Peter Illyn, Restoring Eden

Peter Illyn is executive director of Restoring Eden, a nonprofit working to make environmental stewardship a core Christian value.

Last night's outreach event was a success. About 50 people showed up at the Haines town library to talk about the "Theology of Wild." Pastors from four churches also attended, so our circle of credibility has expanded. The students from Palm Beach Atlantic University led the mixed crowd in some songs, including "Jeremiah was a Bullfrog" which was a good icebreaker. Aging hippies and conservative Christians all sang together, led by a group of guitar- and mandolin-playing Christian youth from South Florida. A celebration of eclectic community building!

After my sermon, the students were flooded with offers to come over to peoples homes for dinner. That night, as we debriefed, the students discussed how impressed they were with the honest struggles people in Alaska face in trying to make a living while not destroying the ecosystems they depend on.

We are struggling, however, to find enough good volunteer work for the students. It took all of two hours to scrape the totem pole clean; 13 people can get a lot done quickly. We will stack some firewood for the native carvers and maybe work at the recycling center to help them, but there is more free time than I would like.

Today, I rented a tour bus and we are headed out into of the wilds of Alaska. Our plans are to first visit a bald eagle preserve, then cross over into Canada and go up over the high mountain pass. But the weather report says it will be 40 degrees below zero in the mountains, so our day of playing in the snow probably won't happen. We will stop by the Klukwan tribal village for a brief visit and then head home for an evening of hot-tubing and star-gazing with some locals.

Now that my speaking responsibilities are over for a while, it is time to move on to the next projects in the pipeline. Restoring Eden is a small organization that was just begun last year. I have not added staff because our funding stream is still in its infancy and not too dependable. This means that I am doing most of the work myself -- grant writing, fundraising, activist training, outreach, bookkeeping, etc. It can get exhausting, but I keep plugging away.

I came down with eye cancer this past July and had my left eye surgically removed. The doctors think they got all the cancer, but my type -- ocular melanoma -- is a stealth cancer. It has a tendency to reappear in 10 years and then the outlook is grim, with only a 15 percent survival rate. I now live with the knowledge that I might die young, which can be very scary. The good news is that in reflecting upon my life, I am proud of the work I am doing and feel a great sense of vocation -- of a calling and a purpose that is larger than simply a career.

I am trying to organize a conference on Celebrating the Wonder of Creation in Anchorage for this fall. Members of the Catholic, Orthodox, and Episcopal diocese have agreed to meet. On Sunday, I head up to try to lay the initial groundwork and discover what common interests we have and what obstacles we might face in an ecumenical outreach project. I need to gauge the level of controversy the church leaders are willing to tolerate, since environmental issues are very political in Alaska.

I was also disheartened by the news that the decision on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may come down to two votes -- Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). Students from Christian colleges in both states have met with them and presented our side of the debate. Now is the time to turn up the heat, so I have to contact my student groups today to increase the pressure. I have a student leader at George Fox College in Oregon who is petitioning students on campus. I need to get the word to him that now is the time to deliver those petitions.

Later today, I will email tribal leaders in Papua New Guinea to help them create a new Christian environmental group, Christians Advocating for the Stewardship of the Environment. The New Zealand and Australian governments have expressed interest in funding the group, as has an evangelical relief and development organization from New Zealand.

But the process of creating a functioning nonprofit from scratch is difficult for tribal communities. As tribal people, they have their own organizational pace and sense of tribal protocols, but they have to meet the outcome standards of Western funders. This week, a group of them are getting together to "story" which is their word for discussing the group vision. Papua New Guinea is one of three countries owned and governed by indigenous groups, but it is new for them to think nationally and to navigate in global, cash-based economies.

Well, I've put on my long underwear and need to go out into the frigid Alaskan morning.