fish inthe sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.  Also, Psalm 24:1 says, "The earth belongs to the Lord.  And so does everything in it.  The world belongs to him.  And so do all those who live in it."  We should do our best to take care of what belongs to God.

By striving to be responsible in these ways, we are not causing more Styrofoam to be made and we are not putting it in the landfill!  In fact, this year we are only disposing one big bag of garbage each GROW night instead of four as in the past!

Another good reason (but definitely NOT the most important) to be good stewards is it saves financial resources as well.  Just in one year of not using Styrofoam items, Trinity has saved $1000!!!  Wow!  That's a lot of money!  

Other ways in which Trinity is trying to be "green" are:

We use 100% recycled, post-consumer waste white paper (30% recycled colored paper)

We recycle bottles, cans, jars, paper, and batteries.

We have a Community Garden which produces organically grown produce for members and our neighbors.

We have a Stream Team which takes care of a portion of Rush Creek by cleaning it and monitoring the life in the stream.

We take this task very seriously and realize that we are not perfect.  We keep looking for additional ways that we can help others and the world around us.