The Reconciliation of All Things

At a recent missions conference, one woman came up to speak with me about the sermon I had just preached. I had mentioned the efforts I'm involved with at our mission in leading the Creation Care Initiative. She said she was a public high-school science teacher and was so glad to see us as an organization tackling some of the environmental issues of the day. In the public sector, it has been rare for her to find Christians willing to talk about environmental issues in a knowledgeable way. I don't shy away from having these discussions with Christians or non-Christians, because I'm confident in God's Word and what it teaches me regarding the decay of Creation and our role in bringing reconciliation to the world through the gospel of Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:19-20). Look it up for yourself! We are to bring reconciliation to ALL THINGS, in Heaven (spiritual realms) and on earth (physical realm). I reminded the teacher about the early scientists, all the discoveries the...

Tuesday we went to San Rafalito Island, a protected island that is part of the Balandra protected area of La Paz. We did what Steve calls Gorilla Diving. More precisely, Steve and Dr. Sluka gorilla dived, I "gorilla snorkeled". This is when you kayak out to the area you want to dive at, drop anchor (carefully, so as not to damage the coral reef, by finding a spot among rocks), and put your scuba gear on all from a kayak. It's much cheaper than paying a charter boat to take you out, in fact, it's free! And the joy of kayaking a little over 3.5 miles round trip from the beach to a 50x50 ft island with a small lighthouse on it in open water that is 60-80 ft. deep is half the fun! Oh, the beauty of enjoying God's creation! Wow! I wish everyone had the privilege of this. The fact it, there is so much of creation that we can enjoy if we will just take the time and praise God for His creation and the glory it brings Him! It was a beautiful time of seeing sea lions up c...

Monday was quite a treat--I got to swim with the largest fish in the world! In fact, the largest shark in the world! The whale shark! It's not a whale, it's a shark--notice the gills. It's called a "whale" shark because it's so large! The largest ones I swam with were about 22 feet long, and they are juveniles...teenagers. They come to feed on the plankton (not humans) in the Fall here in the Sea of Cortez. People didn't know about them coming here to feed in this area until only a few years ago...now it's a tourist hot-spot. Even so, there are regulations for swimming with them, such as keeping your distance and not touching them, and not getting in front of them while feeding. Our guide, Benjamin Duarte , did a great job teaching us about the sharks and finding them in the open blue so that we could swim with them. He charges double what the normal guides charge, but he's up to date on his certification, and he spends twice as much time with us ...

Sunday we went to a church that is called El Faro, or The Lighthouse in Spanish. The service was very similar to church in Brazil, where I grew up, and I could worship along pretty well and understand almost all of the sermon. It helps when the preacher speaks slowly. :-) The church is located on a hill at the center of the city--everyone sees it as they drive by the main drag. Quite significant that the name of the church was El Faro, as they want to be a lighthouse in their relationships with people, but they are also located in a physical location that serves as a lighthouse! The church is not yet completed, but is building as they have the resources. Walking up to church building. Inside the church--missionaries are usually the last to leave! Myself at the church overlooking the city in the background. Dr. Bob Sluka, A Rocha Marine Biologist After church, we had fish tacos (not myself, actually--I took a PB and J), and I hear they were delicious! It's a hots...

Today we headed to Cabo Pulmo National Park, a protected marine area, for scuba diving (Steve and Dr. Sluka), snorkeling (myself), and data collection. Steve, Dr. Sluka and 4 others heading out to scuba in two locations. We wanted to know what the condition of the reef is, the status of aquatic wildlife, and what is being done for conservation here. This month the National Park is opening a simple educational center to explain why conservation is important to this area, underwater as well as on land. You can see some of the videos we are taking  here . Cabo Pulmo is a small protected area declared a National Park for Mexico. If we are to start any type of work/ministry here dealing more specifically with conservation/research within our church-planting movement, we need to better understand what the ocean issues are that affect this part of Mexico on the Baja Peninsula. Plastic trash is a large problem all over the oceans. However, microplastics are the bigger iss...

Yesterday I arrived in Mexico. I flew into Cabo San Lucas, on the southern tip of Baja California Sur penninsula, then took a three hour shuttle ride up to La Paz in classic style...in the back seat sitting next to a big American guy on my left (a bit taller than me, but add an extra 60 lbs or so...), and a short, recently retired Mexican business man on my right coming back to La Paz from the US to visit his mother and family here in Mexico. I say classic style because it was extremely bouncy in the back seat of the shuttle, going an indecent amount over the posted speed limit, and without a working seatbelt. I've lived enough, and been through enough experiences, that I don't stress about the seatbelt not working anymore. No amount of complaining was going to fix it--and even IF I had a working seatbelt, it would do nothing to save my life if we were to get into an accident at the ridiculous speed we were going at. The trip usually takes three solid hours, our driver got us t...

This past Sunday I preached at the opening of a missions conference at a church in the suburbs of Chicago. The passage I preached on was Luke 10:25-37, where Jesus answers an expert in the law's question about how to inherit eternal life. He taught on the parable of the Good Samaritan in response to the man's question about who his neighbor was. The point Jesus was making was that to gain eternal life, one had to love God wholeheartedly (Deut. 6:5-9) and love his neighbor as himself (Lev. 19:18). They are two separate commands in the Law, yet Jesus puts them together as the two most important commands to obey! Problem was, no one could do either of those perfectly. Put them together, it seems even more impossible! That's why we needed a Savior! Jesus IS that Savior, thankfully! He fulfilled the Law's requirements on our behalf! Problem is, today we tend to either "spiritualize" our walk with God to the point that we ignore the practical needs in society, or ...

Due to my role as the Creation Care Specialist for our organization, the first two weeks of November I (Ben) am planning to go to La Paz, Mexico for some important talks with an international Christian conservation organization ( A Rocha ) and our local TEAM missionary who has started a non-profit organization called " Reconciliamar ". This name is an amalgam of the Spanish words "reconciliation" and "love". It's what we do in La Paz, bringing reconciliation to the people there and to the local creation through the love of Jesus. They use adventures on the sea to transform lives. People that would never set foot in a church building are now hearing the gospel and becoming Christ-followers because we love people and care about the place they live! While there, we will explore how Reconciliamar (our TEAM ministry effort) and A Rocha might work together to see God glorified and the people and place of La Paz, Mexico be transformed by the love of Chri...

Wow! It's been a while since I posted here! Well, as you know, life gets busy, especially with ministry, kids, homeschooling, spring activities...whew! So I wanted to let you know that next weekend I will be offering a Creation Care Workshop/Seminar at River Oaks Community Church. If you're close by, join us for some or all teaching as we dig into Scripture, look at practical examples, and discuss the impact of how creation care helps us restore people and the land into flourishing, sustainable, Christ centered communities. It will be from 6-9pm Friday, June 2nd and 9am-12 noon Saturday, June 3rd. If you are interested in attending part or all of it, you can sign up here https://goo.gl/O8HWPt (mostly for childcare numbers). Please spread the word to your friends and churches; all are welcome to come and grow in our understanding of the impact Scripture has on our daily walk with Christ .