Practicing

I´ve eventually finished another book that has been on bedside table for a while.... The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. It´s a small - but very dense book - if you know what I mean.
Brother Lawrence was a french monk in the 1600´s. He quietly worked in the kitchen of the monastery for several years but gained a reputation for his sense of peace and of being in God´s presence in the every day normal stuff of life. People sought out his advice and wanted to know his secret. The book tells some of that.
But there was no magic formula or easy answer. Or rather his secret was simple and easy  - but hard to live.
He talks about merely inviting God into your thoughts at every moment  - and yielding every action to his will. I guess it´s about an frame of mind  - or rather choosing what (or who) to focus on at every moment - so that the external circumstances aren´t the defining factors in how we live our lives or experience God in them.
Lots to think on... and practice.. I think I´ll leave this one on my bedside table.

Environment Workshop

 On Tuesday this week, I was involved in delivering a workshop about the environment from a Christian perspective.
We were really pleased to have 50 pastors and leaders come along -- a couple of them even came from San Marcos and had to leave at 1am in the morning to get there!
It was a good mix of people and we started with Israel giving a Biblical basis of why we should care for the environment.

 Then is was my turn. As it was just a morning workshop, we focused on just one aspect of caring for the environment -- rubbish. In small groups, the participants had to sort through a bag of rubbish - working out (or guessing) what was recyclable or reusable - and how long different materials take to biodegrade. It´s a sobering thought that throwing one plastic bottle in the rubbish - means that I am leaving that pollutant in the ground - and contaminating the soil and water systems - not only today - but for the next 100 years.

In Guatemala, environmental issues are still quite new and unusual - but there is huge potential for the church to be pioneers in this.
One of the surprising things about recycling in Guatemala - is that you can get paid to do it! In Europe it´s great that we are obligated to recycle (and in some cases even fined if we don´t) - but here recycling companies will buy the raw materials to be recycled.

So churches could easily use some of their space for collecting recyclable materials  - and kill several birds with one stone  -- it would help prevent the 80% of the rubbish that ends up on the city rubbish tip which could be recycled, thereby helping to care for the environment -  and it would give an income which could be used for church activities or missions or whatever. Some recycling projects - or creative projects to use rubbish materials to create new stuff - also create social enterprise projects that enable communities in poverty to create sustainable businesses. It´s a winner all round.

This was very much a first step for most of the particpants. But hopefully it will have opened their eyes - not only to understanding our responsibility as Christians - but also to the enormous possibilities in responding.

Booklets

I haven´t written a blog for a while ... I´ve been busy writing these - a couple of booklets about a Christian perspective on the environment. Thankfully they´re now printed and ready for the pastors workshop next week.