Archives For Christians to Know

The Ecology of Whole Theology

Nathan Aaberg —  September 1, 2020 — Leave a comment

I’ve noted before that some of the most innovative, regenerative farmers and agriculturalists in the world are Christian.

Joel Salatin. Gabe Brown. Allen Williams. Ray Archuelata. John Kempf. The list goes on. It’s incredibly inspiring to see people of faith who are dynamic, inventive, entrepreneurial, generous, and full of passion for the beauty and complexity of God’s earth.

So why are they the exception?

I’ve decided there are three primary commonalities that lead Christians to live out faith-lives that include God’s earth as something that matters to God.

First, the theology people have includes the life of God’s earth in its story and fabric.

Second, people are committed to applying their faith principles to how they live individually or collectively in every single way.

The culture around us often makes it more comfortable for us to apply some values and to let other values gather dust in the “Sounds Good in Theory” room. We don’t differentiate enough between the values of the culture we’re in and the set of values that come from our faith.

Third, people’s hearts have been transformed by God’s Spirit.

This can be through the impact of other people, prayer, direct spiritual encounters, and encounters with Creation. However it happens, people’s hearts are filled and reshaped by God’s love.

The second and third factors tend derive in part from the first – theology.

I’ve highlighted (as have others) elements of the Bible narrative (like the first rule God gave, the cross, and what eschatology is all about) that clearly highlight that God’s earth is part of the whole story of God’s whole relationship with all God has created.

So why don’t more Christian theologies make God’s earth more than just a setting, more than just a treasure chest of resources for us to use, and more than just a setting from which to escape?

I believe it’s because we have failed to be ecological in the theological.

And we can actually learn something about reading the Bible from ecology, the study of the relationship between the parts of a whole and how the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts.

A great example in the natural world is fire. For a long time conservation orthodoxy taught that fires are bad. That was a simple, compelling message.

The reality is far more complex. Many ecosystems have been managed in highly nuanced ways by native peoples for centuries or more, creating vibrant, beautiful natural systems. Stopping fires out of a simplistic understanding has resulted in huge fuel loads that now erupt into horrible fires. Stopping fires has also harmed the wildlife who depended on fire-dependent vegetation.

What did it take for people to see the ecological truth?

It took humility. Lots of humility.

It also too a willingness to question dominant assumptions about how nature worked and look at things fresh.

It took listening to other people.

It took close observation.

It took attentiveness to the whole over time and space.

And it took an openness to paradox. Could a seemingly destructive force actually be positive?

Our approach to theology, the way we make sense of the Bible and God, needs those same qualities.

Our theology would be more whole and vibrant if we did.

More thoughts to come.

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Creation Care in Churches: What I’ve Learned (Guest Post by Ryan O’Connor)

Nathan Aaberg —  July 26, 2020 — 4 Comments

I first connected with Ryan O’Connor through farmers Jen and Bryce Riemer. They are friends of both Ryan and I, and they introduced Ryan to this blog. When I read a sample of his writing and talked with him by phone, I quickly realized I had found a kindred spirit. What struck me most was how filled with a whole, Spirit-led faith he and his family were. The way they live, think, and orient themselves towards God in all they do is beautiful.

Ryan has put down deep roots in his church and has worked to help his fellow believers to integrate their common life with the commons of God’s Creation. I’m very grateful that Ryan has taken the time to share lessons and insights he has gained from this experience. I know you’ll be inspired.

Ryan O'Connor in the outdoors

Ryan O’Connor

I often get asked “How can I start a Creation care group at my church?” or “What can I do to expand our small team into something larger and more vibrant?”

Each situation is unique, but the following are a few lessons I’ve picked up along the way. I have led and participated in faith-based Creation care activities for 20 years, combining my professional training as an ecologist with my personal passion for others to see God in His Creation and care for what He has made.

I’ve also learned many lessons from other people. Others I’ve learned by accident. But wherever you are in your efforts, I hope they will encourage and perhaps inspire you to try something new.

1. Don’t be afraid to approach your pastor.

When I wanted to start the Creation care team at my church, I wasn’t sure what my pastor would think. I’d never heard him talk about Creation care, and it was hard to imagine him seeing it as a priority. However, I arranged for a meeting and pitched the idea of forming a team. I was surprised to hear how enthusiastic he was. He shared how he had experienced first-hand the environmental degradation and water pollution in coastal cities around the world during his time with the Navy.

