In the summer of 2019, Deanna Geelhoed, 24, and Anneke Spoelma, 14, attended a Climate Witness Project Bootcamp—an initiative created by World Renew and the Christian Reformed Church. When Deanna and Anneke later travelled to parts of Kenya and Uganda, climate change stopped being an abstract debate. It became personal.

Both were already passionate about caring for creation, but seeing climate impacts firsthand revealed how deeply environmental change reshapes daily life—especially in communities where people depend directly on the land to survive.

When Climate Change Becomes Lived Reality

In many of the communities they visited, farming families spoke about weather patterns that no longer followed familiar rhythms. Rainfall had become unpredictable—sometimes arriving all at once, sometimes not at all.

“Climate change has created new weather patterns, which impact people’s abilities to farm effectively,” Geelhoed explained. “These changes can range from flooding to drought, and the resulting food scarcity can cause political and social instability.”

One farmer shared that his community can now receive what used to be eight months of rain in a single day.

Faced with these challenges, communities are adapting. New farming strategies—such as conservation agriculture—are helping reduce water loss and improve yields. These practices focus on minimal soil disturbance, keeping soil covered, and rotating crops to support long‑term resilience.

Listening Across Distance and Difference

What stood out most for Spoelma and Geelhoed was how universally climate change was understood in the places they visited.

“Everywhere we went, climate change was known and accepted as fact,” Spoelma said. “People don’t have time to argue about whether it’s real—they’re already living with its effects.”

Returning home, both women found themselves in thoughtful conversations with people of different generations and perspectives. These exchanges—sometimes challenging, often hopeful—became opportunities to share what they had witnessed and learned by listening.

The experience also reframed their understanding of blessing and responsibility. Recognizing their own security and resources, they felt compelled to speak clearly and act faithfully.

In one public presentation, Spoelma urged others to take tangible steps toward caring for creation—actions like composting, planting trees, reducing waste, and supporting land stewardship efforts in their local communities. Together, she and Geelhoed also encourage churches to weave creation care into worship, teaching, and everyday practices.

Sometimes it’s easy to feel distant from environmental change—especially when its most severe impacts are happening far from where we live.

But as Geelhoed reflected:

“As Christians, we have a moral obligation to care for our brothers and sisters, even when they live on the other side of the world. Climate change is making already hard places even harder to live in. This experience gave me a face to the problem.”

*Adapted from The Banner, written by Victoria Veenstra