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’

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.

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).

We received the following plea for prayer from a friend of LWCCN working with the Maasai in Kenya. There are many such stories happening around the world right now; perhaps this short glimpse into one of these tragedies can help us all to focus our prayers and other efforts on those who need help wherever they are:

Even though I am away, my heart and thoughts have been with my village where we serve in Kenya. As some of you may be aware, for the last few weeks we have had a bad drought that is ravaging the lives and livestock of the maasai that we have been serving.  I received sad news that two children succumbed to death due to drought and this broke my heart to the core. We have not had rain for last year and this year too hence no grass and produce. This has affected children. women and churches as people have to move in search for pastures. Please consider praying for the Maasai in this drought. If interested in supporting the drought emergency fund, let me know and I can share how to do it. May God of peace be with you as you pray for rain and immediate help to the pastoralist!

Here is a story from Reuters (with video) that gives an idea of the scope of this situation.

Contact Lemargeroi Saruni for more information.

Of course, like the rest of creation, Gran Abuelo is being threatened by tourism and climate change. (The locations of the bristlecone pines in California are kept secret for a reason).

What is clear is that the tree is at risk from both tourism and the climate crisis, which could dry out the region and make it harder for the tree to access water. A second tree growing out of the alerce is dying, according to Live Science. Further, the platform surrounding the tree is crushing its roots. Barichivich advised that the walkway be moved farther from the tree and that the tree itself be shielded in netting ten feet high. 

“People are killing it,” Barichivich told Science of the tree. “It requires our protection urgently.”

At the other end of the age spectrum, birds are not long-lived, at least compared to trees. But A Rocha Kenya, which has been ringing birds for a couple of decades, announced on 19 May of this year that they had found a Northern Brownbul that had originally been ringed on 15 February, 2003 – which makes it at least 19 years, 3 months and 4 days old as of the date of capture:

Well done, A Rocha Kenya!

We continue to be impressed by what we hear from the continent of Africa and from our Green Anglican friends in particular. Green Anglicans has just launched in the country of Kenya with plans to plant 15 million trees this year according to this report from The County website:

The Anglican Church of Kenya is set to plant and grow 15 million trees by end of 2026 as their contribution towards conserving the environment.

Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit said it is time the church also contributes to taking care of mother nature by planting at least two million trees every year.

Speaking on Sunday at St Joseph ACK church in Kabireng, Nandi County during the official launch of Green Anglicans Movement (GAM), Sapit said the church is passionate about collecting waste products and educating people on the importance of preserving the environment by planting trees.

“The earth belongs to God and today we gather here to surrender our service to him by taking good care of the environment. Let us make green our various institutions including schools, churches, colleges among others,” he said

GAM of Kenya has three Thematic areas which include Climate Justice Advocacy, Theology of Creation and Communication as the cross-cutting themes.

The vibrant movement encourages members to take up their roles in being good stewards of God’s creation and ensure that the future generation will have a better place to live in.

The Anglican Archbishop further called for adoption of clean and efficient energy to reduce carbon emission of Anglican households and institutions through adoption of 100,000 energy efficient cook stoves and 50,000 solar energy solutions by 2026.

He said the use of wood energy for cooking has led to increased cutting down of trees hence threatening conservation efforts calling on Kenyans to use a cook stove that uses less charcoal and emits less smoke.

” First majority of women in rural areas are greatly affected by smoke produced when cooking and this puts them at great risk of getting respiratory diseases. This intervention will help reduce their vulnerability to health conditions and safeguard their dignity,” he pointed out.

Sapit called on Kenyans to develop a culture of proper waste management systems in institutions in order to keep the environment clean and healthy.

1) In a Bold Move, California’s Governor Issues Ban on Gasoline-Powered Cars as of 2035

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23092020/california-auto-cars-gasoline-electric-vehicles-gavin-newsom

2) 09-21-20 WORLD CHANGING IDEAS  

This is what a zero-emissions city looks like

Oslo has an ambitious goal to cut emissions by 95% by 2030. Here’s how it will do it.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90552168/this-is-what-a-zero-emissions-city-looks-like

3) 08-20-19 WORLD CHANGING IDEAS

How Copenhagen plans to reach carbon-neutral status in just six years

Many cities are aiming for neutrality by 2030 or 2050. The Danish capital plans to be the first carbon-neutral capital in the world and to hit the goal by 2025.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90392020/how-copenhagen-plans-to-reach-carbon-neutral-status-in-just-six-years

