Holy Days

Dear Friends of Care of Creation,

As I write to you, we are about half-way between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Isn’t it great that the year ends on such a note? As the days grow longer and the earth sinks into her deep winter slumber, we are called by these holidays – originally “holy days” – to attitudes of thankfulness and worship. Thanksgiving calls us to mark the many ways in which we have experienced God’s grace and graciousness in the last year, something we can do even if we have experienced sadness and tragedy. Christmas and Advent call us to note, on the larger canvas of human history, God’s love for us in the person of Jesus Christ, his Son and our Savior – and his promise to bring healing and peace (Shalom in Old Testament language) to us and all creation at the culmination of history when Jesus returns.

Our prayer for you, our friends and partners, is that you too will have opportunity to be thankful for God’s gracious presence in your lives, to praise Him for the gift of his Son and to look forward with anticipation to his Advent and all that means. And we hope as well that you, like us, will find fulfillment, joy and even excitement in working to prepare Creation for the return of the Creator! For that is what we are trying to do at Care of Creation by ‘mobilizing the church to pursue a God-centered response to the environmental crisis.’

Each of us in the Care of Creation family has personal reasons for thankfulness- but we are also particularly thankful as an organizational family for what God has done for us:

Care of Creation – Kenya has received a $30,000 Grant

We are happy to announce that the Bradshaw Knight Foundation has awarded our Kenya project $30,000 toward project operating expenses in 2008. This substantial gift will enable us to continue our efforts to ‘mobilize the church’ in Kenya toward a biblical and effective response to the environmental crisis in that country, and gives us additional credibility as we approach other donors. We are thankful for this expression of confidence in the Kenya program and all that this gift will allow us to do.

A Record Budget has been approved – we need lots of help!

The Care of Creation Board of Directors has just approved an annual budget of $450,000 for 2008. This represents a 100% increase over 2007, and is a strong indication of the kind of growth we are experiencing. About 80% of our current year income will have come from individuals and churches – people like you, supporting one of our staff or a specific project. This level of ‘grassroots support’ bodes well for our future growth and financial stability – thank you for your part, and your continued generosity. [Yes, you can still give on (http://careofcreation.org) or send a check by regular mail to Care of Creation, Box 44582, Madison WI 53744 – and yes, gifts are also tax-deductible.]

And our Staff is growing!

Some months ago we told you about a Strategic Planning retreat we were holding in Minnesota. This was a most profitable weekend for those of us already committed to Care of Creation, and resulted in some pending additions to the Care of Creation staff family:

Fred and Stacey Gluck, presently living in Vermont, have formally decided to begin their own support raising efforts in order to be able to move to Madison to join our administrative office staff. This move will take place in mid-2008, though both of them are already engaged in several projects to help us out. Fred will be serving as Communications Director, and Stacey will become the Madison Administrative Assistant.

Jason and Nancy Goodden have been living in Madison temporarily, but are due to return to their home in Cornwall, England, next summer. They will arrive with a commission to establish Care of Creation – UK as an affiliate organization, with a similar mission: To mobilize the church in the UK to pursue a God-centered response to the environmental crisis. [If you are reading this in Great Britain, please feel free to contact Jason and Nancy about their plans and to find out how you might be able to be involved.]

And Jan Korbel is in the final stages of her personal fundraising, hoping to join the project team in Kenya. Thanks for helping to pray her out…

2008 is going to be a very big year:

We look forward with anticipation to a number of exciting events this year. Executive Director Ed Brown will spend much of the month of February in Kenya, working with the local project team on planning and participating in several other events, including:

The Christian Medical and Dental Society bi-Annual Conference on Public Health will be held in Kenya at the beginning of February. Ed and Craig will both be presenters in several sessions relating the health of God’s creation to human health.

A leadership team from Bethlehem Baptist Church (Minneapolis) will visit the project in mid-February; we hope this visit will encourage and guide this church as they seek to understand the issues facing Christians in other parts of the world, and will allow us to benefit from their wisdom as we share with them the opportunities and challenges that face us as a young and growing organization with more opportunities than resources at our disposal.

Ed will visit with church leaders in Uganda as an early investigative step leading toward expansion of the Care of Creation vision and ministry to other East African countries.

And back in the US, it’s going to be busy starting in the spring…

A new edition of Our Father’s World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation will be released by InterVarsity Press in April. This will coincide with Earth Day, and will be marked by several book launch events, including:

• A presentation of the Our Father’s World Seminar in Madison WI (April 4-5), at Christ Presbyterian Church.
• a Saturday Seminar lecture at Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, MN (April 19).

Ed and Susanna Brown will be making two major road trips this year – to the East Coast (mainly New England) in June and July, and to the West Coast in September and October (including, probably, Colorado, Washington/Oregon, California). If you live in any of these areas and would like to know about any presentations planned in your area, do let us know!

Once again: Thank you for your interest in and partnership with us in caring for God’s Creation! With your support and prayers, we look forward to sharing great stories with you in the new year. And we pray that you, too, will share our joy in God’s Creation, thankfulness for his gracious love and kindness, and fulfillment in working to care for all he has given us!

With our love,
Ed Brown for the Care of Creation Family

Care of Creation
608-469-7821
info@careofcreation.org
www.careofcreation.org