All done!

Three months of planning, writing, praying and creativity and now, a bit of rest before we get into 2010.

The first day of the new year of 2010, was spent driving back to Madison, WI from St. Louis, MO where we had spent the previous week with about 13,000 students and 3,000 other attendees both experiencing — and in some ways helping to shape — the future of missions in the US.

Besides presenting 4 creation care seminars (to a total of about 150 people) and speaking to another 200 or so students at our booth, we hosted a breakfast for 50 leaders from various missions organizations where we presented the concept and the critical need for blending environmental missions into the “traditional” missions activities that these organizations are doing.

We also had many amazing opportunities to talk about what we are doing in Kenya and what we think needs to be done in both local and global missions, as well as being able advise many students how they can blend their love for God and His creation with their chosen profession of environmental care.

What we were able to do at Urbana 09 was all about laying a strong foundation for this “movement” called environmental missions and creation care. From here on out, our job (you and us as partners) is to continue to pray, continue to spread the word in our churches and continue to support this work.

And finally, we, at Care of Creation want to thank you for helping all of us at Care of Creation, Au Sable, Renewal and Eden Vigil reach students that are seriously thinking and praying about how they can blend their desire for caring for God’s creation with their desire to spread the gospel.

Here’s wishing you a blessed 2010.

For all of us in the Care of Creation family,

Fred Gluck

No one comes to Urbana for fun. This is not a “winter break” vacation. Not by a long shot.

There are a couple of common threads that we have heard from each of the over 100 students we have talked to at our Urbana09 booth and the countless others that we have sat next to in the morning worship service, met in the lunch line or ridden with in the hotel elevator.

The common thread that these students have is that they are seeking how they can serve God with the resources (their lives, their money and their talent) that God has given them. They see injustice, human slavery, poverty and suffering caused by environmental issues, greed and other sins and, deep in their hearts, they want to do something about it.

For some of us, especially those of us who are approaching the later parts of our lives, we may see this kind of thinking as idealistic. We might remember when we were “that age” and thought, as these students do, that we could change the world.

The real truth is, that some of us did change the world because we chose to follow God’s leading in our lives. Just like these students, we asked ourselves the same question that they are asking. “What is God calling me to do?”

Urbana challenges the students who are here in a few important areas of their lives. First, there is the challenge of resources. They are challenged to use what they have to further the purposes of the kingdom. Second, they are challenged to use their gifts and talents. And finally, they are challenged to commit to take action.

For some of the students that accept these challenges, it means changing their plans. For some, it means the comfort of knowing that they are doing what God intends them to do. For some, Urbana is a wakeup call when they realize that following God’s will is a lot better than trying to follow their own imperfect wills.

Last night, I sat next to a couple in their late 20s who were both seniors in college (she was a music major with a concentration in piano performance and he was majoring in economics). As I do with just about everyone who I have run into here, I enjoy finding out why they took their time and money to come to St. Louis for a week.

As we were talking, they told me that they had met in high school, had gone to different colleges and were engaged to be married in June. Their wedding was all planned.

They decided to come to Urbana so that together, before they got married, could try and discern what God wanted them to do with their lives as a couple. We chatted about their decision, the heart changes that they had gone through in the past 4 years (“I used to be concerned about making a lot of money but now, I don’t think that that’s really important in God’s eyes. There are more important things than accumulating wealth”) and what their future plans were.

As I was walking back to my hotel after that conversation, I couldn’t help thinking about the wisdom of what this couple was doing and the small part that Care of Creation and you, who help us do what we do, are playing in helping them and others make decisions like the ones they are contemplating.

I’m going to go a bit further here and ask for your help. I realize that you have not met this couple (maybe you know someone who is at Urbana) but I am going to ask you to pray for them and the others who are, maybe, making the same kinds of decisions about their lives. When we do this, we are helping in a small way, to further God’s purpose in this world – the spread of the gospel and reconciliation of His people back to him. We are working to build shalom and put things back to the way that God intended them to be.

Maybe it’s not the “winter break” that you had planned but, hey, when did God stop acting in ways that we expect?

For the entire Care of Creation Family (some of us who are here at Urbana09 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA), thanks for joining together in this prayer.

God Bless!

Fred Gluck

From Urbana09 in St. Louis, Missouri, the question is raised … What are the challenges that students face (and we face) with this thing we call Environmental Missions or creation care?

We had the first of the “Environmental Track” seminars today and the students, through their questions and extremely outgoing personalities told us a lot about what they think, what they fear and what they expect.

Here’s the story in a nutshell.

This week, we are running into students who are passionate about what they do — passionate about the environment and passionate about God. They will tell you that the biggest challenge they face is how to “mash” these two together.

Interestingly enough, many of these students have the expectation that missionary agencies will know what to do with this passion.

In reality, we told them, it is very different. We told the seminar attendees today that they are, truly, pioneers in this field. Very similar to the early church, as pioneers, they are concerned about things that a lot of people have no knowledge about and don’t think about every day. In other words, much of the traditional missions infrastructure doesn’t have a “mental folder” labeled “environmental missions” in which to put them.

With that in mind, our challenge as the “teaching” generation is to disciple these students — lead them and prepare them for a time where they will be leading our congregations and working in industry and working in missions both here in the USA and around the world.

They have the knowledge, we who have been at this “mission thing” for awhile, have the experience and resources and together with God’s plan for salvation, we can make a huge difference in the condition of His creation. The result will be people who hear the gospel and who look at God’s creation through changed hearts.

But, here is an important point. We are at the very early stages in our effort. Our message is solid, the theology is sound and we have the passion about working to restore all four of the relationships that were broken in Genesis 3 (us to God, us to ourselves, us to others and us to God’s creation). As the early church did, we need to persevere and understand that God’s timing in getting this work done is perfect.

Urbana, alas, will be history in three or four days. You may not be here in St. Louis but you can participate in the aftermath of this important experience. We (you and I, Care of Creation and other organizations, those in Kenya, those in the Philippines, those in Tokyo, those in the USA and those everywhere else) need to take what we learn from the attendees and others and translate it to our church youth groups, our short term missionaries, our pulpits, and our long term missions work all over the world. Some of us will expect that this happens quickly (and become discouraged when it doesn’t) but in reality, teaching others about caring for creation is going to require patience, resources and God’s love.

There are amazing things that happen when 13,000 people from all over the world raise their voices in praise and prayer as is happening here. It’s God’s people doing God’s work.

Be part of this. It’s is truly awesome. Bigger than you or I.

Let us know what you think. Drop us a note at:  info@careofcreation.org.

God Bless!

For the Care of Creation family,

Fred Gluck