Climate change is something that impacts everyone. But it doesn’t impact everyone equally.
When our Safe Water September team visited Zimbabwe in May last year, Showers of Blessing Project Director Boniface Mpofu pointed out fields of failed maize as we drove along unsealed rural tracks. Almost every farm we passed had at least one field of dried, dead stalks. The drought, Boniface told us, continues to get worse. With less rain comes dry rivers and lakes. Even the reliable groundwater accessed by bores is affected.
Our partners are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than most of us in Australia. A bad harvest can tip an impoverished Zimbabwean farming family into desperate circumstances. Cyclones and storms hit Vanuatu with alarming frequency. Heavy storms in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh, can damage communities and contaminate drinking water.
We can’t talk about sharing and being God’s Good News without considering the created cosmos.
When God created the world, God created us and made us responsible for the care of the Earth. The Message says, “God blessed [humans]: ‘Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.’” (v. 28). Other translations use words like “steward” or even “dominion”, but the idea is the same: we have a mandate to protect and nurture the world God has made, and our actions will have an impact, for good or ill.
Just as we can harm one another through our carelessness and brokenness, we can harm our planet. Just as Jesus gives us an example to follow to grow beyond our brokenness, the planet’s salvation is bound up in Jesus’s Good News. Paul writes in Romans, “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” (v. 20-21, NIV)
The human cost of climate change, especially in the most vulnerable communities around the world, becomes more apparent every year.
I’m inspired by the work of our partners, who are working in the face of changing climates to make their communities more resilient to extreme weather and climate.
And I know that young people in our churches care deeply about this topic, with Mission Australia showing in 2023 that climate change was the most common concern among young people surveyed. I’m proud to have these passionate young disciples supporting our partners through Safe Water September each year and every day through simple actions close to home.
We’ve just launched a new Safe Water September Bible study for World Water Day, March 22, exploring how water and climate meet.
You can download the resource at safewaterseptember.org.au/climate-study to open the Bible with kids, teens, and adults. We pray that this resource blesses your discussion and inspires action on climate change—locally, nationally, and globally.
Mitch Salmon,
National NextGen Lead