4) The Best Summary Of Kenya Renewable Energy (& Dirty Energy) You Can Find

March 30th, 2019 by David Zarembka 

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/03/30/the-best-summary-of-kenya-renewable-energy-dirty-energy-you-can-find/

The A Rocha Kenya marine team recorded bleaching in 2013 and 2016, but with low levels (<10%) mortality for most corals. And now in 2020 the reefs are bleaching again and the A Rocha team in partnership with KWS are back out on the reef. We use permanent quadrats, where the same patch of reef is photographed every month during the event, and the fate of each coral is observed from bleaching response to eventual mortality or survival.

              The result of this current bleaching event will not be known until late 2020, but there are some hopeful signs. Overall coral cover has increased from 10% in 2011 to 20% in 2020 (before bleaching), showing that despite 2 bleaching events the reef recovered slowly towards its pre-1998 state with 40-50% coral cover. Also the crucially important branching Acropora or staghorn corals, which are normally very sensitive to thermal stress, are showing signs of resistance to bleaching during this event. There are many examples of colonies retaining their colour, and some that are regaining it (as of late May). So might the reef become resistant? Possibly, but there are still many colonies that are looking very unhappy and some that are starting to die. Scientists think that if we can propagate the resistant colonies that survive bleaching via ‘coral gardening’ we can help repopulate the reef with thermally tolerant corals, and give a much needed boost to this ailing ecosystem. Some think this is what is needed to get these ecosystems through the next hundred years or so until the world can get to grips with our CO₂ emissions, the ultimate cause for the coral’s calamity. We will continue to collect data and share stories about this work until September when the event will be over. Let’s pray for a dramatic recovery…”

Read the full report here. If you want to help out in efforts like this, or if you live in a part of the world that has coral, and would like to know how to help your own reefs survive, we’re sure Bob would love to chat with you!

Clean up and tree planting in Kenya: The Anglican Church in Kenya posted this report of activities taking place in Machakos district a few hours drive southeast of Nairobi:

The Green Anglicans Movement in Machakos Diocese has upscaled its reach to the villages all in the spirit of inspiring care for creation. Over the weekend, the movement cleaned ikalaasa town area and planted trees. They also made use of the opportunity to evangelize the town.
They were led by the Diocesan Mission Coordinator, the Administrative Secretary clergy and Christians around the diocese for the full day of clean up. The event was organized by the Diocesean Youth Organizer, Rev. Simon Kavita.

https://www.facebook.com/AnglicanChurchofKenya/posts/508800309699430

Taking on Single Use Plastic: The Anglican Church of Southern Africa recently passed a resolution regarding single-use plastic. Here is the last section of the resolution:

[The Anglican Church of Southern Africa] Resolves to:
Call on ACSA to become a #zerowaste Church and call on Parishes and Dioceses to commit to becoming Zerowaste by;
1. Not using plastic bottled water;
2. Not using Styrofoam;
3. Reducing paper as much as possible;
4. Setting up compost heaps and food gardens where possible;
5. Installing recycling bins for church and, if possible, for community;
6. Not using plastic cutlery, cups, water bottles and straws;
7. Displaying a #zerowaste signs at the church;
8. Calls on the governments of South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique and St Helena to ban single use plastic as a matter of urgency.

https://www.facebook.com/GreenAnglicans/posts/2384874014941334

Thank you, sisters and brothers in Africa, for being an example and a light to the rest of us. Now, where are the Green Baptists, Green Presbyterians, Green Charismatics? Now it’s your turn!

Kenya – Nairobi: We thank God that Karen Community Church celebrates care of creation under missions month beginning today. Professor Mbaabu and I come from county in Meru where rivers and streams are drying up. We are pushing the community to become proactive in taking measures that mitigate redemption of water and vegetation on the eastern slopes of mount Kenya. We trust God to stand with us at this critical moment. God bless you and his work.

UK – Bristol: Redland Parish Church is featuring a full, month-long Creationtide program. This is a first for this Anglican church, and the program looks amazing! If you’re in that area, they would love to have you visit. Featured talks and presentations include:

• “Is God Green” (various answers throughout the month)
• “Urban Trees, Plastic Waste and drinking water fountains”
• “Why the Gospel Matters to Tree Frogs”
• and many more!

Click here for a look at the program or here for the Creationtide website.