Privilege

This morning I decided to take my coffee down to the beach and drink it with my feet in the water. Seabirds were flying across the view of the sun rising over Watamu Marine Park.I thought "What a privilege to be here and to sense that this is where God wants me to be and to get a glimpse of the possibilities." It is a small place, but in this place I can do something to take care of something that God cares about. These habitats and species have value because they are ultimately God's. How I feel about them or what they can do for me doesn't matter. They have intrinsic value because of who their Creator is, the same Creator that made me. And yet, the amazing thing is that it does have huge value for people. Not only the tourists that "like" that nature stuff, but the boat operators that earn a living taking them out to the reef and to see the dolphins. The people on the beach taking them to see the eels in the shallow holes near the shore. And as I learned in a recent symposium at the London Zoological Society on biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation, marine parks are one of the few conservation measures that have been proven scientifically to benefit both biodiversity and the poor. The abundance of the park overflows into the surrounding area raising catch rates and providing baby fish that float into other areas to repopulate overfished places. And, as if it couldn't get better, the primary beneficiaries of the overflow of the park (the fishermen) and the boat workers are Muslim. So A Rocha, a Christian conservation organisation, is working to protect habitats to glorify God and whose primary human beneficiaries are Muslim. In this day and age, with all the conflict, this is a real area of hope that Christians are trying to bless Muslims.

There is still a long way to go, but I am looking forward to the next few years investing in this place where God has dropped me and we'll see what He has in store for this little corner of His creation.