Never assume your pastor is a barrier. He or she might be your strongest advocate.

2. Find common ground

Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist, Christian and one of Time Magazine’s top 100 most influential “people of the year” (2014), points out that every human person—and certainly every Christian—already has the values they need to care for the earth. We just need to connect through shared values – whether those are saving money through increased energy efficiency or rooftop solar; beautifying our homes, towns, and churchscapes with native plants or community gardens; or reducing the effect of pollution on the unborn and most vulnerable in our society.

This principle applies to your congregation as a whole and to your conversations with your pastor and elders. They might take some convincing, but if you can highlight the common ground of your shared values, you’ll likely have success.

3. Involve and empower others

Our goal should be to strengthen relationships with people in addition to our relationship with Creation. That means being a facilitator rather than a dictator. Find out what excites other people and help them do it.

In my church, I recently tried two approaches to forming a team, almost by accident. The first was oriented around a specific goal of exploring the possibility of installing solar panels on the church grounds. With the support of the pastor we recruited team members and got a dream team including several experts in renewable energy. After several months of progress, we ran into a snag: the roof was aging and was scheduled for replacement in a few years. It made no sense to put panels with a 30-year lifespan on a roof that would be torn off in three. Our team needed to pivot to other projects, but it was full of solar enthusiasts. Participation fizzled.

Later that year, with a skeleton crew, we managed to host a movie and discussion and used it in part as a recruiting tool. Several new people joined the group. When we met again as a reinvigorated team, I presented a range of options for our next projects. I then asked people what they were interested in. I followed that up by asking what they would be willing to lead.

The response was tremendous. We went from planning one initiative per year to five. More importantly, people felt empowered and recognized the critical role they could play.

4. Start with an event

Plan a one-time event that is educational and fun and use it to launch your group and recruit new members, as described above. Hosting a screening of a documentary and discussion is a low-barrier option that you can pull off with just a couple of people. Numerous popular titles are available. Some are even free from the producers.

Another option is hosting a presentation given by a local expert on your topic of choice from the church, community, or local university. You might even consider a screening of a TED Talk available on the Internet.

Remember that your choice of topic will influence who attends, so orient your event around a subject you want your group to tackle. Be sure to screen your movie, TED Talk or presentation slides beforehand and plan thoughtful discussion questions.

Finally, keep in mind your own objectives for the event. Since a key objective is to attract ongoing engagement, pass around a sign-up sheet with a checkbox for participants to indicate if they are interested in joining your team. Orient your discussion questions around your objectives, too. If you want to know what issues members of your church are concerned about, make that a question during the discussion and find someone to take notes on their responses.

Gallery View of Zoom Meeting Organized by Ryan O'Connor for his church

Gallery view of a study event Ryan recently organized via Zoom for his church.

5. Approach others from a place of great enthusiasm and great need

Nothing is more attractive than hopeful, passionate enthusiasm. But people sometimes can feel that help isn’t wanted or needed if someone looks like they already have all the answers or there isn’t room for their ideas. A pitch that’s grounded in both your passion as well as why others have a critical role to play creates a more inviting space for others. Articulating why “now” is an important moment of opportunity also creates a positive energy that draws people in to your cause.

Remember to pitch a positive, hopeful message. Fear, anger, and frustration don’t motivate. They usually drive people away.

6. Inspire and encourage personal action

During the COVID-19 pandemic, my team needed to quickly change gears from an in-person study we had planned. Instead we went virtual, and the response was overwhelming. We had more people from outside the church than current members. These new participants included eight enthusiastic women from a rural parish an hour away, a leader from Texas, and a woman in Canada.

At the end of the four-week study, we asked people to make a commitment on at least one thing they would change about their habits, or take a step toward something they had been putting off. The response from participants was incredible. Commitments included looking into electric vehicles, calling contractors about roof-top solar, eating more vegetarian meals, buying only sustainably-raised meat, and engaging friends and family in conversations about Creation care.

Gently asking people to make a verbal or written commitment is a simple but powerful way of encouraging action. When done in the presence of others in a supportive community, such as at the end of a group study, you leverage social norms (i.e., everyone else is doing it too). There is also an implied sense of accountability. When I was first asked do to this in a study, I felt deep inside that I needed to follow through, because I made a commitment to others.

