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Re-Creation Wilderness and Athletic Ministry

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Remember that the Lord your God has led you … into the wilderness in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart …. Deut. 8:2.

Re-Creation Wilderness and Athletic Ministry encourages people to experience God’s gift of creation first hand in healthy, outdoor activities. We believe that as part of His work of re-creation, Christ wants us to enjoy his gift and take the opportunity to recreate ourselves through play and restorative interaction with the natural world.  We also recognize that while being involved in activities such a canoeing and backpacking we have unique opportunities to ponder on God and to learn about ourselves and a particular aspect of God’s assiniboinefirst book – natural creation.

 In the Belgic Confession, one of the confessions of the Christian Reformed Church, it states that we know God in two ways: “first, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since the universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures - great and small, are like letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: his eternal power and his divinity ... Second, He makes Himself more clearly and fully known to us by his Holy and Divine Word.”  At CR-WM we believe that we can  become wise not only through the study of scripture, but also by being sensitive to the ways of God’s creation. We hold that the wilderness challenges us, tests us and teaches us.

In addition, part of the Reformed emphasis on being created in the image of God, is that man was created to be in covenantal relationship. We were created to be in relationship with God. We were created to be in relationship with each other. And we are meant to be in relationship with creation. This last point is highlighted in Genesis - where God creates this amazing “good’ world and he gives us a command and a blessing (the Creation Mandate) and gives us `stewardship.’ over all he has made.  Christian Reformed Wilderness Ministry takes seriously our Lord’s call to enjoy His creation and to strive to be responsible stewards. Christ came to reconcile all things back to him. Through the sacrifice and resurrection of  Jesus, the whole of creation is in the process of being redeemed. “All things” - Not just our relationship with God, but “all things.” Every last little bit of created reality. Every rock and tree, every relationship and tadpole.  We believe that one of the fruits of being active out in nature is that we become more responsible toward other living creatures and the world  which we have been blessed with. This cultivation of  this stewardly consciousness  is what lies at the heart of Christian Reformed Wilderness Ministry.
 
                                                                                                                             Dr. Michael D. Fallon