GROWING IN UNITY: 

A Week of Planting for a Greener Future

Gerry is a guy that everyone loves to be around. Our students naturally gravitate towards our school gardener and I think it's because of his love for plants, the creek and explaining things through song. You’ll find him often driving his mower down to the creek carrying stakes, guards, tools and new plants to go in the ground. While he's down there he keeps an eye on all the plants, new and old making sure they are safe, free from weeds and he’ll be also designing new planting areas. Gerry does this all not because he loves the act of planting, but because he sees the potential biodiversity in Monbulk Creek and all the benefits it has for our environment. Most of all he loves the unity that the planting creates when our school joins together in oneness to achieve great things as a community. 

Last week Gerry and I organised our schools annual planting event with the aim of planting 1000 native and indigenous plants. This year to be extra sensitive with the plants and the environment we planned this planting to span over a week. With a rainy start to the week some of the planting was postponed, however by Wednesday the sun broke through and the students streamed down to the creek area. Each primary school student was buddied with an older primary or secondary student and they went to work grabbing plants, stakes, guards, gloves and hammers. It is one of my greatest joys seeing the older students work with the younger generation training them in this simple but beautiful act of planting. 

One of the sweetest moments was when Mrs Meese and the 4 year old kinder students arrived to be buddied with Year 10 Outdoor and Environmental Studies students. Here the 4 year olds and Mrs Meese taught the Year 10s a song about an owl with actions. After a moment of slight hesitation from my Year 10s, there was a change… I saw a transformation and I suddenly felt and saw my 20 year 10 students enjoying and participating in this song way more than 4 year olds were! Maybe they were just stunned by how big the year 10s were, something I would never have expected but enjoyed thoroughly. Thank you Mrs Meese!

I guess planting is really about life. The school has been working for decades now bringing life in this way back to the Monbulk Creek and the results of regeneration are very present to us in the thriving plant life, fauna and water quality. It’s our legacy. Our school is full of creek heroes just like Gerry. 

Jesus does the same to our hearts, he works in them and through them to create life. Jesus is the guy you want to have around in your heart, he checks on how you're growing, he weeds out all the bad stuff and he designs new growth in your life so that you can do great things for him. Through this Jesus wants each of us to thrive, to impact the world in positive ways and bring life to the community around us, directing it to a better future.