First and foremost we want our property to be safe for those attending worship, the preschool, and any other events in our building. We are aware that prairie dogs often carry diseases and some people may by unsettled by their existence on our property. However, it is highly unlikely that a prairie dog would harm someone simply participating in church or preschool activities. The prairie dogs have never entered the playground (to our knowledge) and are in general afraid of and run away from humans.

We want our property to look inviting! We want people to know that the Rejoice community cares about this incredible resource we have and that they are entering a community of people who care.

The flower pots on our front porch, mowing the lawn, etc. are all very helpful ways different Rejoice folks have helped us beautify our property.

The more developed our world gets, the fewer “wild” or “natural” spaces there are for animals and plants. When God created our world, God declared all living things good and tasked humanity with taking care of them. By and large, humanity has not done this well. So often we bend the world to meet our needs. When we are planning and caring for the Rejoice property, we want to give weight to the needs of our eco system. To care for plants and animals in conversation with our needs.

This means that we will plant native plants, with on keeping the prairie dogs away from areas we use but not worry about them on parts of our property that we don’t need to use, and be as much of a climate safe-haven as we can.