SPEECH BY Rev. Dr. Canon Moses Bushendich
Bishop of Maseno East Rt. Rev. Joshua Owiti, fellow clergy and church leaders present, invited Guests, and the people of Maseno East Good afternoon.
CMS-Africa focuses on community transformation, with a mission to help people and communities renew their mindsets as a precursor for fundamental transformation. This we do through our training programmes: Samaritan Strategy aka VISION Conferences, Business as Mission, Women and Youth Trainings and the stewardship tracks that include Financial Freedom for Families and the Transformational Stewardship Training.
We believe that people must change the way they think before they can change how they act. It is now widely accepted that development is not so much physical and infrastructural but that is what follows after people have altered their fundamental belief systems and cultural practices before they can embrace and enjoy the benefits of 'development'.
CMS-Africa is pleased to be part of this event where our champion for care of Creation Margaret Oluoch is taking active lead in conserving River Oruba, dealing the endemic problem of water hyacinth in Lake Victoria as well as conserving trees and grasses in the Lake basin region using biblically founded approaches.
Margaret has worked for over twenty years helping communities in western Kenya to take care of their (natural) environment to meet current needs and for future generations; restore their livelihoods and raise household incomes as a result of a healthier environment, and help communities leverage their strength and experiences for greater impact. This is by beginning with small and few groups by encouraging them to collaborate with other groups to share resources, share lessons and evaluate their progress.
Margaret has demonstrated a personal commitment to see the communities become healthier, more stable, better endowed and able to take chart their own destiny and determined that the environment will be able to take care of future generations.
Margaret has been able to develop partnerships with both religious bodies and faith-based movementsover the years in her community-based initiatives. These include UN agencies, government departments and churches and community groups. Her tree-planting efforts in western Kenya led her to be endorsed in 2008 by the United Nations Development Programme as a contributor to the Plant for the Planet” Billion Tree Campaign.
Margaret’s desire is for God’s Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. The Garden of God as laid out in Revelation 22 full with rivers of water clear as crystal, trees of all kinds giving forth fruit and the leaves and trees used for the healing of the nations is what look forward to.
Gods desire is to restore all creation as it was from the beginning in the garden of Eden.
It is wonderful to see the community embrace this care of creation values and we look forward to replicating the Garden of God in the all the church compounds, homes, schools, hospitals and in the entire community
We therefore look forward towards every Christian Planting at least 3 trees in the Compound during this campaign period.