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Environmental Missions Prayer Digest
March 2010
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Greetings!
Bringing our best trinitarian thinking to bear, what is the significance of the Second Person of the Trinity being so closely associated with the creation of all things?
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see--such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. " Col. 1:15-17 (NLT)
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Pray for farming/re-forestation in Kenya
The Sorleys and Care of Creation Kenya understand creation care in terms of church discipleship
Craig and Tracy Sorley, environmental missionaries with Care of Creation Kenya (CCK) have just printed up a new family prayer card. Alongside their smiling faces, you can read their personal mission statement: "Spreading a passion for Christ, and for the stewardship of His creation, for the sake of the poor." The organization that they direct out of a tree nursery in Limuru, Kenya naturally bears a similar vision: "Our mission is to pursue a God-centered response to the environmental crisis in Africa which brings glory to the Creator, advances the cause of Christ, and leads to a transformation of the people and the land that sustains them."
The means through which CCK seeks to realize their vision of glory, advancement, and transformation is the same means by which God has chosen to realize His vision: namely, through the church. CCK mobilizes the Kenyan church. They've identified three areas of practical action and have developed discipleship curricula around them, bearing such names as "Planting God's Trees," "Harvesting God's Water," and "Farming God's Way."
You can read in the link below how Craig testifies as one of Time Magazine's Environmental Heroes of 2008.
 Please pray- Pray that God would open doors for CCK to pass on a biblical vision for creation stewardship to some of the most prominent church leaders in the country.
- Pray that God would bring to CCK a handful of mature Kenyan leaders who could become full-time staff members, helping the organization grow.
- Pray that CCK would succeed in finding godly leaders who could be added to the existing board.
- Pray that God would supply CCK with the funding necessary to spread its vision countrywide.
- Pray that God would bless the Sorleys with the wisdom, encouragement, health and safety they need to carry forward with the work.
Photos: Care of Creation Kenya
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Pray for the scaling-up of biochar production
Four Cs: Carbon-sequestration, Conditioning of soil, Christar, and China
Have you been introduced to biochar yet? Take any biomass (such as farm or kitchen waste) and burn it in a pyrolysis chamber (low oxygen environment.) The biomass will turn into good old fashioned charcoal. But then take that charcoal (called biochar), ship it to an outlying farm, and work it into the soil, essentially burying it back underground. You've done two things: you've successfully sequestered carbon (a climate change mandate), and you've successfully conditioned the soil (an agricultural fertility mandate.)
Australian Tim Flannery writes, "Biochar may represent the single most important initiative for humanity's environmental future. The biochar approach provides a uniquely powerful solution, for it allows us to address food security, the fuel crisis, and the climate problem, and all in an immensely practical manner."
A Christar team is currently operating in one of East Asia's most polluted cities. This team of Christian engineers plans to separate out the organic waste from the city's landfills and incinerators, produce biochar, and then supply it to the region's farms, many of which are suffering severe soil depletion. They've actually received offers of support from the federal government. Unfortunately, the technology for biochar production, while existent, has not yet arrived at the industrial scale necessary to satisfy the government's demands, Tim Flannery's dreams, or the Christar team's plans.
- Pray for those companies developing biochar technology that they will be able to scale up quickly and effectively.
- Pray that the many small biochar projects (like the one pictured above in North Carolina) will multiply.
- Pray for the Christar team which is attempting to develop partnerships with North American companies at least for the purpose of beta testing biochar production in their East Asian city.
- Pray for this team as they continue to faithfully share the Good News and start house fellowships.
Photo: flikr.com/350.org
Links: International Biochar Initiative
Christar
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Thank you for praying. Mobilizing prayer for environmental missions and creation care means recruiting others. Please forward this e-mail (see below) to those you think may be interested in joining us. Also, if you have some specific environmental missions prayer requests of your own, please share them. While I can't promise that all requests will be featured in upcoming issues, we at Eden Vigil will be praying for you.
(Also, if the Lord's calling leads you away from this prayer digest, or if you receive this by mistake, you always have the option to unsubscribe below. Use "update profile" if you don't intend to delete other Bliss family or Eden Vigil mailings.)
God bless you,
Lowell & Robynn Bliss
Eden Vigil
Links: Contact the editors, Eden Vigil website, Donations to Eden Vigil
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