7. Educate, serve, AND advocate

Most church groups focus either on either educational or service events, but mature, effective groups also advocate for systemic change as a component of their mission. We are called to be salt and light to the world, not just to our church. We are to go into all the world and proclaim the Good News. This could be either working within your faith denomination or working with local, state, and national leaders to promote policies that are more just for vulnerable people and better for creation.

Bob Lindmeier, longtime meteorologist in the Madison, Wisconsin area, has been an outspoken advocate for common ground action on climate change. He’s also been active in getting not only his Lutheran church to go green by installing solar panels, but was also instrumental in getting the ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin to endorse a specific policy to address climate change, something organizers call a “grasstops” effort.

This type of advocacy involves working with church, civic, and business community leaders. While it takes a bit of work, it can lead to bigger and more systemic change. Getting local leaders on board with your cause can also carry more weight with agencies and politicians if laws or policies need to be changed.

Whenever you engage in advocacy, it can be helpful to work with other groups who are already organized, have developed effective messaging, and whose mission and approach aligns with your values. I’ve volunteered for a number of years with Citizens Climate Lobby, a bipartisan grassroots group with hundreds of chapters around the nation and world. I like them because they are highly strategic in both their solution and approaches and are fully committed to respectful dialog. Their main objective is to solve the climate crisis. But their secondary objective, and one of their main strategies, is to build positive long-term relationships with everyone they talk to, whether a prospective member or a skeptical member of Congress.

8. Include Food

Never underestimate the power of the plate in bringing people together! Incorporating a meal or snacks into your group gathering builds a sense of community among your creation care team and participants at an event.

Making different food choices is also one of the most tangible and accessible steps most people can take to reduce their environmental footprint. Your group can model putting faith into action by using fair-trade coffee, local produce, grass-fed meat or a vegetarian entrée, for example.

Whether you’re in the early stages of starting a Creation care group or part of a well-oiled team looking for fresh ideas, we all have room to grow. While these are a few things I’ve learned, your wisdom is welcome, too. Feel free to share your own tips and lessons learned in the comments below. Finally, all of us would do well to continually ask for a fresh outpouring from the Holy Spirit of the knowledge and wisdom of what we’re being called to next and for the courage to take the first steps.

 

Ryan O’Connor works as an ecologist in the Great Lakes region, combining faith and science to help serve, protect, and restore God’s earth. He has been involved in Creation care in churches for over 20 years. He currently leads the Creation care team at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Madison, Wisconsin, where he attends with his wife and daughter. His written work has appeared in the online and print journal, EcoTheoReview, including a reflection on The Beautiful, the Good, and the True: Through the Eyes of Lapland Azalea, about climate change, the fate of a rare cliff-dwelling plant, and the theological virtues of sharing a small closet.

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Wild Hope – An Interview with Gayle Boss

Nathan Aaberg —  March 24, 2020 — 4 Comments

Cover of Wild Hope

My friend Jon Terry from the Au Sable Institute sent me a surprise gift in the mail – a copy of the book Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing by Gayle Boss. The book has six sections for the six weeks of Lent. Each section features the profiles of four animals, from the Chinese pangolin and black-footed ferret to the Amur leopard and golden riffleshell mussel. Each profile opens your eyes and heart to the wondrous qualities of the animal. Gayle also shares, in an understated yet poignant way, the challenges each species faces to survive.

Because Gayle is such a gifted writer, it’s hard to resist sharing a multitude of excerpts. Here are two from her introduction that get to the purpose of Wild Hope: 

“Attention to the amazingness of our arkmates routes us directly to the heart of Lent. The season means to rouse us from our self-absorption.”

“The promise of Lent is that something will be born of the ruin, something so astoundingly better than the present moment that we cannot imagine it. Lent is seeded with resurrection. The Resurrection promises that a new future will be given to us when we beg to be stripped of the lie of separation, when the hard husk suffocating our hearts breaks open and, like children, we feel the suffering of any creature as our own. That this can happen is the wild, not impossible hope of all creation.”

