March, 2008

Greetings once again from Care of Creation! And a special thank you for praying for our people in Kenya over the last month – things are better but far from normal (see below for more on the current situation in Kenya).

“Ten years ago I used to attend [a large well known church] and I tried to tell them that they had to do something about the environmental crisis. They wouldn’t listen – and now it’s too late. It’s fine that you guys (Care of Creation) are finally trying to ‘mobilize churches’ but there’s no point. It’s too late…”

I wonder what you would have said?

Dear Friends of Care of Creation,

Kenya forces plan changes

If you are following the news, you are aware that after a couple of weeks of declining violence things have erupted again last weekend all across Kenya. What started as a dispute over elections now appears to be all out ethnic war between various tribal groups. Roads are blocked, trucks are being burned, buses are being stopped to remove individuals of different tribal backgrounds. The effects are being felt far beyond Kenya, since the port at Mombasa supplies much of what is needed for all of East Africa. Prices in Sudan have gone up 5 fold, and there are 18,000 shipping containers stuck in Mombasa because they can’t be moved on either the railway (which has been destroyed in several places) or the roads. Brackenhurst Conference Center, where our staff live and which is the home base for our project activities, was the subject of threats one nighyt this week – though we thank God that the night passed without incident.

Friends,

We thought you’d like to know that we were featured on the front page of the Wisconsin State Journal yesterday.

Click here or read the first part of the story below:

Local evangelist on a mission to save environment of Kenya

When some people say they ‘re on a mission, they mean they ‘re going out to get pizza or downloading a tune for their iPod.

When Edward Brown, of Madison, says it, he means he is going to reforest Kenya in God ’s name.

He has already started, taking his years working for evangelical and environmental causes — including a stretch setting up a shelter rebuilding effort for a charity in Pakistan — to form Care of Creation, a “theologically and scientifically sound response to the environmental crisis. ”

Taking the acorn-to-oak approach, Brown three years ago started Care of Creation in Madison with a tiny budget and big target. Last week, Brown announced the organization ’s budget for 2008 had increased 100 percent over 2007, to $450,000. Not coincidentally, he also announced the group had received a grant of $30,000 from the Bradshaw-Knight Foundation, also in Madison.

Bradshaw-Knight is a small family foundation that has quietly supported a variety of environmental causes, almost exclusively in the United States, mostly in Wisconsin and several in Madison.

Brown is hopeful the seed money from Bradshaw-Knight — which provided $5,000 for the group ’s first two years — “is a vote of confidence others will notice. ”

Brown ’s idea in its simplest form is to mobilize an existing network of churches to include programs for the environment on its list of things to do….

I’m not sure we would have chosen “evangelist” – but, on the other hand, being an “environmental evangelist” is sort of what we’re all about, isn’t it?

Thanks for your part in making our work possible, and as always, if you would like to help us continue our work into the new year, click here to donate via Paypal.

Have a great Christmas!

Ed Brown for the Care of Creation Family

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

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.

Dear Friends of Care of Creation Inc,

Summer has passed. The street outside my house is quiet during the day now as children spend their time in school. Out back the population at the bird feeder is starting to change as the early birds begin their long flight south, and others replace them who spent their summers much farther north arrive to spend a week or two with us before continuing their own long journeys. A few minutes ago I found myself nose to nose – well, nose to beak, I suppose – with a beautiful hummingbird exploring the dahlias outside my living room window – also stopping off briefly before heading south to escape the winter. And even as the days get colder, the farmer’s market is full of such an amazing variety of things to eat – I could easily believe that there are more different kinds of vegetables popping out of the ground than there are kinds of candy bars in the local candy store! God is good – and more than generous to us frail mortal beings!

Dear Friends of Care of Creation Inc,

Summer has passed. The street outside my house is quite during the day now as children spend their time in school. Out back the population at the bird feeder is starting to change as the early birds begin their long flight south, and others replace them who spent their summers much farther north arrive to spend a week or two with us before continuing their own long journeys. A few minutes ago I found myself nose to nose – well, nose to beak, I suppose – with a beautiful hummingbird exploring the dahlias outside my living room window – also stopping off briefly before heading south to escape the winter. And even as the days get colder, the farmer’s market is full of such an amazing variety of things to eat – I could easily believe that there are more different kinds of vegetables popping out of the ground than there are kinds of candy bars in the local candy store! God is good – and more than generous to us frail mortal beings!

Dear Friends of Care of Creation,

As we mark the midway point in our North American summer, I trust that for those of you for whom this is summer time you are finding some rest, some change of pace and perhaps opportunities to experience God’s great world in new and refreshing ways. For me, I’ve had the opportunity to go sailing a number of times, thanks to a generous Father’s Day gift from all of my children. For me, few experiences can match the unique combination of exhilaration, fear and accomplishment of keeping a small sailboat upright in a stiff breeze on a glorious summer day, and knowing through it all that I am in the presence of the God who made all this and who shows himself through it to those who can see…

Dear Friends,

Greetings once again from the Care of Creation family! In particular, we want to say a special ‘Hello’ to our new friends who have joined our mailing list recently through visits to our website. “Evangelicals and creation care” has been a theme of great interest in the media over the last two months, culminating with Bill Moyer’s On America presentation, “Is God Green?”. We have seen a substantial increase in traffic on our website in that time, and quite a number of those visitors have added yourselves to this electronic mailing list – so, “Welcome!”

Friends,

Once more we bring you greetings from Madison, Wisconsin – where Big 10 Football is in full swing, the leaves are turning and everywhere there are signs that Fall is in the air. As we have done several times a year, we want to briefly update you on how Care of Creation is progressing in promoting a God-centered response to the environmental crisis here in North America and in the country of Kenya.