Taken from the Missional Network News of Terrace Alliance Church
What a fantastic Sunday was shared by those who participated in our first Creation Care Sunday Service of Worship! We moved our normal Sunday Celebration Service from 10:30am to 9:30am and met together for worship in song and listened to a brief meditation from Psalm 104 acknowledging God as the creator and sustainer of this global environment where we live. Following this brief service of worship 'in here', we took to the streets to worship God 'out there' as we joined in supporting the efforts of the Terrace Beautification Society who takes on the challenge of inviting members of the community to participate in their annual 'Garbathon' which is the main event that kicks off the beginning of 'Earth Week'.
A few weeks ahead of the event, Gordon Stamp-Vincent in consultation with Chris Hansen, the President of the Terrace Beautification Society, took on the organizational role of helping members of the church sign-up to participate in various areas of the Southside 'parish' as well as the city as a whole to be involved in the clean-up.
Given our assignments, over the next hour, groups took their garbage bags in hand and went to our identified areas to work at cleaning up the litter and debris and by the time the teams returned, we had over one-hundred bags of garbage and pieces of junk too large to bag.
As we returned with bags in tow, a few of our folk with trucks took the bags over to the main collection site at the local McDonald's Restaurant while the rest of us enjoyed a delicious BBQ of hamburgers and hot dogs prepared by another team of volunteers who were also able to worship God through their acts of service.
Together, we realized that worshipping God is much more than just participating in our Sunday Celebration Services each week. Children, youth and adults serving side by side, picking up litter, having fun together, praying for people in our community and making God's creation a bit more beautiful brought great joy and delight to the heart of our Creator, Sustainer and Savior, Jesus Christ!