I highly recommend this book for you and your family. You will more deeply treasure God and God’s Creation. Your heart will also go out to the men and women who are dedicating their lives to preserve the life of God’s earth. Gayle’s writing will affirm your own convictions and heart for the life around us. You’ll be struck by the beautiful art of David G. Klein. And the book will move your heart in new ways during this Lenten season

I’m grateful to Gayle for writing this book. She generously took time to respond to four questions I had for her.

Nathan: You write in the introduction to Wild Hope, “I didn’t hear all creation groaning when my sons were young. I was oblivious to the millions dying, their kinds never to be seen on the earth again.” Can you share how you came to be a Christian, a writer, and a Christian writer called to communicate about the life of God’s earth?

Gayle: I grew up in a church-going family (the Dutch Reformed tradition) and loved all-things-church, even as a teenager! It seemed to me the one public place where what really mattered—who we are and why we’re here—got talked about. That impulse to talk about what matters also drew me into a writing life.

I’ve tried my hand at nearly all creative literary forms, from long-form journalism to haiku. In my early forties I wrote a 535-page failed novel. The wish to write about animals and how close bonds with them make us more deeply human grew on me so slowly I’m not sure I can trace it.

This much seems true: When my sons were young, their love of animals woke a long-dormant attention to animals in me. I remembered how I would cry when my father and uncles hung up deer they’d shot from the branches of a big oak tree to bleed out. And I remembered how the rest of the family laughed at my tears. The venison was part of our winter food supply, my food supply, too.

Led by my children, I let my original tenderness for animals rise again. I noticed how good that felt, even when I experienced an animal suffering. I felt more alive, more free. I now believe that’s because I reconnected with the One Love planted in all things at their creation; the love at my core calls to the love at their core. Restoring that connection is a path back to our deepest selves and back to the beloved community of all created things that we call Eden or The Peaceable Kingdom, where “They will not hurt or destroy in all (God’s) holy mountain.”

Nathan: Please share what your goals were for Wild Hope and why you believe attentiveness to “..the amazingness of our arkmates routes us directly to the heart of Lent.”

Gayle: As with All Creation Waits, I wanted to wake, or fan, in readers the kind of love for animals that was dormant for so long in me—a love that doesn’t “cute-ify” them, but sees each one as “a word of God and a book about God,” as Meister Eckhart said. In that first book, I wrote about animals that many of us see regularly, like skunks, raccoons, and chickadees.

In Wild Hope, I describe animals most of us will never see in the wild, from orangutans to olms. I wanted to describe their magnificence and tell their stories, including the stories of their suffering on a planet we’ve made unlivable for them. I thought that if I could tell their stories in such a way that we readers would be drawn into their worlds, our defenses could melt, and we could grieve their suffering. We could see them as expressions of God’s own self and God’s own suffering—at our hands. Which is the white-hot core of Lent.

It’s important to me that we readers respond to the animals’ stories first with love, not shame and guilt. Because we’ll only make the radical life-changes that will protect the earth for all animals, including us, if we’re motivated by love. Guilt-motivated change may work for the short term, but it can’t be sustained. Over the long haul, we only protect and save what we love.

Gayle Boss in woodsNathan: What animal of God’s earth most captivates your heart? Why?

Gayle: Of course you know that I’m going to say I’m smitten by every animal I see and learn about. And it’s true, I really am!

The “episode” of each animal’s story that most undoes me, though, comes when, faced with impending death, they desperately do everything in their power to protect their young. While researching and writing Wild Hope, I saw that episode occur over and over: The mother polar bear struggling to keep her cubs afloat in seas without ice floes, and failing; Laysan albatrosses watching their chicks sink into lethargy from plastic poisoning, and die; the pangolin mother curling around her baby when the poacher pulls her out of her den. As a mother, to recognize that my actions, our actions, inflict the worst suffering I can imagine on other mothers was almost more than I could bear.

Learning the stories of these animals swelled my love for them, and love wouldn’t let me look away from their suffering. It made me fiercer in my commitment to change parts of my life that contribute to their suffering. We only protect and save what we love.

Nathan: What role do you believe art can play in inspiring Christians to understand God’s love for the whole world (including our “nonhuman kin”), to act on that understanding, and to somehow work through the despair and grief we experience as we see our nonhuman kin suffering?

