What happens when gifts, faith and passion meet? We spoke to Karen, who recently did the Praxis Labs course, to hear how it impacted her.
‘God could use the passions in my heart’
Karen shared: “I knew that my love for God’s earth was part of my identity, who I was in Him. But I had never thought of it as part of my worship to God, or as part of living my life for Him. It was just what I did, because of who I am.”
Praxis Labs gave Karen the space she needed to reflect. “It helped me to step back and look at God and myself from new angles, with fresh insight. I saw how Christ’s death and resurrection wasn’t (just) because God loved mankind, but because God loved the whole world; nature and mankind! It gave my love for recycling, gardening and protecting nature a higher calling and gave me more of a focus.
“Once I had seen this and acknowledged that God could use the passions in my heart for his work, for his gospel and to bring his Kingdom to my area of town, everything changed. God took me from a regular citizen, concerned about the environment, to new positions of influence, where I could take the lead, show others how to live for Jesus and to look after our world.”
Putting passion into action
With this new perspective, Karen put her faith and passion into action in her local area. “I now volunteer in school one day a week, running Wildlife Wednesday, where I can teach the children about nature, climate change and positive changes they can make. The school gained eco school status, and God even blessed my fundraising applications too, so thanks to him I was able to design and build an amazing garden area. I was responsible for gaining grants of over £25,000 last year alone!”
From there, God opened further doors. Karen’s church community recognised the gifts she has: “I was asked by the group of churches I’m part of, to help run a new initiative to help churches to take their environmental responsibilities seriously.” She also got involved in local government, having an influence on policies and procedures that affect the environment. “I was handed direct access to the local authority waste team and am now able to influence the local council in their waste strategies. I was also invited to be a climate commissioner, influencing the whole administrative area, working alongside the council, big businesses and other stakeholders in the area.”
If, like Karen, you’re wondering about how you could use your gifts, passions and faith to bring hope and transformation, then why not join the next Praxis Labs course? It’s starting on 27 April this year and you can find out more about the course here.