Josephine Kijabe is a missionary serving amongst communities who rely on livestock and small-scale agriculture as their livelihood. She shares with us about Community Health Evangelism—integrating disciple and evangelism with community based development.

She writes,

“Most of their livelihoods have recently been threatened due to climate change and other factors caused by it. Many have suffered hunger, diseases like malnutrition, poverty, and the like. To share Christ’s compassion effectively and bring hope, I asked God what I could do to be the light in these communities. The Lord laid in my heart heavily to do gardening, conservation, land management, and agriculture in general and be a good steward of what God has given us, including land.”

Josephine began gardening—despite semi-arid land conditions, and by God’s grace, witnessed land restoration. She shared her practices with the community, aiding them to do so in their own homes, beginning with women and youth, but joined also now by the men.

She reflects that, “…agriculture is an excellent tool for effective evangelism in all aspects of life. It meets the people’s very core needs. I am very passionate about being used by God to make disciples of Christ by speaking about climate change and taking action by following the best farmer in the world, God himself, through nature.”

We thank God for Josephine’s story, and for her life (as well as so many others like her!) in tending the ground and bearing good news!

‘How our land looked before we started following the example of the best farmer in the world, God himself’

‘How the land now looks’

This groundbreaking initiative, funded by the Templeton Religion Trust (TRT), is poised to harness the transformative potential of diverse faith traditions, collaborating with secular partners to champion urban development that fosters thriving communities for all. With urban populations projected to reach 68% of the global populace by 2050, the challenges and opportunities of urbanization are more crucial than ever. Faith for Cities aims to be a strategic initiative that provides a significant platform for the global Christian community to organize itself and impact the development of cities to ensure that they are environmentally sustainable, socially just, and conducive to human flourishing.

Elisara is leading a workshop on Faith for Cities on 5^th December at COP28. If interested and attending COP28 sign up to attend the workshop at the link on the Faith for Cities homepage, or click here.

WEA Secretary General Thomas Schirrmacher is a member of the report’s advisory committee while Dr. Chris Elisara was retained by the WEF to do survey research, write case studies, and provide other input and advice for the report. Several of the case studies are Christian, including one focusing on the Transformational Business Network founded by Dr. Kim Tan, who spoke at the recent WEA Future of the Gospel Forum.

Learn more: https://www.weforum.org/projects/faith-in-action/

The next phase in the “Faith in Action” project is to host faith and business conversations throughout 2024.

The awareness of ecological crises, and Christian publications on the topic provided an impetus for this. Among the publications was the 2022 book “FROMM + GRÜN” (pious + green), published by Thomas Kröck and Heinrich Chr. Rust. This book presents a study investigating the concerns and sentiments of Protestant congregations towards the issue of creation care. Another study on social justice and environmental sustainability has been conducted by the research institute Empirica, due to be published in spring 2024.

Additionally, various Evangelical Alliance churches and church associations have been intentionally engaging with this topic:

The ‘Creation + Responsibility’ working group of the Evangelical Gnadauer Gemeinschaftsverband (an umbrella organisation of the Pietist congregations) was founded this year. This group aims to encourage churches to engage with this topic—part of the efforts for this includes a quarterly published newsletter.

Friends of A Rocha in Germany has also been established, and have been organising various events.

Prepared by: Dr. Thomas Kröck, Director of Studies at Christian Development Studies of AcF.

The third was Colin Smith who devoted six decades to recording and describing the butterflies of this Himalayan country.

Arriving from Britain in 1964 to work with United Mission to Nepal, Colin was motivated by his Christian faith from the beginning until his death on 4 November 2023. He began by teaching maths, but quickly became fascinated by the spectacular butterflies of the Himalayas, drawing on an interest sparked by his uncle in England and spurred by a request from his mission agency to create a butterfly collection for Nepal. In 1974, he seized an opportunity to work on butterflies fulltime through a Nepali university, and over the next decades increased the number of butterfly species recorded in Nepal from less than 400 to about 650. He recorded his work in over 30 books, one becoming a best-seller in Kathmandu. Colin has inspired many people through his work and life, training many young Nepalis as lepidopterists and becoming known locally as Putali Bajey (“Butterfly Grandpa” in Nepali). He will be remembered for drawing many people to appreciate God’s creation in a place of remarkable biodiversity.

This picture was taken in Kathmandu, 2002. Taken from Invertebrates in the Himalaya (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Are you curious and concerned about the global issue of plastic?

Join the Lausanne / WEA Creation Care network (LWCCN) for a public webinar on this! The webinar is part of a series exploring theological and practical aspects of creation care.

Join the conversation on “Plastics: Blessings or Curse?”

