I don’t think I have ever given thanks for electric transmission lines. If anything, I consider them a blot on the landscape. But without the support of those towers and the electricity quietly humming through the wires, what I can accomplish in a day’s time would be limited.
Funding Mennonite Creation Care Network is a bit like paying for transmission lines. The bulk of MCCN’s budget is taken up with “boring” expenses like website fees, transportation and staff time. But I got pretty excited when I took a year-end tally of things that happened because MCCN exists.
Here are just a few beneficiaries of the juice flowing through our network:
• Birds: Because of his visibility through MCCN, Luke Gascho has received calls from conservation groups that need help communicating their missions to Old Colony Mennonites in Latin American settings. In October, Luke traveled to Chihuahua, Mexico, to meet with members of the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. While there, he helped one of the colonies think about their faith in relation to the needs of migrating birds.
“People call me when they are looking for Mennonites who care about the environment because they are frustrated with Mennonites who appear not to,” Luke remarks.
I don’t think I have ever given thanks for electric transmission lines. If anything, I consider them a blot on the landscape. But without the support of those towers and the electricity quietly humming through the wires, what I can accomplish in a day’s time would be limited.
Funding Mennonite Creation Care Network is a bit like paying for transmission lines. The bulk of MCCN’s budget is taken up with “boring” expenses like website fees, transportation and staff time. But I got pretty excited when I took a year-end tally of things that happened because MCCN exists. Here are just a few beneficiaries of the juice flowing through our network:
• Congregations: At least 36 congregations used MCCN’s Every Creature Singing curriculum in one way or another in 2015.
• Birds: Because of his visibility through MCCN, Luke Gascho has received calls from conservation groups that need help communicating their missions to Old Colony Mennonites in Latin American settings. In October, Luke traveled to Chihuahua, Mexico, to meet with members of the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. While there, he helped one of the colonies think about their faith in relation to the needs of migrating birds.
“People call me when they are looking for Mennonites who care about the environment because they are frustrated with Mennonites who appear not to,” Luke remarks.
• Information seekers: For example, I recently spoke with a new MCCN member who had prepared a presentation for an interfaith setting. Our website helped him find what he needed to explain the Mennonite position on creation care.
• Youth who passed by the MCCN booth at the MCUSA convention in Kansas City last summer were challenged to vote for the greenest congregation. They learned how community gardens, energy conservation and nature appreciation can be expressions of faith.
• International guests: People at Mennonite World Conference shared stories in a workshop entitled, “Watershed Discipleship: Understanding Each Other’s Environmental Challenges.” This was one of nine workshops MCCN offered last July.
Will you support our work with a year-end donation? Our online donation page makes it easy.
Jennifer Schrock on behalf of the MCCN Creation Care Council