Happy Chinese New Year! (Year of the Dragon)

Those of you praying with the Environmental Missions Prayer Digest are the first to receive this announcement from Eden Vigil.  We've launched the Agabus Project podcast.  Listen to the inaugural episode where I interview Peter Harris, the founding president of A Rocha International.  We discuss the creation care legacy of his dear friend, Anglican theologian John Stott. 

We'll try to publish two podcasts each month, and they'll also be available on iTunes.  Our second interview in February will be with Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, star of the book The Omnivore's Dilemma and the movie Food Inc.  We'll try to balance episodes between North American creation care topics and cross-cultural environmental missions topics.  The website, www.agabusproject.org will also host a collection of blog postings.

Two related trivia (but not trivial) facts:

• The earliest usage of the term "environmental missions" that I've been able to discover was in an article written by Peter Harris: "Creation Care and Mission" 
• Agabus is the New Testament prophet mentioned in Acts 11 who predicts the famine in Judea and helps mobilize the church to care for the poor.  We thus, albeit tongue-in-check, claim Agabus as the first environmental missionary of the Church age.  

Link: The Agabus Project Podcast

 

Moses, in the striped shirt, leads his congregants in prayer prior to planting vetiver shoots in the nursery.

(The Papua province of Indonesia, formerly called Irian Jaya, is part of the eco-region known as the New Guinea Montane Forests.  See Jan12 EMPD for an introduction to the World Wildlife Fund's Global 200 most biologically diverse eco-regions.) 

Moses is a church leader among the Meyah people of Papua, Indonesia.  His co-worker (whom we'll leave unnamed)  has often been humbled as he watched Moses diligently seek out ways to serve his people.  Moses found a problem in the eroded mountain roadsides of the eco-region.  Moses found a solution in a non-native but non-invasive species of grass.  He found motivation to pursue all of this in Christ Jesus.

Vetiver at two months after planting.

Vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides) is an Indian clump grass that grows quickly.  When planted in hedgerows it prevents erosion and captures sediment run-off.  When it grows, it grows up (i.e. quickly) and down (i.e. deep-rooted), but not out.  In other words, it doesn't spread out.  It doesn't invade.  For that matter, once native species return to the captured sediment, they will actually replace the vetiver, it having done its duty.  "They must increase, I must decrease" seems like a fitting comment on both servant grass and servant leaders. 

  

Eroded mountain roads.

Moses's co-worker wrote the following about prayer:

"I'm excited that this project will be featured in the prayer digest - we could really use the prayer!  My friend Moses, the Meyah church leader who is the project facilitator, will be so thankful for your prayers as well.  Both of us really need wisdom not only in terms of how to technically apply this plant to erosion problems, but also in terms of wisdom as the project matures and more and more people become involved.  We also would really like to see some spiritual fruit come as a result of the project. Moses also would really like prayer on his behalf as he seeks to be a servant-leader for his people's indigenous church." 

Please also pray for this co-worker and his family as they seek to be equipped--body, soul, and spirit--to serve alongside Moses and the church.

Link: The Vetiver Network International 

Link:  Indonesia Vetiver Network 

Link: WWF Global 200: New Guinea Montane Forests