By Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
The Green Team at Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren in Elgin, Ill., has worked to create beds of native plants around the church, one under an old elm tree on the northwest corner of the property, and one in a long narrow space bed between the fellowship hall and the parking lot.
Last year, small colorful signs were added to identify the beds as friendly to pollinators and the environment, and a birdhouse also was added under the elm. This multi-year project has had many rewards, from varied colors and varieties of flowers native to the local ecosystem that have bloomed from spring to fall, to the three different types of milkweed that have thrived in the hot and dry space alongside the parking lot.
Earlier this June, the Green Team also was rewarded when a dozen or more monarch caterpillars were seen feasting on the milkweed. The team asked the congregation to join in prayer for the caterpillars’ survival to grow into the next generation of beautiful monarch butterflies!
