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Environmental Missions Prayer Digest
December 2011 
Greetings!

Let's make sure and pray for the climate negotiations convening this week in Durban, South Africa, for COP 17 ("Conference of the Parties" to the Kyoto Protocol.)  At first glance, it's possible that the protests in Durban are proving more substantive than the official negotiations.  I don't mean this to be a cynical statement about official outcomes.  As I heard one commentator say, sometimes low expectations create the best environment for actually getting work done.  What I mean by drawing attention to the protests is that we have an opportunity in Durban to learn about grassroots sentiments, agendas, and initiatives.  Maybe it's this year's location (Durban vs. Copenhagen), but the small indigenous groups like the South Africa Waste Pickers Association (featured below) may attract the microphone more this year than big groups like Greenpeace.  Maybe the Global Occupy Wall Street movement has sensitized us to listen to protests as sources of information and perspective.

In preparing a New Year's Day sermon on "Hope: Romans 5:1-5," I came across this quotation from Wendell Berry in his essay Discipline and Hope: "Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success, namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one's own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence."  

 

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Waste Pickers Want to be Part of the Solution
The last shall be first in Durban

SAWPA at Durban  
You may have seen the admonition "Reuse, Reduce, Recycle," any number of times, but when have you seen it as a placard at a major protest march?  (The center poster in the photo above--hard to read--says "Compost waste, don't burn it.")

Simon Mbata is the director of the South African Waste Pickers Association (SAWPA),  Interviewed by Democracy Now. Mbata said, "We demand a recognition and respect for the waste pickers, because waste pickers are playing a crucial role in combatting climate change.  Our job which most people [don't] recognize, it contributes a lot in emission reduction. Our work is to recycle the resources which were discarded as waste, resources like paper, plastic, glass, cardboard, and steel.  These resources are extracted, transported, and manufactured, so by reusing them through recycling we reduce emissions."

  

When Simon Mbata appeared at the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa meetings in July, his position showed a high degree of sophistication: "Waste pickers are not fighting for the right to be on landfill sites, they are fighting to be part of the waste management system."  He considers most municipal waste management systems to be a "false solution," as wasteful as what they processed.  Adding a human component to waste management (through waste pickers) means not only more recycling, but more jobs.  

Please join us in prayer: 
  • "Lord, grant success to the COP 17 climate negotiations, according to your wisdom, and according to your sovereign rule as the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of all creation." 
  • "Lord, cultivate hope in all those who labor in the care of creation and in environmental missions."  
  • Pray that respect, recognition, and opportunity might be granted to the Waste Pickers of the world, whether in South Africa, Brazil, India, or any and all countries.   May the Lord bless their labour.  
  • Pray for the many Christian churches and organizations who are reaching out to their local waste picker communities with evangelism, discipleship, schooling, and warm meals.  These churches are betting it all on the Lord's words that "the last shall be first." 

Link: Article: What will be the future of waste picker's in South Africa?  

Link: Interviews: Thousands March at U.N. Climate Summit in Durban 

Photo: Orin Langelle/GJEP, Z Magazine.

 

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Watch for the launch of Eden Vigil's AGABUS PROJECT podcast in January 2012.

We look forward to serving your environmental missions praying in the new year.
PLEASE PASS THIS PRAYER DIGEST ON TO THREE (3) OTHERS.

If you know of any environmental missions projects or prayer requests, please send them our way.   

Merry Christmas! 

Lowell Bliss
Eden Vigil


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