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.