|
|
Environmental Missions Prayer Digest
June 2010 |
|
Greetings!
Combines are rolling in Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri's boot heel, as this year's North American wheat harvest is begun. Wet weather hampers Oklahoma's efforts in particular, but hopes are high for once again filling the grain elevators and putting bread on our tables.
It's a good season to remind ourselves of the appetites of our Lord:
Then Jesus explained [to his disciples beside the well at Samaria]:
"My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. You know the saying, 'Four months between planting and harvest.' But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! You know the saying, 'One plants and another harvests.' And it's true. I sent you to harvest where you didn't plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest." (John 4:34-38, NLT)
Thank you for praying for the harvest!
|
Pray for researchers protecting world food supply from the Red Menace
Ug99, a fungus also known as "stem rust," has the potential to wipe out 80% of the world's wheat crop
The last major outbre ak of wheat stem rust occurred the year I was born, 1962. It destroyed 5.2% of the U.S. crop that year. I however, like so many of you, have grown up-- planted, cultivated, blossomed, if you will-- in that great flourishing known as the Green Revolution. What do we know of major crop failures?
Stem rust has re-emerged in a resistant strain, discovered in Uganda in 1999 (thus, its designation Ug99). Outbreaks have occurred in Iran, Yemen, and Israel, heading in the direction of the great South Asian and Chinese breadbaskets. Some scientists claim that 19% of the world's crop is in "imminent danger."
Planting breeding with a view to
developing Ug99-resistant varieties of wheat is a slow, exacting, multi-year
process. Chuck Colson featured Ug99 in a recent Breakpoint broadcast, calling it "the new Red Menace." He encouraged us to pray for scientists. (When's the last time the Church has sought to bless science through our prayers?) Detailing the potential spread of UG99, Colson said, "That's why food
scientists are scrambling to stay ahead of fungus and prevent a
catastrophe. Christians ought to support and pray for their efforts. It's
hard to imagine a greater priority than preventing a global food
crisis. We in the West might be able to absorb higher food prices--our
neighbors and brethren in the global south can't."
Please
pray:
for
those dedicated plant scientists who patiently research the means to combat Ug99 and other plant diseases.
for a divinely-orchestrated breakthrough in the research
that our sovereign Lord will slow the spread of Ug99, whose spores can even apparently be carried across borders in the clothing of travellers.
for relief for those countries already experiencing food stress (e.g. Uganda, Ethiopia, Yemen.) the harvest of the Gospel among the world's farmers.
Photos: USDA
|
Pray for our first ever Environmental Missions Consultation
Missions leaders and creation care leaders convene in Manhattan, KS, July 12-15, to seek our marching orders.
Gary Allyn, Eden Vigil's sustainable tech developer, makes biochar with an inverted milk can as a pyrolysis chamber
 | Considering that William Carey, the father of modern missions who first went to Serampore, India in 1792, was also a world-class botanist, we shouldn't argue too fully that Environmental Missions is a new category of missions. Faithful cross-cultural workers have labored for generations, preaching the Good News of Jesus and lending a hand to such pursuits as sustainable agriculture, disaster relief, and clean water development. Nonetheless, the extent of need of our current environmental crisis calls out for a fresh mobilization of our God's church to care for the poor, and to seek out those least-reached by the Gospel.
One way to understand the term "environment" is to say that it "is nothing more than 'that which surrounds the people we love, the people for whom Christ died.'" That is a statement I made in a recent article entitled "What is an Environmental Missionary?" That same question will be asked of missions leaders and creation leaders who will be participating in our first ever Environmental Missions Consultation. Discussions will be as far-ranging as the Holy Spirit allows, but we hope to define the new category, establishing the biblical and scientific rigor that ensures that environmental missions is a true integration of faithful disciple-making and effective creation care. Honestly, we are looking for "marching orders." Here we are, Lord. Send us out into your troubled creation among your lost created. How best can we mobilize the Church to God's glory?
There remains an open invitation to this consultation. If you would like to join us, please find the Care of Creation is a beloved co-sponsor of the Environmental Missions Consultation. | agenda and details on the Eden Vigil web link below, and by all means, come!
Or please join us through prayer:
- that the Lord would continue to call the participants of His choosing to this Consultation. (We're not asking for big numbers, but for "right" numbers.)
- that Christ Jesus would be pleased to join us, as the loudest and clearest voice in the Consultation.
- for the abandonment of our own agendas, in search of His.
- for the successful management of many travel and organizational details.
- for wise answers to the questions we intend to ask.
Photo: Lowell Bliss
Links:
Lowell Bliss in Flourish Magazine: "What is an Environmental Missionary"
Agenda for Environmental Missions Consultation
Care of Creation website
|
|
Mobilizing for environmental missions means FIRST AND FOREMOST
mobilizing for PRAYER.
The "Forward E-mail" link below represents
one of the best ways to mobilize prayer for environmental missions. Who
among your friends and contacts would like this invitation to pray?
What should we pray for next month?
We are always asking that question of God, not only because we need to publish a new prayer digest next month, but because we want to be praying for that ministry, people group, or issue where God Himself is ready to act. If you would like to suggest a prayer focus, please contact us.
God bless you,
Lowell Bliss
Eden Vigil
Links: Contact the editors, Eden Vigil website, Donations to Eden Vigil
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
