Sep
27
2011
This summer Brittany Ederer, a student at UW-Madison, served as an intern in the Care of Creation office in Madison. Based on her interest in camping, education nature and environment, we assigned her to start a survey project of Christian camps in Wisconsin, the upper Midwest and then throughout the country. Are there Christian camps who are actively promoting creation care as part of their camp program? Are they using creation care principles in caring for their properties? This blog post is a preliminary report on a visit to one camp not far from Madison. It turns out one of the best examples of creation care at camp is right in our own back yard. We’re looking forward to a complete report from Brittany later on, but in the meantime, enjoy her thoughts on what’s going on at Timber-lee…
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Jul
08
2011
Who knew? Your best way to survive this might be to go to church...
So once again cutting edge research shows that if the church will just be the church, she will be better positioned to respond to crisis than any other institution. For the last two or three years I have been winding up my presentations with a call to the church toward Repentance (change our attitude toward God’s creation), Restoration (work to restore what has been damaged), and Preparation (be ready for more disasters to come). A report from NPR this week reinforces the effectiveness of this kind of preparation.
You could start with a multiple choice question: In the aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami, which Indian villagers had a great chance of survival?
a) Those who were rich.
b) Those who were influential.
c) Those who attended weddings and funerals.
And the answer, surprisingly, is … Read more »
Jun
07
2011
85 years Strong
We pause here for a break from our normal focus on creation-care to note a significant family event. The following is a tribute to my Dad, who is 85 years old today, co-authored with my sister Marilyn, and simul-posted on her blog, Communicating Across Boundaries, as well as on various Facebook pages of Dad’s numerous offspring. Happy Birthday, Dad!
85 years ago today, June 7th in 1926, a baby boy was born to a family in the city of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He was fourth in the family, joining three sisters, a mom and a dad. Three years later his youngest sister was born and the family was complete. He was named Ralph Edward Brown and he is our father and grandfather. Read more »
May
03
2011
Floods in Kentucky - Photo courtesy Flickr CC License
Care of Creation, my organization, does a lot of work teaching people in Kenya and other East African countries about the dangers of destroying forests. God gave us trees for good reason: In terms of hydrology (water cycles), trees are essential. They are like the columns holding up the roof of a building – lose the trees, the whole system falls apart. It turns out that something very similar is going on in the Mississippi River watershed of middle America. We’re a richer country – but it appears that mere wealth can’t stop a flood. When we human beings carelessly destroy vital parts of the world God gave us to live in, it doesn’t seem to matter whether we’re living in a village in Kenya or on a farm in Missouri.
Lost in the blizzard of headlines over the last week – tornadoes, weddings, the death of a terrorist – is the developing flood situation in the Mississippi River valley. The few stories that we’ve seen have focused on what one commentator called a solomonic dilemma: Whether to save a small, struggling riverside city (Cairo, Illinois) or hundreds of thousands of acres of the country’s best farmland in Missouri. That case has been all the way to the US Supreme Court in the last 48 hours, with the result that last night the Corps blasted two miles of levees at Bird’s Point, just south of Cairo in order to reduce the pressure on that community’s flood defenses. As of this writing, the river has receded by a foot – the Corps hopes that they’ll see three more feet of decline in the next couple of days. Read more »
Jan
28
2011
Long-time readers of this blog will remember John and Dorothy Priske of Fountain Prairie Farms in Columbus Wisconsin. We’ve been friends for a couple of years and I’ve watched John and Dorothy’s progress as they have developed Fountain Prairie Farms. John stopped by one of my seminars in Madison a couple of years ago and stole the show, and the Fountain Prairie table at the Dane County (Madison) Farmer’s Market is the first place I stop just before Hook’s Cheese and Pecatonica Farm and the guy who sells me purple potatoes. I’m starting to learn that ‘eating local’ isn’t a principle – it’s participating in a web of relationships.
So when I turn on my television for the evening news, and my favorite farmer is featured – that’s exciting stuff! John and Dorothy were named ‘Wisconsin Conservation Farmer of the Year’ for their work at Fountain Prairie. Here’s the story, and here’s a clip: Read more »
Jan
14
2011
If you are in the Madison area, check out this upcoming conference. I will be participating in the Saturday morning session (but attending the whole conference). NOTE THAT there is no cost, but the folks at New College Madison would like you to preregister so they know who and how many are coming.
Register here – and see you there!
“A Conversation About Environmental, Familial and Social Sustainability: An Issue for the 21st Century”
In memory of Don Browning, 1934-2010
Friday evening and Saturday, January 21-22, 2011
Pres House, 731 State St. Mall, Madison, WI 53711
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Conference schedule…
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