Radical Love Endeavor Mission Immersion
EVENTS
BEDS TO BAGS
What’s Plarn?
Over the past few years, you donated more than 100,000 plastic bags which were turned into 250 beds for unhoused people in Charlotte. The steps between bag and bed are (1) cutting the bags into plastic yarn (Plarn) and (2) crocheting the Plarn into mats.
A great way for you to contribute to this work is to make a ball of plarn! Here is a video of Jennie Henderson giving you easy instructions on how to make your plarn!
Click here to watch how to make plarn balls
We need thousands of bags!!! Each mat requires 300-500 bags. Bring them to the church anytime. If you need someone to pick the bags up, contact Jennie Henderson (jhendersonfit@gmail.com).
Crop Walk
We participate in the Crop Walk each year. The event is typically in October each year. Check back in the fall for more details on how to join in the fun!
Advocacy
ELCA SOCIAL STATEMENT
Caring for Creation
The Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice social statement explains the ELCA’s teachings on ecology and the environment, grounded in a biblical vision of God’s intention for the healing and wholeness of creation. This statement provides a Christian understanding of the human role to serve in creation, and a hope rooted in God’s faithfulness to the creation from which humans emerge and depend upon for sustaining life. It provides a framework for understanding the human role in creation, the problem of sin and the current environmental crisis.
Caring for Creation expresses a call to pursue justice for creation through active participation, solidarity, sufficiency and sustainability, and states the commitments of the ELCA for pursuing wholeness for creation — commitments expressed through individual and community action, worship, learning, moral deliberation and advocacy.
You can read or download the full social statement Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope and Justice in English or en español. This statement was adopted in 1993 by the ELCA Churchwide Assembly.
Get Involved
ELCA advocacy is most effective when Lutherans across the country are involved and active. The ELCA has professional policy staff who help facilitate Lutheran advocacy efforts, but members of Congress want to hear from their constituents — your stories, experiences and influence impact their decisions.
https://www.elca.org/Our-Work/Publicly-Engaged-Church/Advocacy/Get-Involved
Lutherans Restoring Creation is a grassroots movement promoting care for creation in the ELCA. It is one of the organizations on this list of “Lutheran, Ecumenical and Interfaith Creation Care Organizations.”
Education
Online Games
1) Play the Fish Game online – teaches about sustainability and depleting resources www.cloud institute.org
2) Crunch Time 2.0 https://www.schoolgen.co.nz/teachers/online-games/ Crunch Time is a fun interactive quiz game aimed at kids of all ages – with questions about energy, science and sustainability. The game can be played individually or set up so whole classes can play against each other.
3) Games about air quality for children https://www.airnow.gov/education/students/games/
4) Game about pollution run off https://www.epa.gov/nps/nonpoint-source-pollution-awareness-whats-wrong-picture
5) Interactive learning about climate change https://climatekids.nasa.gov
6) Young children game about animal habitats https://ssec.si.edu/habitats
7) Nutrition around the world https://ssec.si.edu/pick-your-plate
8) Recycle game https://www3.epa.gov/recyclecity/challenge/index.html
Podcast
In August, Abrahm Lustgarten, who reports on climate, watched fires burn just 12 miles from his home in Marin County, Calif.
For two years, he had been studying the impact of the changing climate on global migration and recently turned some of his attention to the domestic situation.
Suddenly, with fires raging so close to home, he had to ask himself the question he had been asking other people: Was it time to move?
This week on The Sunday Read, Abrahm explores a nation on the cusp of transformation.
This story was written by Abrahm Lustgarten and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.