River of God Kayak Kamp: Day 3: Passaic River

We began our day today with devotions led by Mr. Eric. He read Psalm 46 and reminded us of how God is our "refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble". That means if your flipped over in the water and every other time in our lives. Our River of God theme text is also taken from vs. 4 of this Psalm "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall." We believe this is true for our city of Paterson and the Passaic River makes us glad. We also has Ms. Jamie VanBuiten join us today substituting for Mrs. Englehard. Ms. Jamie just returned from a mission trip and is heading off to her senior year at Calvin College on Friday. We appreciate her help. Here are some pictures of all our paddlers.

Justice

Dominic

Zy'Nasia

Joseph

Victoria

Henry 

Naomi

Tieshmere & Malik 

Roget

Jahod

Mr. Eric

Ms. Jamie

We put in the river at the Hawthorne Ball Fields launch and part of our goal today was to clean up the river. Everyone had a small trash bag and we picked up bottles in the water on the way. Here Tiehsmere  & Malik use a net to collect some debris.

               At the Elmwood Park Marina we picked up what little trash was there. The last few weeks Mr. Rick Rodriguez has been on a campaign to clean up the river and did alot here by himself. It looks so much better than it used to. Thanks so much Rick.

 We landed on "Ricks Island" for lunch. This is just above the Rt. 46 bridge.

 After lunch Mr. Eric did another lesson on taking care of God's creation.

 Then Mr. Rick came by and told us of the work he has been doing to clean up the river and the island. He hopes to make the island a picnic grove and even a place where people can camp.

 He brought some rakes and we had extra bags and worked for awhile cleaning up the island and clearing an area near the landing. It really looks great now. Stop by and check it out.

 We ended as the sky began to turn dark and we could smell the rain. As we paddled back it continued to get darker and just as we got back the skies opened up with a downpour. All of us got soaking wet loading up the trailer but once your wet your wet and can't get any wetter. We ended our day with a treat at Guernsey Crest Ice Cream - the best kept secret in Paterson. We thanked God for another wonderful day in God's good creation and with each other. We padded about 5 miles.