Time: 14.00 UTC | Date: 21 November 2023

Watch this space: https://lausanne.org/gatherings/plastics-blessings-or-curse for more details and registration—which is opening soon!

Craig Sorley has served with Creation Stewards International (CSI) as the “Kenya Director” for more than 20 years. Working with both church and community leaders, as well as farmers, CSI’s focus is to train and disciple people to grow in Christ and become good stewards of creation. One example to be celebrated is CSI’s work with discouraged farmers, whose crop yields have declined dramatically due to erosion and deforestation. Using Farming God’s Way, a biblically based version of conservation agriculture, CSI has trained people how to restore their soil and their farms. Trees have been planted and many farmers across Kenya have been able to double and sometimes triple their crop yields. People win spiritually as they walk closer with God, and their hope and dignity are being restored as their farms grow more food.

To learn more about CSI’s work, and the 500 Mile Walk that Craig is doing, check out their website.

The Logos and Cosmos Initiative by IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students) began in 2021, and we (Venuz and Johnny) were invited to consider several deeper questions that integrated our faith with our academic backgrounds: “How can we understand environmental issues through the eyes of faith? What does our Christian faith have to say about this crisis? What actions can we propose as Christians and professionals?”

Amidst these ruminations, we initiated a small action which involved creating space for dialogue with students from the University Evangelical Group (GEU) in Guatemala. The goal was to understand the science of climate change, articulate a Christian perspective, and encourage students to reflect on how their academic knowledge and skills could contribute to the message of restoration in the gospel. The project seeks to engage university students in reflection, so they understand how deeply God cares for creation. This belief should motivate them to be part of the plan to care for and restore it through changes in their lifestyles, personal aspirations, diet, community life, and more. We hope that by presenting the issue and the message of the gospel, the concept of caring for creation becomes a part of students’ lives.

Today, we have concluded this first stage, but we continue with a new project called “From Reflection to Action.” Here, we aim to promote dialogue spaces that include other important perspectives for the university, such as indigenous knowledge. Additionally, we want to provide tools and incentives for students to propose their own projects.

Please keep us in prayer:

• for the project’s beginning (September) and for the participants, that it becomes a space to reconnect with the Creator God and Sustainer of life.
• There are many plans and dreams for the medium and long term, but we need discernment, courage, and capabilities to work towards these. Pray that the Lord may provide in His time and finds us responsive to His call.
• We also desire to partner with the local church community and others around the world with individuals who have identified this as their calling. This would allow us to continue growing and enduring.

(Venuz Perez)

Hello, friends! We invite you to join us in pollinating creation care happenings across different directions: not only global event, news, and announcements, but also stories from the grassroots! So, if you’ve a project, story or news about Creation Care that would be of interest to others around the world, please tell us! It’s helpful if you can send a summary (50-200 words) with a photo or two and a link to a webpage if possible. Please send this to creationcare@lausanne.org.

This month we’ve heard back from members of LWCCN involved in…

• Turkana County, Kenya, assessing how Faith Groups (Churches) can be involved in tackling the impacts of extreme drought. The droughts are leading to cattle and other animals dying and to increasing malnutrition and starvation. LWCCN member, Nshizirungu Hubert is working to help Church and Faith Groups access Loss and Damage funds from within Kenya and internationally.
• Pakistan about using natural methods to recycle Waste-Water for economic, environmental and social benefits. Riaz Yousaf, known as ‘The Waterman’, has recently published a book ‘The Responsibility Ignored’ looking at the water and waste-water economy of Pakistan.
• Nepal where a ministry dedicated to working with single women, ‘Rise and Shine’ is dedicated to building strength in unity, including providing agricultural advice and training.
• Arizona, USA researching how evangelical Christian views on environment and creation are changing, linked to views on end-times theology (eschatology).

The Loka Initiative at the University of Wisconsin (a partner of LWCCN) is presenting a major online summit, Resilience in the Anthropocene (RITA), on August 8-10. This is free and will bring together researchers, academics, experts from communities most impacted by environmental devastation and climate change, clinical and counselling psychology practitioners, and contemplative leaders to discuss eco-anxiety and climate distress within a framework of inner, community, and planetary resilience. Though not from a Christian perspective, I think the material could be incredibly useful for all of us working with Christians and churches. Here are a few major themes to be covered:

Dimensions of Emotional Distress: Understanding the psychological and emotional impacts of the environmental and climate crises through an intersectional and justice lens.

Exploration of Coping Mechanisms: Learning from contemplative practices, clinical and counselling psychology, nature-based and Indigenous wisdom traditions to cope and even thrive in uncertain times.

A Framework of Resilience: Collaboratively designing a new framework of inner, community, and planetary resilience that sustains us all.

Free registration link is here!