Creation Stewardship Programmes

Created For Life!

Created For Life! Course 24 – 28 January 2008 Mount Pleasant and Elandsrivier, Eastern Cape Province

Our fifth Created for Life! course was held in two different locations near Port Elizabeth: in rolling grassland and dune forests at Mount Pleasant, and in the mountain and river wilderness of Die Bos, at UCSA’s adventure centre, Elandsrivier. Visit them here.

Six staff members of the Students Christian Organization learnt a lot about outdoor leadership games, which were presented by Noluvuyo and UCSA’s adventure camping staff.

The mountain and river veld types in the Elandsrivier wilderness combine a fascinating mix of mountain and riverine forest and fynbos. Living in this transition zone meant we heard and saw a huge diversity of bird species in the early mornings. Participants enjoyed their first ever walks in forest and fynbos for the purpose of discovering and interpreting the wild.

During worship and Bible investigations delegates explored the doctrine of creation, biblical anthropology and the relationship of Christ and creation. A climate change workshop led to discussing how to change the majority of South African students’ attitudes towards the environment. Gerard Manley Hopkins’ concept of ‘inscape’ (discussed by James Houston in I Believe in the Creator) prompted delegates to explain how witchcraft in their communities had seriously and negatively impacted on their early images and experiences of the wilderness, inhibiting their ability to freely enter wild places, for life. A prayer walk with Psalm 104 along the Elandsrivier, gradual acquaintance with the forest, and then a solo time in the bush, helped delegates to overcome some deeply ingrained cultural inhibitions.

Africa and our planet’s most prolific floral kingdom – Fynbos! Twenty nine flower species were found in 20 minutes, in one hectare of recently burnt fynbos. Here we have from left to right Prismatocarpus campanuloides, Erica cerinthoides, Lobelia anceps, and Bobartia aphylla,

April 2007 Report

Nine students from five African countries participated in A Rocha South Africa’s Created for Life! Course from 10 – 14 April. The five day course, now accredited in South Africa for undergraduate degrees in theology and development, took place 60 km from Pietermaritzburg in one of KwaZulu-Natal’s last remaining afromontane grassland and forest wilderness.

For five days students learn a repertoire of outdoor leadership games and adventure initiatives, with outdoor education specialist and local volunteer, Geoff Gould. They walk in the rainforest and grasslands with team member, Noluvuyo Mshumpela to discover the meaning of biodiversity firsthand, in these highly threatened biospheres. They also learn basic techniques of nature interpretation.

The heart of the course is an exploration of the Bible themes: creation, community and new creation, and a small group narrative exercise in which participants tell their own stories in the light of St Paul’s teaching on baptismal identity. Case studies of young leaders in Scripture who were formed and prepared for living wisely, in the Wilderness are studied.

Participants also take part in enviro-expertise workshops where they investigate current environmental issues facing South Africa: Economic Growth: Some Myths and Responsibilities, Climate Change, GMOs and Food Security, Development versus Global Extinction.

The course builds bridges between young adults of different cultures as participants explore the meaning of leadership vocation and responsible stewardship. The course will be offered for the first time in the Eastern Cape Province in the near future.