We recently learned that a major Christian publishing company in the Philippines, CSM Publishing, created a one year “Creation Care” Sunday School curriculum, complete with materials for children ages 4 through adults.  It comes in both English and Tagalog, and is designed to call every Christian, both young and old, to apply what they learn into their everyday life.  What an exciting testimony of how God is making big things happen in the creation care movement for an area of the world that is rich in the beauty of God’s creation, and is also suffering under severe environmental degradation.  Read more about this curriculum program here!

Care of Creation will be returning to the Philippines in March 2014–we are very excited to see how we can learn from our brothers and sisters, as well as help inspire those attending the Creation Care Consultation.

Presenters-from left to right: Ed Brown, Denise Thompson, Desmond Rogers, and Las Newman

Inspired by the historic Lausanne Consultation on Creation Care and the Gospel in November (see the Call to Action here), church leaders, climate scientists and university students gathered in Port of Spain, Trinidad to explore specific environmental challenges in the Caribbean, how creation care is linked to the Gospel, and the ways Christians may respond to restore creation.

From April 18th to the 21st, conference goers heard from Dr. Las Newman, President of the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology and International Deputy Director of the Caribbean for the Lausanne Movement, Rev. Desmond Rogers, Regional Secretary for the Caribbean IFES Movement, Katherine Hayhoe, Climate Scientist with the IPCC, and Rev. Edward Brown, Executive Director of Care of Creation and Senior Associate for Creation Care for the Lausanne Movement.

One way Trinidad and Tobago is striving to steward their environment well involves collecting recyclable plastic in and around Port of Spain, a campaign called Plastikeep.  Their mission is to collect and recycle plastics so that they are kept from overburdened landfills, as well as encourage people to reduce their consumption of plastic goods.  By January 2011, they had collected 17,000 pounds of recyclable plastic!

This November 2013, another Creation Care conference will be held in Port of Spain to spur on a national creation care movement in Trinidad and Tobago; other Caribbean nations are currently looking to join this effort as well.  Are you interested in being part of this Caribbean movement to care for God’s creation?  Write to us and we’ll put you in touch with the conference organizers in Trinidad and Tobago!

Left to Right: three attendees converse with Las Newman and Desmond Rogers, presenters at the Conference.

Thanks to Dr. Thompson and the InterVarsity chapters of the University of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the University of the West Indies and the Lausanne Movement for hosting and sponsoring this event.

Urbana Student Missions Conference 2012.

Only two environmentally-focused organizations were represented in the great hall of 250+ exhibitors: ourselves, and Eden Vigil, an environmental missions organization.  This indicated to us that 1) we were going to have ALL students, with ANY interest in the environment, coming to our booth, and 2) we had a vital role to play in representing God’s heart for his world.

We talked with hundreds of students, many of whom were majoring in an environmental field, such as sustainable agriculture, environmental sciences, biology, zoology, and the like.  Their question for us, again and again, was, “what does my area of study (insert here) have to do with my faith in Jesus?”

What a great question!

Essentially, it comes down to a paradigm shift: what doesn’t have to do with the lordship of Christ?  The answer: nothing.  Or, to turn it to a positive: everything has to do with the lordship of Christ.  So if you are going to be a wildlife ecologist, do so for the glory of Christ.  If you feel called to design better irrigation systems to conserve water efficiently-that’s great!  There is not one profession that is more holy than another-God does not require that you attend seminary in order to serve him well.

So go out there, follow your calling from God, and remember that your mission field is exactly where you are…right now.  Read more about environmental missions.

Ed Brown gave a seminar entitled, “The Environmentalists’ Dilemma: Plants or People?”  If the same question has bothered you (how can we possibly make saving TREES or SALAMANDERS more important than saving people’s souls!?), listen to the seminar here.