The CRES certificate program has moulded me. I will never be the same anymore after discovering the role that the triune God plays in creation, the negative impact of humanity’s sin on creation and Jesus Christ’s cosmic redemption. I discovered that the Holy Spirit played a role in creation, hatching all kinds of living creatures. It has been exciting to learn that the New Heaven and New Earth will not be built on the ashes of the current creation. I envision a spirituality that promotes life and cares for creation.
The hope for transformed creation requires that worship and discipleship does not separate spirituality and creation. In this regard, the CRES course helped me to revisit our African traditional spirituality and the connection between creation and spirituality. For instance, abundant or poor agricultural yields are seen to depend on good or bad relation with gods. I see stepping stones in African holistic spirituality, although I am very cautious about flirting with nature-based gods.
Indeed, on the ground in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, creation is too complex, and so a garden-based approach makes sense to many villagers in my country. I am working to influence churches in the use of ecosystem gardens. In liturgy, I am Christianizing the traditional agrarian rituals of sowing, harvesting, prayer for good rain and the sacred forest ceremony. This affirms the transcendent God as sole guarantor of good rain and abundant harvest. Discipleship and training are taking off, influencing families to adopt ecosystem gardens and biogas digesters as acts of worship, and as a faith-based response to climate change, soil degradation, food insecurity, forest clearing and loss of local biodiversity.