8: Question from a Son

Canada

A Climate Pollinator story by Sierra Ross Richer

“If people care so much, why don’t they do anything?” 

That’s the question Matoli Braun DeGroot asked his parents three years ago. His father, Will Braun said, “It stopped me in my tracks.” 

Will, who recently became the executive editor of Canadian Mennonite Magazine, lives on a 7½-acre farm in Manitoba, Canada, where his two sons (now 12 and 15) have grown up. 

The family’s farm is home to a flock of Icelandic sheep, some laying hens, a vegetable garden, bee hives and many fruit trees. “We’re not superheroes or anything like that,” Will said, “but we try to grow much of our own food, we try not to drive too much.” 

What worries Will is the message his sons are getting from others around them, including the church. 

“There are people pursuing conversations about how to address climate change,” Will said, but that’s pretty much where it ends. Many church members have gardens, but besides that, they live just like everyone else: big houses, two cars per family, trips whenever they feel like it. 

Will said, “I want my kids to see people making sacrifices, where it’s obvious that people are making sacrifices, and there just isn’t much of that.” 

“If (kids) see that breach, that lack of integrity (in the church),” Will asked, “what do you do with that? If we say one thing but don’t act on it in the area of the environment–of climate–then what about the other stuff, are we just playing a game?” 

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9: Building Farmland with Trees

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7: Trees and Refugees