Gayle: I don’t believe we’ll ever “understand” God’s love for all created things. Understanding is a motion of the mind, and God’s love for all things is way beyond our minds. It can happen, though, that we’re grasped by God’s love for all created things. Somehow, that “beyond us” Love that created the universe finds an opening in the hard husk of our egos and “cuts us to the heart,” as It did those who heard Peter tell the Jesus-story at Pentecost. Once Love has got hold of our hearts, it changes how we see everything. And when we see differently, we behave differently. “If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light,” Jesus says.

At their best, stories, visual art, dance, and music bypass the mental constructs we use to defend ourselves and our walled-off ways of living. True art is the dart Divine Love uses to cut to our hearts. Suddenly or slowly, it reveals a new way of perceiving a world we thought we knew. Think of how differently the night sky appears once we’ve been struck by Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night.” What was static is suddenly full of energy and motion and presence.

It’s important to say that art doesn’t always pierce our thick husks with what we find beautiful. Sometimes art seems ugly or threatening, troubling. Van Gogh’s neighbors did not think “The Starry Night” was beautiful. They thought he was a crazy man making unpleasant, offensive paintings – that’s how new his way of perceiving was.

But for those of us who can allow even a crack in our armor, God can use art to peel the scales from our eyes and show us a universe pulsing with Presence, with creative energy unbounded. That vision becomes so compelling, we want to do everything we can to make ways for God’s always-creating energy to manifest in the visible world. “Working for change” isn’t a burden we bear but a dance we cannot help but do. As Paul says in the fifth chapter of Romans, “We rejoice in the hope of sharing in God’s glory.”

At the same time, we also suffer more deeply with the suffering. But as Paul goes on to say, “We rejoice in our sufferings,” because somehow suffering leads to a hope that “does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”

My limited experience tells me that in suffering we sink more deeply into the heart of God, into the Love that is at the core of the Universe—at our core—and know ourselves to be truly alive. Sunk in that Love, we also know that it is the truest thing in the universe—it’s the origin of the universe—and that Love cannot but have the final say. We carry on in the irrepressible hope that God is the one “who gives life to the dead and calls into being the things that are not.” (Romans 4:17)

That’s the Wild Hope at the center of the book Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing. I hope the stories reveal the pulsing presence of God in each creature and the drive of Love for that creature to survive. That’s a drive I want to join.

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Inspiration, Insight, and Song

Nathan Aaberg —  October 30, 2019 — Leave a comment

Psalm 31:24 exhorts us: “Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD!”

But sometimes we need the voices of others to carry us forward. In that spirit, I want to share with you two videos and an essay that have come my way recently.

The first video came from my friend Jon Terry from the Au Sable Institute. Here’s what he wrote about it: “The video is designed to be used by former students in their home church as a way to share their experience at Au Sable and introduce the Biblical mandate to serve, protect and restore God’s earth. Several students have already scheduled a date to show this video in front of their whole congregation as part of the worship service. Others will be showing it at a Sunday School or Adult Ed class and then leading a discussion on the issue.”

The video asks a fundamentally challenging question – will Christians be part of the problem or part of the solution?

It also shows how Au Sable equips young Christians to be part of the solution. The sincere eloquence of the students who appear in the video lifted my heart.

I came across this excellent essay by Jennifer Trafton about the Scottish minister and author George MacDonald through the newsletter of the Rabbit Room. MacDonald’s fairy tales influenced C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as well. Trafton highlights MacDonaldn’s insights into the importance of imagination in the life of the Christian.

My favorite line from Jennifer’s article:

“Revelation is God reaching out to us; imagination is us reaching out to God.”

I hope you will read it. Let us continue to imagine God’s will being done on earth in ways that cause people and Creation to thrive.

And Ryan O’Connor from Madison, Wisconsin, reached out to me recently after a friend pointed him to this blog. During a phone conversation that followed, I shared my struggle and the struggle of others I know with grief. Our hearts break over what is being done to God’s earth.

Ryan sent an email later that, among other things, shared this music video from Christian artist Andrew Peterson. I wanted to share it with you as well. The opening lines resonated deeply:

Do you feel the world is broken?
Do you feel the shadows deepen?
But do you know that all the dark won’t stop the light from getting through?
Do you wish that you could see it all made new?

By the way, the video is done in a crazily inventive way. Peterson’s team shot it all in one continuous take.

Enjoy.

