Splendifferous Passaic River Boat Parade

Today we joined our friend Rick Rodriguez aka "River Man" for the first of an annual Passaic River Boat parade. A wonderful article in the Herald & Record highlighted the efforts of Rick to clean up the river. It also announced about the parade and helped bring people. After opening remarks by Rick and the Fire Chief of Elmwood Park I recited Psalm 8 and prayed this ancient Celtic Prayer of blessing and peace.

 Deep peace of the running wave to you,

Of water flowing, rising and falling,

Sometimes advancing, sometimes receding,

May the steam of your life flow unimpeded!

Deep peace of the running wave to you.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you

Which fans your face on a sultry day,

The air which you breathe deeply, rhythmically,

Which imparts to you energy, consciousness, life.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you, who herself unmoving,

Harbors the movements,

And facilitates the life of the ten thousand creatures,

While resting contented, stable, tranquil,

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.

Deep peace of the shining stars to you,

Which stay invisible till darkness falls

And disclose their pure and shining presence,

Beaming down in compassion on our turning world.

Deep peace of the shining stars to you.

 We had a wonderful turnout of people with 15 from Madison Ave. filling our 2 canoes and 11 kayaks. In addition Rick had about 8 Sea Eagle Kayaks and the President of a branch in New York.

 I paddled our canoe today with DeAndre.

 We had a wonderful turnout and were escorted and followed by the Elmwood Park Fire Department.

Rev. & Mrs. Ricardo & Sonya Orellana

 We paddled to "Rick's Island" to take a break and have some time together.

 Rick had everyone find a few sticks and something to drum on. He has done alot of cleanup on the island and it is a beautiful grove of trees.  Linzie Tynes (standing) sang a song after witch Ricks sister Cyre (sitting on right) sang a new song she just wrote for this occasion. Two weeks ago she released a song she had written and recorded for the families of victims of 911. You can hear "I'll see you in Heaven" by clicking the link in the title of the song.

After that we had a "drumming circle" and people wandered around the Island before returning home.

Rick "The River Man" Rodriguez was grateful to see his dream of the river as a place of joy and re-creation taking place. Thanks for you leadership in this Rick. Keep up the good work. !

Paddling the Hackensack Meadowleands

Today I hosted Mrs. Alisa Englehard and one of her classes at Eastern Christian High School for a paddle on the Hackensack River & Meadowlands. The students are studying earlier settlers in the New York Metro area and why they settled around the rivers. We put in at the River Barge Park "Paddling Center" of the NJ Meadowlands Commission. This is named after a former river barge restaurant that was here.  I began with a small devotion from Psalm 46:4 "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, God is in the midst of her."  All of our cities are here because of the rivers that God created for food, water, transportation and all of the wildlife they support.

 Since it had been a full moon the tides were higher than usual with high tide at about 6 1/2 feet when we put in.  We paddled north and then across the river to Mill Creek Point Park.

 Everyone did great paddling and the river was exceptionally calm.

 The marshes around Mill Creek Point are beautiful and full of bird and fish life. We saw snowy egrets, ospreys, double crested cormorants, and lots of little "killies" (small fish). Enjoy the pictures of our day.

See the Freedom Tower in the background

This is amazing paddling in an Urban Wilderness with the Empire State Building in the background

 After paddling awhile we had lunch at Mill Creek Point Park and then enjoyed a leisurely paddle
back across the river. Mrs. E. was teaching lessons all the way. What a great classroom God's creation is.

River of God Kayak Kamp: Day 5: Delaware River

Today we began our final day with a Bible story from John 7:37 when Jesus attended the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. One practice of this feast was to remember how God provided water in the wilderness as well as remember the prophesy of Ezequiel 47 about the River of God flowing from the temple. So the priests would carry water from the Gihon spring and pour it in a trough where it actually flowed out of the temple down the street of Jerusalem. As this was happening Jesus stood up and said."If anyone is thirst, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit whom those who believe in him were later to receive." We were reminded that as rivers and water brings life so Jesus brings life and can now live in us so we can bring life to others as we live in him. 

 On our way out we stopped at DeJong Iron Works to meet Jerry DeJong and all the men who made our kayak/canoe trailer 3 years ago. We thanked them for their great work. Then we traveled out Route 80 to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. We dropped Mr. Erics car and drove about 8 miles north.

We stopped for lunch about 4 miles downriver at the campground launch. Mrs. E. did our lunch teaching about the kind of language we use that does not please God. We prayed for God to help us use our tongue to bless others and not hurt them. We also took a little swim at lunch time.

The final rapids was alot of fun and we bounced through the water and got a  little wet. While Pastor John & Mr. Eric went back upriver for the van Mrs. E. took some of the group on a swim across the river to Pennsylvania. On the way home we had a flat tire on the trailer but were able to fix it quickly. We arrived home a little late for our final ceremony and award presentation. We sang Happy Birthday to Jahod & Roget who have birthdays this week and Jahods mom brought some treats for all. It was great to be together this week as we read God's BIG BOOK of creation, learned how to work together and had alot of fun.

River of God Kayak Kamp: Day 4: Hackensack River & Meadowlands

We began our day today with devotions from Ezequiel 47. This was a vision of a river flowing from the throne of God that was given to Ezequiel at a very difficult time in Israel's history. The temple had been destroyed and they were in captivity in Babylon. But this vision showed a river that brought life to death. It flowed into the Dead Sea and made it alive with fish and plants. This is what God is able to do. Bring life out of death as Jesus demonstrated in his resurrection. We also said thank you to Jamie VanBuiten for helping us the last two days. Tomorrow she leaves for her senior year at Calvin College.  Then we headed off for the Hackensack River. We put in at Mill Creek Point Park on the eastern side of the Hackensack in Seacacus. The tide was low so the lauch was very mucky. We also met some fishermen catching "killies" which is a small fish used for bait. 

 After a short paddle in the marshes we proceeded to cross the Hackensack. This is "big water" compared to what we have been in but all the kids did great. We could see Giant Stadium, Izod Center, Empire State Building, Freedom Tower, NJ Turnpike. This is urban paddling at its best.

 You can see the mud flats that show at low tide. Although the look yuckie and stink a bit too they are actually full of life and stimulate alot of bird and fish life.  This was a small creek that we paddled up along the river.

 We then paddled downriver to River Barge Park. This is an amazing new park of the NJ Meadowlands Commission.  They have a wonderful low dock for kayaks and canoes that make it very easy to get in and out. They also have picnic tables, bathrooms and very educational displays. These taught us about the amazing provision of God's creation that even out of the mud comes life. Mr. Angelo of the Meadowlands Commission met with us and shared some of the history of the park and river.

 After lunch we paddled upstream and although the wind was against us the tide was with us. That combination of wind and tide made for some pretty nice waves in crossing the river.

 If you look close at this next picture you can see the new Freedom Tower in the background.  We had a wonderful day and enjoyed the new experience and place of paddling.