Environmental Missions Prayer Digest

February 2014

No War for Oil!" You may be familiar with this protest slogan; certainly we are all aware of the regional and global conflicts over energy resources. But a ReachAcross team is turning protest into prayer, seeing the spiritual warfare behind the physical warfare, and promoting the production, not of more crude oil, but of biofuels from nonfood crops. In the process, they hope to bring the Gospel and jobs to a troubled region in the heart of the 10/40 Window.

Thank for joining this team in prayer. And if you, or someone you know, has the capacity and calling to be an answer to these prayers, then please contact them at the links below.

Photo Credit: ReachAcross

Jatropha Curcas meets the Prophet Isaiah

Isaiah 41: "The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I, the Lord, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. . . that they may see and recognize. . . that the hand of the Lord has done this!"

Jatropha beans

Project 41, in reference to the verse above, is the name given to the effort in an unreached M. country to establish nonfood biodiesel farms and to establish agricultural cooperatives to process and export biodiesel fuels. Jatropha curcas is the plant species which holds this promise of renewable energy. The team has filed an industry-standard Environmental Impact Assessment with the government. They have written an impressive business plan. They have raised over a third of their necessary capital. They are ready to go, as in "Go ye, and make disciples of all nations."

And yet they've encountered the type of obstacles which can only be overcome in prayer. (See below.)

For more information, or to contact the ReachAcross team, click here:

Please pray:

1. "Thank you God for creating Jatropha curcas, another part of your provision for people you love."

2. "Thank you Father for giving ingenuity to scientists, agronomists, business modelers and the ReachAcross team."

3. for this government's Environmental Protection Agency as they intend to rule on the Environmental Impact Assessment in the next few weeks.

4. for the team as they have had to evacuate due to kidnapping threats. (This region has experienced recent martyrdom and kidnapping of likeminded workers.) As a result, please pray for the team as they:

a. grieve their expatriation.

b. learn how to advance the project from outside the country.

c. seek teammates who could more safely and effectively incarnate themselves within the country as project managers. ("Lord, you know that these new workers would have to be highly-credentialed to satisfy the government issuing visas. It also seems that they will need to be non-Western for their own ease of movement. Lord, we rejoice in the way you have raised up the church of the Global South. Oh Lord of the Harvest, we beseech you to send workers into your harvest fields!")

5. for the additional funds (donations or capital investment) which will fully launch and sustain this project. (Total start up capital for five years is $380,000 USD).

Note to Readers: If you've been looking for a fully-orbed model of environmental missions, here it is! I encourage you to check out their website. (Click here.) You'll also see the good work that ReachAcross has done to create a "firewall" for security whereby the church can pray for and promote the project, while also protecting lives and visas. Let's pray Project 41 to bloom, ripening, and harvest, and then let's pray that these types of projects will be multiplied 100,000-fold.

Photo: ReachAcross

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

to read a summary by Missio Nexus,

and to listen to an author interview,

click here

Thank you for praying in 2014,
as you love Christ and his created.

Happy New Year

Lowell Bliss
Eden Vigil

Links: Contact the editors,
Eden Vigil website, Donations to Eden Vigil