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’

In her book, agricultural scientist Naomi Bosch explores the root causes of the ecological and social crises of our times. She also outlines biblical solutions to these, further offering a hopeful perspective by recounting inspiring stories of people who are already walking the talk. And, she provides ideas on how to help regenerate your little corner of God’s creation—both individually and as community. 

Our very own Dr Dave Bookless commends this book for your attention:

‘This is a beautiful and important book – please read it! It is filled with love for nature, biblical wisdom, challenges to our lifestyles, and realistic hope. Be warned, it may change your life!’

You can order the book on Amazon and SCM-Shop, or get a signed copy directly from the author (message naomi@plentiful-lands.com or through Instagram/Facebook @plentiful_lands).

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.

World-renowned agronomist Tony Rinaudo – who spoke at the LWCCN conference in Jordan in October 2022 – has helped millions through his work in Niger. Now he wants to inspire the next generation by telling his story. Nicknamed the ‘Forest Maker’, Tony Rinaudo is widely known for bringing back forests without planting trees. His work has been called “the largest environmental transformation in the Sahel and perhaps in all of Africa.” For his influential contributions, Tony has received numerous awards including the Right Livelihood Award, and was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia.

A Rocha Australia asked him about his miraculous journey and recent autobiography, The Forest Underground: Hope for a Planet in Crisis – Australia’s Christian book of the year, 2022. This version has been edited for the Pollinator:

Tell us a bit about yourself and what you’re known for!

I am 65 years old, married with four children and eight grandchildren. Liz and I spent 17 years in Niger Republic, West Africa with SIM, working to improve the livelihoods of rural communities. Now, I’m the Principal Climate Action Advisor for World Vision. I’m called the ‘Forest Maker’ because of my work on restoring trees and landscapes. While in Niger, I began developing and promoting a low cost, rapid form of reforestation called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), which is spreading around the world.

 So, what is FMNR, and what potential does it have?

Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) is both a technical practice and community development approach for mobilising and empowering local communities to restore their natural environment through the systematic regrowth and management of remnant vegetation on diverse landscapes, which has climate change mitigation and adaptation benefits. Basically, FMNR is an embarrassingly simple and affordable method of regreening land by reviving trees rather than planting new ones. You can find out more about it and all its benefits at https://fmnrhub.org.au.

There is enormous potential to implement FMNR across large swathes of land in a wide range of environments – from hyper-arid, through arid and semi-arid zones, tropical, alpine and even coastal environments. Tens of millions of hectares contain remnant living tree stumps with the capacity to re-grow, or dormant seeds with the ability to germinate and grow given the right conditions. Even where there are no seeds or living stumps, if land management patterns change in previously forested areas nature has a chance to colonise the land with grasses, shrubs and trees.

What is The Forest Underground: Hope for a Planet in Crisis about?

The Forest Underground is my autobiography, tracing my early years growing up Australia, my struggles to find solutions to severe desertification and the global spread of FMNR and challenges ahead. The book speaks of my motivation and faith journey and outlines how the Lord has called, provided, and led me. Ultimately, The Forest Underground is a story of hope in the face of climate change, deforestation and land degradation, biodiversity loss and poverty. It really is the good-news story that, I hope, will move hearts and hands to care for God’s planet.

This is an incredibly powerful story. What do you hope readers will take away from it?

I hope readers will not just be inspired, but moved to action in whatever capacity God has provided an opening for. I hope those in the land restoration sector will take the hard-earned lessons to heart and incorporate an FMNR type approach to environmental problem solving to their work; that donors and governments will increasingly give to these types of interventions. I think too that The Forest Underground is a call to all of us to trust God and listen to him in the face of our most pressing problems. He is there for us. Let’s reach out and let him lead us.

If God is calling you to this type of work, or calling you to support somebody else who is—then please consider it prayerfully and with wise counsel from others.

And finally, how can we buy the book?

It’s available as hardback, paperback and e-book from major online retailers. Royalties go towards the FMNR movement! (Amazon). Tony was interviewed by Christianity Today last fall.

The John Ray Initiative in the UK is hosting another in their ongoing series of webinars. This one will be held on 4 February 2 – 5:30 pm UK time. The event features author Norman Wirzba of Duke University and JRI’s own Margot Hudson.

On Saturday 4th February 2023 (2.00pm to 5.30pm) JRI will be holding a joint event with CRES on Zoom. Norman Wirzba is Professor of Theology at the Divinity School, Duke University, USA. He will speak on “Loving the Land that God Loves” looking at the theology of the land. Rev Margot Hodson is Director of Theology and Education for JRI. She will speak on “Stewardship of God’s Land“, considering some of the practical aspects of the ownership of the land by the Church.

