A globe, trees, flowers, and our Church’s emblem: all these were drawn by children from Colombia as a logo for a project named “Recycling in Christ”. Here are the pictures and the story.
The New Apostolic youth in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia in South America, is celebrating its third birthday. The project Reciclando en Cristo (meaning “Recycling in Christ”), has been running since 2022. How do faith and environmental protection go together? The project’s initiators have a clear answer.
Doing good for the next generation
According to the website of the New Apostolic Church Colombia, the youth want to “encourage respectful treatment of God’s creation”. It says further, “In this way, we express our gratitude to God for taking care of us and providing us with everything we need.” And they want to “serve the people who will inhabit this world in the future by building a better place for them to live”.
From the youngest to the oldest, all brothers and sisters in the region are asked to help by collecting recyclable materials at home and donating them. Once enough material has been collected, the young people and ministers see to it that everything is picked up and taken to a storage centre located in the Tunjuelito church. There it is carefully sorted before being sold to recycling companies in the neighbourhood. The proceeds benefit youth-related activities.
The example sets a precedent
The effects of the campaign are unexpected—pleasantly so. For one thing, friends and neighbours have joined the initiative by collecting and donating recycled materials themselves. And secondly, people in the congregation’s neighbourhood have become aware of the activities and work of the New Apostolic Church. And finally, there are attempts to launch similar initiatives in cities such as Cali, Medellín, and Cúcuta
Sunday School children created their own logos to support the motto: Reciclando en Cristo. And they have even developed into something like an advertising medium. During the Chief Apostle’s most recent visit to Colombia last February, for example, he and his guests were presented with mugs and buttons from the Reciclando en Cristo campaign, decorated with the children’s pictures.
