Environmental Missions Prayer Digest

December 2013

You take one end of the stretcher and I'll take the other. A disaster like November's hurricane Yolanda/Haiyan, the deadliest typhoon on record in the Philippines, is no time for creation care advocates to argue, "See! I'm right." The author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, Bjorn Lomberg takes up the discussion in a recent USA Today column (click here). But our response should be: "Is our God not mighty and compassionate enough for both climate change mitigation and poverty alleviation?!"

In many quiet ways, the tiny nation of the Philippines is taking the lead both in sending cross-cultural missionaries (see this article by the National Director of the Philippines Missions Association) but also in promoting a culture of creation care throughout her churches. March 17-21, 2014, the city of Pampanga will host the first regional conference on Creation Care and the Gospel, co-sponsored by the Lausanne Movement, the World Evangelical Alliance, A Rocha International, and Care of Creation. Nine conferences in all will be conducted in the next three years, but the Philippines is the first. Participants are invited from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan. (If you would like to inquire about an invitation to attend, please click here.) Lausanne Senior Associate Ed Brown says:

"We are pleased that the Lausanne Global Creation Care campaign will be starting in the Philippines. This country has seen more weather-related devastation than almost any other, and Christians there are eager to have their churches lead the response to environmental degradation, so this is symbolically an important place to begin. We are confident that this conference will prepare people from all of the Southeast Asia nations to begin viable creation care movements in their countries."

The conference registrar himself wrote even today from the Philippines:

"I'm still travelling in the Philippines, visiting some of our teams, doing workshops

and talks, trying to get my head around what caring for creation means in this context.

This land is particularly rich in endemic species, but many are endangered. We have

set up a crisis management team to respond to Typhoon Yolanda/ Haiyan - one

longterm need is mangrove restoration.

Other challenges include the 110,000 people living in tents etc in Zamboanga City -

their homes were burned to the ground in the sectarian battles in September.

And then there's the almost total loss of forest in many areas and the severe soil erosion

that follows. BUT we are people of hope - working with local pastors to develop responses

has been a great encouragement."

Pray for the humanitarian mission of the military

Filipino airmen, US marines -- wherever the disaster, military professionals are often the most effective and compassionate responders

An airman from the Filipino Air Force assists a civilian family off a US Marine U.S. Marine C-130 Hercules aircraft at Villamor Air Base, Nov. 12. (Photo credits: Flikr CC: DVIDSHUB, 2013)

There were many soldiers who weren't home this year to march in the various Remembrance Day parades conducted last month. No, they weren't off to war. Their battles weren't against the opposing side. They were fighting against time, pulling off the rescue needed in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan. I saw the same thing after the Pakistan earthquake of 2005. For ever much the Pakistani military gets vilified in the world press, no one did a better job in earthquake relief than the Pakistani army. And now the Filipino military takes up the task for their countrymen. Let's thank them, and include them in our prayers.

Please pray:

1. "Lord, grant strength, perseverance, and wisdom for the military men and women who are serving the typhoon victims of the Philippines. We pray particularly for those soldiers whose own families have been affected."

And from the section above:

2. "Lord, have mercy on this suffering nation. Care for the grieving and the dispossessed. Care for the tent dwellers of Zamboanga City. Care for eroded soils, the deforested hillsides, the vanished mangroves, the endangered species."

3. "Lord, please call together those of your servants from the ASEAN countries who carry "Creation Care and the Gospel" in their hearts already. Speak to them in the weeks leading up to the Lausanne regional conference. Please assist the organizers."

Lowell's book-- now available at missionbooks.org (click here)

Thank you for praying in 2013,
as you love Christ and his created.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Lowell Bliss
Eden Vigil

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