As a little house church in Coburg, GraceTree Baptist Community seeks to live out the love of Jesus in practical ways.
In recent years, this has involved participating in the annual Clean Up Australia Day event. Clean Up Australia has been going for more than 30 years and is aimed at conserving the environment, helping Australians live more sustainably by preventing rubbish entering the environment and removing what is already there.
The aims of Clean Up Australia align perfectly with the ethos of GraceTree, especially its deep care for the land that God has so generously allowed us to be custodians of.
“We’re a small community of people trying to follow Jesus, and part of that includes caring for the beautiful earth that God has given us responsibility to care for,” said GraceTree member, Nils von Kalm.
In April this year, several members of the GraceTree community made their way down to Merri Creek to pick up rubbish and dispose of it in the bags provided by Clean Up Australia. With gloves and rubbish grabbers at the ready, adults and children from the GraceTree community spent time scouring the creek area and surrounds, making sure that every piece of litter they could find was disposed of.
Nils added that it was a wonderful way of sharing God’s love for the world. “It’s so good to get out into nature and see how we can contribute in a small way to making this world a better place for everyone.”
GraceTree has been participating in Clean Up Australia since 2023. It is part of what they call their Love in Action weeks where they all work together in the community, putting their faith into action.
Scheduling a Love in Action activity each term allows GraceTree to engage with the local community by practically displaying unconditional love to whoever needs it.
Other activities they have been involved in as part of their Love in Action weeks have included:
- Gardening for an elderly neighbour
- Collecting food for their local food bank
- Joining with the Friends of Edwardes Lake and Darebin bushland team to plant natives in the Edgars Creek Wetland
- Cooking meals together to share with people they know who are struggling
- Collecting food for their local food bank, Nourishing Neighbours
These are all ways that GraceTree tries to live out their love for God in ways that show the compassion of Jesus to the local community in practical, down-to-earth ways.
You can connect with the GraceTree community online via the links below:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/12Koy1aMAQg/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gracetreecommunity?igsh=MWF6dHI5bG4yM3ZmOQ==