In 1986, D’Aun and I started a new hobby that turned into something far beyond that. We had found a property in the Sierra’s that we could purchase cheap and turn into a weekend retreat center. The goal was to use the property to promote a deeper understanding of “creation care”. Seeing that Scripture called us to care for what God has created, this center would be used to teach others about the need to be good stewards of creation. Seriously, it was a hobby … I had a career, we were raising two kids, active in a church plant, and led busy lives. About the most we’d put into this hobby was a two weekends a month to host groups.

Little did we know what this “hobby” would turn into. In a wild ride of expansion, within ten years the organization was working in 27 countries around the world, operating camps on three continents, publishing a monthly magazine, saving rainforest lands an acre at a time, organizing campus chapters across the nation, and launching a semester program that taught global and Biblical understanding of the environment. It was indeed a wild ride that was hard to sustain (I am only semi-joking when I say that I do not remember the 1990’s). Our simple mission statement was “Serving the Earth, Serving the Poor”.

We made many good friends throughout the wild ride, and one of the people I grew to admire was Scott Sabin. Scott was President of Floresta, now Plant With Purpose. He had a sensible and humble approach to his work that impressed me. I became an admirer of Plant With Purpose long before it was well known.

Recently, Scott authored Tending to Eden. He sent me a copy and I was eager to read it. As I guessed, the book reflects the author. It is sincere, humble, straightforward, and transparent. Scott shares a few insights into his own journey of understanding how important creation care is to our faith, about his growth in cultural understanding, and about the failures as well as successes that Plant With Purpose has experienced. That’s what I enjoy about Scott as a person; transparency, honesty, clarity.

This is not an academic book, but rather a book for all of us. Using clear examples and simple explanations, Scott outlines how important creation care is to helping the poor around the world. Plant With Purpose weaves missions, evangelism, community development and environmentalism into its work, and this book reflects that same holistic approach. Throughout it all, Scott remains clear on his faith based calling and sensitive to the cultures where the organization works. It’s extremely well balanced, which is a rarity in the often polarized environmental conversation. In some ways it is a defense of creation care, but in more important ways it is a success story of how followers of Christ can make a real difference in the world. I found myself nodding my head often as I read the book (of course, Scott was preaching to the choir when he sent the book to me).

In perfect timing, Christianity Today Magazine recently published an article by Scott as part of the magazines Global Conversation series. You can find it here.

So to summarize, it’s a great book for a broad audience. If you are interested in missions, serving the poor, or creation care, this book will be of interest. If, like me, you are interested in them all, you’ll really enjoy the book.