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Learning Humility from Job

Nathan Aaberg —  October 14, 2019 — Leave a comment
Job and Friends by Illya Repin

Job and HIs Friends by Illya Repin (1844-1930)

The Au Sable Institute launched a Facebook group recently for people like you and me who believe God’s earth matters. Corinne Hoffman shared some thoughts about Job there that caught my attention. When I asked her if she’d expand her comments for this blog, she kindly agreed. Her sincerity and devoutness shine through her words. Her faith, as you’ll see by the end, naturally leads her to cherish God’s Creation out of humility. It is this kind of humility, I believe, that should shape our hearts and minds when we think of our unique position in Creation. Over time, I’d like to share the voices of others here as well.

(One quick note about Job. I’d enourage you to check out The Bible Project’s three podcasts about the book. They’re very insightful. The last podcast of the three highlights something I had not noticed before. God does not restore Job’s health and fortunes until after he has prayed for his three friends and their errors. The podcast insightfully explores the significance of that.)

The book of Job has a crazy story to share.

Not only does this book of the Bible give us clues on how to deal with suffering, but it demonstrates who is at the center of it all. And it’s not you and me.

Humility as a Christian has been hard for me to truly grasp and demonstrate.

The opposite of humility is being boastful. But you could, in an effort to be humble, tell yourself that you’re no good or be overly worried about being portrayed as being better than those around you. At a certain point, it can become unhealthy by continually speaking death into your life. Satan thrives on that.

There is this fine line, which has been hard for me to walk. It’s where you do not say that you’re the greatest thing that ever walked on earth, but you still recognize that God did give each of us special gifts which should be special to us. It’s finding a balance of embracing what God has gifted us with while not being boastful.

In Steven Bouma-Prediger’s book For the Beauty of the Earth I found a definition that does this word justice. He writes: “Humility is a proper estimation of one’s abilities or capacities. It implies self-knowledge and especially knowledge of the limits of one’s knowledge. It also implies genuine awareness of one’s own strengths and weaknesses. “

So, the question I ask to keep myself in line is – did that thought or deed represent humility? It’s a question I come back to daily.

When I think of that fine line of humility, Job comes to mind.

Job, we are told, is blameless and upright in God’s eyes. But he loses his farm, family, and physical well-being. His wife tells Job to curse God and die. Job, however, doesn’t adhere to that harsh advice. Instead, he tells God he’s blameless.

God responds in a strange way and not really to the point.

God responds with cosmology, meteorology, hydrology, animal husbandry, and ornithology. God demands an answer, and Job responds, “I am small.” This shows he recognizes the limits of his knowledge. He engages in an act of self-humiliation. Here Job realizes that God can do all things. God has no limits.

Job desires to see God and receives a vision of God. And God does something cool. God stoops down to answer Job face-to-face. This vision transforms how Job understands himself and the world and his place in it.

So, how does this relate to Creation?

It shows we are not at the center of things. God’s whirlwind speech forcibly reminds Job and us not only of God’s power but also the expanse and mystery of the created world, a world not of human making. Job powerfully shows us how God interacts with us as created beings in a created world.

But God went further.

Jesus came to us on earth to lead by example on how humility can be embodied and lived. Through Philippians 2:3-8, we see Jesus as our greatest example of what humility really is. We are to do nothing from selfish ambition but in humility count others as more significant than ourselves. We should use what God has given us not for our own benefit but rather for others. God’s gifts are given not to bless us but to bless others. We receive His intended blessing when we use what was given for others.

I’ll end with these two questions for you:

In what ways can you think of others and Creation as being more significant than yourself?

How will doing so change the way you live and the decisions you make every day?

 

Picture of Corinne Hoffman

Corinne Hoffman lives in Ohio. Here is what she wrote about herself:

“I love being outdoors and all the activities that come with it. If you can’t find me, I’m probably outside somewhere. Whether its hiking, biking, running, tennis, to cross country skiing, I enjoy it all. And when I’m not outdoors, I’m probably reading a book.

I graduated with an Environmental Science degree at Taylor University. Through outdoor experiences as a child to my time at Taylor, I have come to realize the joy I receive through God’s Creation.

This past semester I have been in the Environmental Leadership Intensive (ELI) program at Au Sable Institute where God has led me to environmental education and working with youth to empower them through God’s creation.

His fingerprints are all over Creation, and I love discovering them! I also have found that Creation has redemptive power.”

 

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