Windsor Park Baptist rangatahi plant for the future
Story contributed by Ava Donnell (Member of Windsor Earth Team)
On Sunday 14 June, Windsor Earth Team organised a tree planting event. Many rangatahi from the church joined in the tree planting, with free pizza providing a welcome bonus (thanks to generous supporters of the Earth Team at Windsor, Heather and Alan Ameye-Bevers). Nicholas Mayne led the devotion and prayer, then instructed the group on how to plant a tree well. The young people learnt valuable mātauranga which they will soon be passing on to wider church volunteers on the Windsor ‘Serve Day’ during the upcoming Matariki.
We are very excited about this next generation of kaitiaki mō te ao tūroa and what they will bring to the Windsor Earth Team. It is very important to the Windsor Earth Team that we continue to tautoko our rangatahi in taking care of their local communities, especially God’s creation. The event was extremely successful, the group planted 207 native rākau altogether in our local reserve. This included 32 Harakeke, 53 Karamū, 32 Kānuka, 9 Kahikatea, 8 Pūtaputawētā, 4 Whau, 12 Akeake, 8 Māupo, 3 Mataī, 8 Kauri, 4 Porokaiwhiri, and 34 Kawakawa.
The rōpū then enjoyed a great feed and shared whakaaro on how we could further our work in the local Windsor area. These rākau, especially the harakeke, will help with filtration of the nearby creek and increase the number of native manu we see in Centurion Reserve. We have seen many positive impacts in Centurion Reserve since the Earth Team began work in the bush there.
These achievements reflect the dedication of leaders Nicholas Mayne and Eleesa Jensen, who invest countless hours behind the scenes. They also speak to the commitment of the entire Windsor Earth Team, including its newest rangatahi volunteers. Most of all we give glory to Jesus who makes all of this work possible in te ao tūroa.
