God and Nature

What are some of the first wildflowers to bloom in your area?
When you walk out your front door, what direction do you face?
How many days until the next full moon?

As a way to begin thinking about our place, both here in New Zealand and back in North America, we started our two-week God and Nature course answering questions like these with our professors Loren and Mary Ruth Wilkinson from Regent College. To understand our interactions with and our place in creation we first had to learn about the Creator.

What is our understanding of well being? How about shalom?
Were there predator/prey relationships in the Garden of Eden?
Do we have a clear understanding of life after death? Immortal souls? Bodily resurrection?

We looked at Scriptures that revealed to us God’s care for our realtionship with him and our relationship with the whole of creation. One of the most common ways we have a relationship with the rest of creation is when we sit down to eat.

How can we assess the hidden costs of the food we buy?
What is the difference between waste and trash?
Why does food taste so good?

Of course, we couldn’t talk about food without making some of our own. Loren and Mary Ruth taught us how to make pasta from scratch and treated us to homemade waffles. Ashley (Messiah ’12), Kendra (Biola ’12), Lauren (Bethel ’12), Jada and Katie (both Messiah ’13) were assigned to cook a dinner for 30 people only using ingredients harvested within a 100-mile radius of the Old Convent. From the taste of things, they passed with flying colors. For dinner we had fresh salad, roasted pumpkin, vegetable fritata and venison (thanks to Ben, Messiah ’12). Dessert, which had everyone finding room deep in their stomachs for, was homemade lavender honey ice cream and a lemon sorbet. Lauren proved to us how fresh the milk was when she came back from the farm with a wet shirt. Getting sprayed by milking machines - all in the name of fresh ice cream.

Other group projects consisted of researching the health of the ocean in and around Kaikoura, conducting a bio-blitz of the Old Convent and the nearby Hinau Track, tracking our garbage from where our stuff comes and where it goes after we dispose of it and building a chicken coop as a way to be homemakers.