The mission to Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve had a beautiful day to enjoy God's great creation. They helped the park with some significant trail maintenance.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Great day at Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve
Everyone had a great day at the Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve. Mud means nothing but fun to the fun spirited Crossroads gang.
Check out pics of everyone have the fun at...
Check out pics of everyone have the fun at...
and here is a video from the day...
Reflections from Leena: Something for everyone who loves the outdoors at Banshee Reeks...
My 8-year old twin boys, Alex and Kyle, selected the Nature Preserve Outreach for our family's 4/5ths mission. They were especially interested in picking up trash in the woods! I delighted in watching Alex stomping around the woods, wearing gloves that were too big for him, digging into any and every piece of trash he found! I carried the trash bag for our family and found myself unable to keep up with him. He gave up on me and started making piles in the street for me to come behind and pick up! He threw himself into the clean-up, and I enjoyed seeing a glimpse of God's mercy in him as he cared for our earth. At one point, he stumbled across a discarded 6-pack of Budweiser bottles, and said 'Mommy, do you think one person drank all this soda?' Ahhh...the innocence! Kyle was a less-enthusiastic cleaner. From the moment he was born, he has hated to get his hands messy, and he stayed true to form on this mission! He did, however, thoroughly enjoy hanging the 'POSTED - NO TRESPASSING' signs on the trees, and connected his work with saving animals from hunting on the preserve. He announced to all the animals that 'they're safe here'...and told them to 'stay on this side of the road!'. What a lovely glimpse of God's compassion in his heart.
After filling our trash bags and hanging all of our signs, we decided to hike back to the education annex. My husband, Thad, and I thoroughly enjoyed the quiet family time, and the opportunity for a hike in the woods. After a long winter, we missed being outdoors with our children and were thankful for the opportunity to enjoy the beauty at Banshee Reeks.
Another of my favorite memories was meeting a woman and her son who responded to our announcement of this event in a local newspaper. She had never heard of Crossroads before, but lives somewhere close to Banshee Reeks and was familiar with the preserve. She raises garden vegetables from seeds, and was especially interested in donating her plants for the Loudoun Interfaith Relief garden. She connected with the Banshee Reeks workers and made plans to return at a later date, when she could plant her seedlings. It was a thrill to have reached this person with our newspaper announcements, and to hear her offer such a generous and meaningful gift!
Thanks to everyone who had a hand in coordinating this blessed outreach effort. My family is looking forward to the 5th Sunday in May!
-Leena Lowe
After filling our trash bags and hanging all of our signs, we decided to hike back to the education annex. My husband, Thad, and I thoroughly enjoyed the quiet family time, and the opportunity for a hike in the woods. After a long winter, we missed being outdoors with our children and were thankful for the opportunity to enjoy the beauty at Banshee Reeks.
Another of my favorite memories was meeting a woman and her son who responded to our announcement of this event in a local newspaper. She had never heard of Crossroads before, but lives somewhere close to Banshee Reeks and was familiar with the preserve. She raises garden vegetables from seeds, and was especially interested in donating her plants for the Loudoun Interfaith Relief garden. She connected with the Banshee Reeks workers and made plans to return at a later date, when she could plant her seedlings. It was a thrill to have reached this person with our newspaper announcements, and to hear her offer such a generous and meaningful gift!
Thanks to everyone who had a hand in coordinating this blessed outreach effort. My family is looking forward to the 5th Sunday in May!
-Leena Lowe
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Reflections from Craig Tan
Saturday evening, I was looking at the weather forecast online on an hour by hour basis. The three hours prior to the start of our mission showed a chance of thunderstorms depicted by a little black cloud with a little lightening bolt coming out of it. Of all the things to happen, thunderstorms would definitely throw a wrench in our plans. A slight panic came over me, I took a deep breath, and thought "A one hour delay. That's all it will take and we will be fine." After a prayer and a restless night, I got out to the site at 9, an hour before everyone was due to arrive, and the weather was perfect. Slight mist and overcast - a perfect day to do some work on a nature preserve. Prayer answered. We actually had some folks miss my email and still came out at 9 to get started early.
At 10:00, people started filing in and after an introduction by the staff lead at Banshee Reeks and a brief service, the people of CUMC were champing at the bit to get some work done. We had over 50 people come out to work on projects such as building a garden that will grow produce for Loudoun Interfaith Relief (LIR), creating the foundation of a rain garden that "energizes" runoff, removing invasive plants and picking up debris and trash. The energy that everybody brought was amazing. In just over two hours, the LIR garden team had made beds for the garden and lined them with cinder blocks. All in all, they moved over 36,000 lbs of cinder blocks! A few acres were covered by the trash clean-up crew and several hundred pounds of dirt and gravel were moved for the base of the rain garden. It was a productive day.
Then, almost on cue, as we were all finishing up, the sun came out.
What struck me the most the day were people's attitudes, motivation and vigor in helping Banshee Reeks stay beautiful. We worked hard, we were muddy, we were dirty, and we were taking it all in. I heard many times from folks that they never knew this preserve was here so close to Ashburn. That they really felt a connection to the land. And not only is it the connection to the land, but knowing that others will enjoy what we have helped create and that the LIR garden will provide a direct benefit to those in need.
At 10:00, people started filing in and after an introduction by the staff lead at Banshee Reeks and a brief service, the people of CUMC were champing at the bit to get some work done. We had over 50 people come out to work on projects such as building a garden that will grow produce for Loudoun Interfaith Relief (LIR), creating the foundation of a rain garden that "energizes" runoff, removing invasive plants and picking up debris and trash. The energy that everybody brought was amazing. In just over two hours, the LIR garden team had made beds for the garden and lined them with cinder blocks. All in all, they moved over 36,000 lbs of cinder blocks! A few acres were covered by the trash clean-up crew and several hundred pounds of dirt and gravel were moved for the base of the rain garden. It was a productive day.
Then, almost on cue, as we were all finishing up, the sun came out.
What struck me the most the day were people's attitudes, motivation and vigor in helping Banshee Reeks stay beautiful. We worked hard, we were muddy, we were dirty, and we were taking it all in. I heard many times from folks that they never knew this preserve was here so close to Ashburn. That they really felt a connection to the land. And not only is it the connection to the land, but knowing that others will enjoy what we have helped create and that the LIR garden will provide a direct benefit to those in need.
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