Remaining places are open to all. The event is free although donations will of course be welcome. There will be a break mid-way through the programme and opportunities for discussion. To find out more and to book your place please click on the button below. When you register for the event an email is automatically generated, please check your Spam box! The Zoom link will be sent out separately to those registering to attend.

Click here for more information and to register for the webinar.

After a two year hiatus due to (yes, you guessed it) Covid, the annual ECHO International Agricultural Conference will be held in person at their Fort Myers, FL campus. For three decades ECHO has been at the forefront of bringing cutting edge scientific knowledge to farmers around the world, and this conference is a wonderful opportunity to learn from some leading thinkers in the field and to meet people from many different areas who may be struggling with some of the same challenges you are.

Dates are 15-17 November, with an early bird registration of US$325 (goes up to US$400 after 31 August). Registration details are here. This is ECHO’s description of the event:

For twenty-eight years, ECHO has brought together networks of like-minded individuals devoted to eradicating hunger and improving lives through agriculture and community development. For the past two years, due to novel coronavirus, ECHO’s Annual Conference moved online. This year we are returning to our in-person event. We are thrilled to invite you to join us in Fort Myers, Florida on November 15th-17th to connect once again together on ECHO’s Florida Campus. The ECHO International Agriculture Conference will return with speakers addressing agricultural challenges, personal experiences, and strategies for improving the lives of millions who daily face food insecurity.

The JRI blog has a post this month by Dr Mariann Molnár, researcher, on farm animal welfare in the European Union that should be of interest to many Pollinator readers in that region (and elsewhere).

A couple of excerpts:

I have found that while farmers are directly responsible for the day-to-day care of their animals, most of them are severely constrained financially or by the technologies they have invested in, which makes it very hard for them to make meaningful changes to the welfare of animals. They are acutely aware of problems caused by large-scale, intensive, indoor farming systems and while they need to ensure a profit, most of them have traditional values and would prefer to keep their animals in more natural conditions. Second, EU minimum animal welfare standards were only able to ensure improved conditions for a limited subset of issues, while it ignored other important matters. But regulations were still very much needed, yet problems induced by varying degrees of enforcement in different Member States, or the fear of over-regulation were also widely apparent. Finally, while most EU citizens were found to be highly concerned for farm animal welfare when shopping for food, other factors came into play.

…Data from my study indicates that to ensure meaningful change to the welfare of farm animals, it is essential for the ongoing EU agriculture reform effort to provide a workable alternative production and trade model that can be used in the current free trade context. Indeed, most farmers I have interacted with claim that given the right measures, a sustainable, small- to medium-scale farming enterprise, that is diverse (i.e. produces more than one product), extensive, or semi-intensive, and provides animals with indoor and outdoor access is a workable farming model. To compensate for higher costs of production in such a system, farmers also see the need to stop selling their animals to companies and start engaging directly in the processing and sale of their products. This model is already apparent, but only for the smallest alternative producers, who have not invested in current forms of large-scale intensive agricultural practices. The most pressing question then is to identify incentives that could facilitate these changes for willing farmers currently working with intensive farming operations.

I believe that a successful transition away from the use of intensive farming systems is possible and if done with care, reflective of conflicting human-animal interests and compromised arrangements, it may offer numerous environmental, human, and animal welfare benefits. This is an exceptional opportunity for the EU, European farmers, and citizens to work together for a goal of common interest.

Read the rest here.

ECHO East Africa is hosting a symposium at the end of September that will be online. Description is as follows:

Register here.

A Rocha International recently held an online “Festival” for their entire global family. Besides being a model of how to conduct a conference for hundreds of people over many different time zones (Congratulations, whoever pulled that off! Great job!), the Festival also featured several very high quality and important talks. We requested, and A Rocha have agreed, that these talks be made available to the rest of us. Here’s what’s on offer:

• Simon Stuart (A Rocha CEO): The State of the World (YouTube / Vimeo)
• Deepa Senapathi: The Choices We Make (intesection of conservation and farming) (Vimeo)
• Katharine Hayhoe: Talking Climate Change with Christians (Vimeo); Dealing with Disagreement (Vimeo); Finding Hope (Vimeo) [*]

[*Insider tip: a good bit of Katharine’s material is also covered in her new book coming in September. You’ll want to both watch and read… !]