Thanks to all 80+ who turned out for our Creation Care Symposium. Check out the photos here. We were joined by several out of town guests who helped deepen our local work. The event comprised lectures from Robert Campbell, pastor of Santa Margarita Community Church, and Jonna Engel, Marine Biologist, trail construction on our project site, star gazing, creating a raised bed garden at Turnpike Church of Christ, devotional talks, art work, a birding session at Carpinteria Salt Marsh, and more. We look forward to sharing our local projects with you with opportunities for your participation as we continue to mobilize Christians to steward the Earth through education and action.

One of the questions I receive from people within the church is, “Why is the stuff that A Rocha gets involved with of importance to us?” We have a mandate within the Christian faith to steward the natural world - it is the first commandment given in the Bible. In addition, the poor in the world are usually the first to be impacted by environmental degregation and the Biblical focus on justice is inescapable, thereby making wise stewardship of our natural resources an issue to great importance. Join us as we explore these topics at our upcoming symposium to be held at Santa Barbara Community Church. To RSVP and learn more check out this invite (.pdf)

A thanks to Laurel and Jonna for passing along some great resources as we begin working on a new project that connects conservation work to our community garden initiative. We have been very thankful for the response from local churches who have been requesting assistance in creating community gardens. With these opportunities comes the ability to begin practical conservation work through utilizing citizen scientists to both educate about and promote biodiversity in our community. We look forward to sharing this work with you and invite you to join us as we begin a new garden on October 10 as part of our Creation Care Symposium. To find out more information about this event and to RSVP, view the invitation here.