Tom Rowley has been involved with A Rocha USA from its beginnings in 2000 − first as a board member, now as executive director. Prior to coming on staff with A Rocha, Tom had a varied career including stints as a columnist and freelance writer, fellow with the Rural Policy Research Institute, project manager for the TVA Rural Studies Program at the University of Kentucky, editor at Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy, and acting deputy director and social science analyst with the Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Tom, Maria and their sons Jake and Michael currently live in central Oregon where they revel in learning about and playing in the forests, mountains, rivers and deserts of the region.
Those familiar with A Rocha know that Peter, Pavel and Dave—with their better halves Miranda, Radka and Anne; countless volunteers; and a handful of dedicated staff—also built A Rocha International, Czech and UK, respectively. What struck me that day in the blind was how they did it.
The book of Jonah is short and contains just one story. It’s usually interpreted as reminding us we can’t run away from God, and as showing the Gospel as good news of God’s desire to forgive the sin of people who genuinely turn to him. All this is clearly there, but there’s more to Jonah and to the Gospel than this suggests.
There’s a strong undercurrent of discouragement and despair in the conservation community. Given the challenges we’re up against, it’s hardly surprising. Needs can be overwhelming—how can we possibly fix them all? Expectations can be just as numerous and challenging—how can we possibly please everyone?
Hosea is best known as the prophet who married a prostitute. But, like Song of Songs, the book of Hosea is not only about human and divine love. A third set of relationships is woven through the book: God’s and humanity’s relationship with the land and its other creatures.
We live in a world where places are less valued than in earlier times. Technology and urbanization lead us away from being connected to places. As bodily creatures, we need bodily connections to places. And nature needs humans who are place-oriented, because such humans take an effort to care for places.
Today’s Middle East is beset by tragedy: a litany of human suffering, migration and exile in a region of such beauty and cultural richness. Yet, the Middle East is also one of the great wildlife migration routes: millions of birds take this route to and fro each year. What insights can we gain from linking these two mass migrations, one human, sudden and involuntary, the other avian, regular and instinctive?
It is funny what people say when you tell them you work in conservation. Their reactions are very varied, depending on how you describe it. But if you say you work for a charity (true), surprisingly often people think you are going to ask them for money (false). So as we charity workers actually depend upon people’s generosity, is there a good way to go fishing?
Today’s environmental problems are so complex they often seen intractable. To tackle them, we need not only politics and economics, science and technology. We also need great wisdom to move towards a more sustainable and just world. But where can we find it?
Each set of convictions addresses the same reality. So it shouldn’t be surprising that a recent insight within ecology aligns beautifully with the foundational biblical perspective that human beings have the God-given responsibility to care for all creation.
David was a man of contrasts and often contradictions: shepherd boy and powerful King; mighty warrior and sensitive poet; saint, sinner and song-writer. One striking thing about the Psalms attributed to David is the nature writing they contain. Here are just a few.
