Earthkeeping in Africa

Brackenhurst Environmental Program
Kenya
Baptist

Kenya is an African nation where indigenous trees and whole forests are rapidly disappearing. The Baptist Mission of Kenya has a conference facility, Brackenhurst, located outside the capital city of Nairobi. The Brackenhurst property encompasses about 100 acres of mostly undeveloped land. A few years ago, Mr. John McKelvey, missionary and acting director of Brackenhurst, saw an opportunity to improve stewardship of the land through the implementation of an indigenous tree planting program for the center. With help from forestry experts, Brackenhurst now has a tree nursery and boasts over 600 tree species on its compound, a majority of which are indigenous to Kenya.

In addition to planting the trees, an important seed was planted in the minds and hearts of the Baptist Mission of Kenya. The mission has grown into the Brackenhurst Environmental Program (BEP), a full-fledged effort to bring a Christian perspective to bear on environmental concerns in East Africa.

The conference center is well-situated to share the message of environmental stewardship, because it hosts over 25,000 visitors annually, many of whom are leaders of mission agencies, NGOs, churches, and secular institutions. The center is also situated next to a Bible college which trains hundreds of pastors each year. Further, Kenya is said to be 80 percent Christian; ministering to both the land and people can provide a powerful witness to the Creator’s love.

Stewardship is a message that leads Kenyans to be enthusiastic and responsive; it makes sense to them because the vast majority of people are still farmers, fishermen, or pastoralists. Numerous pastors and church leaders comment: "This is a good message I have not heard before.” Or, “I never knew that the Bible had so much to say about caring for the environment."

The Brackenhurst Environmental Program is responding to the environmental crisis in a variety of ways. A notable highlight are the three-day "International Conference on God and Creation: Rediscovering the Biblical Mandate for Environmental and Agricultural Stewardship," which was co-sponsored by Food for the Hungry International in January 2003. This event was designed to reach African pastors, church leaders, farmers, missionaries, and other leaders with a message of environmental stewardship based on the Word of God; it exceeded all expectations. For three days, over 230 delegates and 16 speakers from the U.S. and Africa attended the conference, representing churches, missions, government, and numerous NGOs.

On several occasions an atmosphere of humble repentance hung over the audience as speakers pointed out a simple truth: Christians need to wake up to our responsibility in this arena and take action because the careless treatment and destruction of a magnificent creation is nothing less than an insult to the Magnificent Creator God whom we claim to love and worship. Results of the conference so far have been positive with quite a number of delegates writing back to describe how they have begun to take action on their new-found perspective.