Greetings!
We are re-engaging the Environmental Missions Prayer Digest after a long summer absence. Jesus reigns as the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of all creation, but it seems to be a premise of prayer that "He likes to be asked." You and I continue to learn how to pray for creation care and environmental missions. Here's a rather curious incident from C.S. Lewis's life. He is responding in a letter to Sister Penelope upon the news that she had successfully "laid hands for healing on a crippled dog." He writes: I was intensely interested in the story of your healing of the little dog. I don't see why one shouldn't. Perhaps indeed those to whom God allows a gift in this way should confirm their own faith in it by practising on beasts for in one way they may be easier to heal than men. Although they cannot have faith in Him (I suppose) they certainly have faith in us, which is faith in Him at one remove: and there is no sin in them to impede or resist. I am glad it happened. . . (from Yours, Jack (HarperOne, 2008, letter of 28 May 1945) Hmmm. . . Thanks for praying. |
Melting glaciers stymie Bhutan's hydro-electric plans and threaten lower-lying villages
In November of this year, the tiny Himalayan nation
 | | Jigmi Thinley welcomes Indian prime minister Man Mohan Singh |
of Bhutan will host regional neighbors India, Nepal, and Bangladesh to discuss the impacts of global climate change on the Himalayas, and thus the impacts on the well-being of their countries. Just this week, Bhutanese prime minister Jigme Thinley released a statement from his office in Thimpu:
"The glaciers are retreating very rapidly, some are even disappearing. The flow of water in our river system is fluctuating in ways that are very worrying, In the summer they overflow their banks in a way that used to never happen in the past and in the winter they shrivel and almost dry up. The climate is changing, global warming is real and the impact on our hydrology is very severe." Bhutan's electricity generation is already net carbon neutral with four hydro-electric plants relying on river flow from Himalayan snow melt. They actually have plans to build more plants and export electricity to India, a sale in which Bhutan would move from being aid-dependent to become economically self-sufficient by 2018. (This deal would also serve to offset some of India's coal-fired power plants.) However now colder, drier winters and warmer, wetter summers have upset the predictability of flow from the glaciers. Last winter, Bhutan had to import electricity from India.
Glacial melt from warmer summers has also resulted in the creation of lakes at higher elevations. If these should burst--as Lake Lugge did in 1994 killling 21 people--villages downhill in their path would be devastated. The government is installing early warning systems and building drainage canals. These projects are at high altitude in difficult conditions.
As for the status of the Church in Bhutan, Operation World calls this Buddhist nation of 700,000 people "one of the least-evangelized countries in the world." Most known Christians are Anglo-Indians or Santali tribal people, that is, not from the majority national population.
Please join us in remembering in prayer: - For wisdom for regional leaders as they convene in November.
- For protection for Bhutanese villagers living below threatening glacial lakes. For quick, strategic, and effective preventative projects from the government.
- That Bhutan could effectively reformulate their hydro-electric plans.
- That the Lord would, in the myriad of ways available to Him and also through us, mitigate climate change, keeping the average global temperature rise at no more than 2 degrees C, and return carbon dioxide levels back to below 350 parts-per-million.
- That the Gospel would find access to this traditionally-isolationist country.
- That the Church would grow in Bhutan.
- That this country famous for it's "Gross Happiness Index" would find their true joy in Jesus Christ, creator, sustainer and redeemer of all creation.
Link: "'Happy' Bhutan alarmed by Himalayan climate change" Photo: Christian Post |
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We look forward to serving you in the months ahead.
Thank you for praying.
And please remember: if you know of any environmental missions projects or prayer requests, please send them our way.
Lowell Bliss
Eden Vigil
Links: Contact the editors, Eden Vigil website, Donations to Eden Vigil
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