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I learned a new term today … “virtual missionary“. A virtual missionary is someone who uses digital media to teach people about Jesus and serve other people around the world when they are unable to travel. I would like to modify that term to make it slightly more appropriate to what I do. I believe God has me working as a virtual eco-missionary and right now that is in East Africa, and in particular, Kenya. A virtual eco-missionary is someone who demonstrates the love of God not only for people, but for the rest of creation through acts of compassion and service. In my case, I am trying to conserve small reptiles, amphibians, and mammals at the Upendo Conservation Area, and the conservation of snakes by reducing the potential for human-snake conflicts.
In The Beginning Were The Ecological Missions
I first used the term “ecological missions” when I began taking short term missions trips to Romania to work with young people on environmental issues. Pastor Robert Bustin had started an ecology club at the Sighisoara Church of the Nazarene, and I would visit them every summer for a few years (along with college students on two trips) to teach them about watershed ecology, water pollution monitoring, and other subjects related to ecology. We even did stream cleanups on several occasions. I remember the adults from the villages would stand around and make fun of the young people cleaning up their trash from the waterways. Sad. While I was in Romania, I also had the opportunity to sing and play guitar with their worship team, and to preach in several of the area churches. My wife and I also got involved with some compassionate ministries, like providing a bread oven for the Baptist church to bake bread for the Romani community.
But the missions trips to Romania were in-person. It would cost a lot of money to travel to Romania, especially for students and families; and then there is the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that comes with flying on airplanes. I was having an internal conflict even though those missions trips were very important to me.
The Mission Of Raising My Son
After my son was born, we stopped going on missions trips overseas. Instead I focused on two other important missions: raising my son to care for God’s creation, and teaching college students to do the same. I wanted my son and my students to know that being a good steward of the environment was just as important as stewardship of time, money, and other things. I taught at ENC for 22 years, and today my son is 22 and a student in the wildlife conservation program at the University of Rhode Island.
Virtual Eco-missions in East Africa Today
My current mission is to serve the people of Kenya, Tanzania, and other East African countries regarding conservation issues, but also to address the health problem of snakebite (considered a neglected non-infectious disease). Unlike my prior missions trips, this entire mission is being done virtually. I have never been to Kenya, and right now my health problems will not allow me to travel to East Africa. So I have been doing works of service with two organizations – the Upendo Conservation Area (UCA) and the Snake Community Action Network (SCAN). I was first engaged by Silas Wekesa Muchenje, the director of UCA, to help them set up a small nature conservancy dedicated to the preservation of the remaining reptiles, amphibians, and other small animals in their community. I also helped them to set up a native tree nursery, construct a drinking water well, and identify many of the creatures that inhabit their conservation area. One of the most important ways in which I advise them is with community educational programs, particularly with snakebite prevention. As a result of the work on snakebite, I founded SCAN to provide a platform by which people passionate about snakes and snakebite from all over Kenya and other parts of East Africa could provide training to their communities. Altogether with these two organizations, the snakebite training programs have reached over 10,000 people in the past 1.5 years.
There are many people in both organizations that are Christians, and there are aspects of their work that can be done as a ministry. For example, Christians and non-Christians can both attend to snakebite victims and their families, but Christians can add prayer or encouragement through Scripture if requested by the patient. Outside of SCAN, I also have a Bible study called “Following The Ways Of Jesus” where we learn about how we can better love and serve each other on our team and in the community – putting our faith into action. I often put my love in action when I help someone who is going through a difficult time and has a specific need.
Virtual Communications
All of this has been accomplished virtually. With UCA, I communicate with Silas mainly on Facebook Messenger (UCA) and occasionally on WhatsApp (SCAN). There is also a webpage where we have included information about the conservation area and its species, as well as training materials (talk about manual).
As one example, consider how we went about determining the species of frogs that are found in the conservation area. My specialty is bioacoustics – the study of the sounds that frogs make. We can determine which species are present by analyzing their sounds. So Silas would take a couple of people out and they would conduct visual and auditory surveys for frogs, take photos, and record the sounds. Silas would send them to me on Facebook Messenger or by email, and I would analyze the sounds and look at the photos to determine the species. So far we have identified 15 species of frogs in the conservation area. We also have a trail camera that provides me with digital images of the animals that trigger the camera, and we have been able to identify a number of reptile, bird, and mammal species that way.
With SCAN, the team is made up of people from various parts of Kenya, and Kenya is a big place (size similar to Texas). Getting people together in-person is very difficult and costly. As a result, nearly all communication is accomplished through WhatsApp, although we have used Zoom on a couple of occasions for meetings. We have a “SCAN Family” group set up, under which are various chats. The main chat is a place for everyone to communicate with each other for various reasons – posting snake pictures for identification, sharing information, encouraging each other, and providing other forms of assistance. We also have a Learning Community chat, where I post lessons about snakes, snakebite, community training methods, and even how to take good photographs of SCAN events. Other chats are for trainers, snake removers, emergency assistance, and training materials. Of course on top of this, I also created our SCAN webpage and our Facebook page. The webpage is found at https://scan4snakes.wixsite.com/scan. Our Facebook page is at https://facebook.com/snakecommunityaction.
Educational Tools
When we started, we had very few resources by way of training materials. So I grabbed a friend (Makayla Johnson) and together we wrote the first curriculum that Silas used for snake awareness training. The first and perhaps most important tool I created was the Snake Awareness Training Manual based on our initial work with UCA. This training manual and some of the materials described below are available free of charge from https://www.upendoconserationarea.org/resources.
I also used my creative skills and tools like Canva to create a variety of teaching aids such as posters, snake ID cards, flyers, and social media posts. Stephen Spawls, a famous herpetologist from Kenya, and another photographer by the name of Robin James Backhouse, generously provided access to some much needed snake photographs to be used for educational purposes.
In Closing
Let me wrap this up as it is already too long. So far this model has been very successful. It would not have been if there were not people on the ground there to put plans into action. I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to use my skills and experience to help people who really care about God’s creation and want to save lives of snakebite victims. See you next time.
Tending To the Garden 
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