PORTLAND, Ore. — As of Saturday, the parking lot of a church in Northeast Portland is almost completely gone. It's being depaved and turned into a green space to help fight the increase in hot temperatures in urban areas.
Pastor Kenneth Ransfer couldn't be more excited to see his church parking lot be torn apart.
"This is also just so awesome and amazing to see what the almighty God is doing on the property. I really feel like this is the vision that we have as a church family," Ransfer said.
For decades, the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church had a back parking lot. Soon, that will be no more, and it will become a greener space.
"Being able to have a small farm, where we can own this side, where we're growing vegetables and so forth — but also teaching young people in the future about some farming," said Ransfer.
It's part of a project by the city of Portland and a nonprofit called Depave.
"The main focus is to restore urban environments and make them natural environments by removing this blacktop pavement that's a core part of our urban cities and how we designed them," said Sam Baraso with the Portland Clean Energy Fund.
Depave was granted over half a million dollars to remove pavement from six sites. One of those was Powell Butte Elementary School, and now, it's Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church.
"We use prybars, which are heavy metal bars that we pry into the pavement to precut sections of pavement, so we precut them with a big saw," explained Katherine Rose with Depave.
The goal isn't just to remove the asphalt but to also lower temperatures and help with climate change.
"We're seeing 20 degrees higher temperatures in these areas, so by removing these, ultimately by restoring it and adding vegetation, native plantings, we're able to reduce temperatures of areas like this," said Baraso.
The Depave project also bring the community together to take care of the environment.
"Seeing the life put back in this space is going to build even more connection," Rose said.
The church also can't wait to see the transformation.
"Only God can make a tree, so we believe that God would have us preserve what he created," Ransfer said.