God’s guidance can be as delicate as a dandelion seed: His still soft voice floats on the wind; we can catch our faith seed; sow it and wait for God to bring it to fruition.

God had given me a passion for writing when I was just 15 years old. Writing, like creating, is a vocation that depends heavily on inspiration. I consider it a great privilege, because it forces me to rely even more on God the Creator for ideas and direction.

In 2022, on the tail end of writing projects, I asked the Lord what I should write next. The answer was as ethereal as floating dandelion: “Cli fi”. I had never even heard of the term and had to research it. It meant “climate fiction”.

Embarking on a steep learning curve, I was then introduced to “creation care”, another alien concept. Hearing of a Creation Care Conference in September that year, I knew I had to attend it.

Inspired by Creation Care Conference 2022, the author subsequently took on environmental writing projects. One result was the children’s book Dung, Dung, Dung, DUNG! (co-written with Emily Lim-Leh and published by Graceworks).

The Conference theme was “The Garden of Eden”. It hearkened back to the first garden and how God “took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it”. (Genesis 2:15). It was a reminder that God created Man (you and I) for the original purpose of stewarding God’s creation.

The Garden of Eden is no longer here in its earliest form, but does this mean that God’s mandate is obsolete?

Volunteer Ming Yang introducing Katong Presbyterian Church’s Senior Pastor Rev Lam Kuo Yung (seated, on his right), who conducted a workshop on consumerism and simplicity. Photos courtesy of Pauline Loh and Our Father’s World unless otherwise stated.

Which led to the second goal of the Conference – to remind Christians that this mandate still stands. Care for the earth is even more urgent today than it ever was in the past.

As recent as the 1960s, people thought that fossil fuels were limitless – we had the liberty to use, and abuse, as much of the Earth’s resources as we pleased.

While there were concerns for the environment, over issues like wanton pollution and resource depletion, it was not until the first Earth Day in 1970 that the public became more aware.

However, almost all environmental care efforts at that time were spearheaded by secular groups, like Greenpeace. It seemed to have nothing to do with the Christian community, least of all me.

As I sat through the Creation Care Conference keynote address, I was bombarded by a lot of doubts.

What happened to Isaiah 65:17? “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.”

And Revelation 21:1: “Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.”

What I’d learnt throughout my years as a believer was that our physical earth, with its oceans, rivers, flora and fauna, was doomed. So why spend time trying to save it?

Pauline loves plants and finds a lot of inspiration among green foliage.

Moreover, my discipleship training thus far had been the whys and hows of evangelism, methods of leading Alpha courses and cell groups, and how to love prebelievers.

In short, the types of training I had undergone were all about human souls. Because human souls were imperishable. Therefore, all our Christian resources should be channelled to the harvest of eternal human souls. Why turn our focus on plants and animals that will soon perish in the apocalypse?

My 40 years of Christian education were challenged there and then in the hall of Katong Presbyterian Church where the Conference was held. The verses in Genesis 2:5-15 were slowly and reverently read out:

“Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up,
for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground,
but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.
… Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden;
and there he put the man he had formed.
The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—
trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.”

The speaker knew not to rush through these verses. He read it as slowly as the growth of young saplings, as leisurely as the gurgling of new springs. He allowed the images to unfold in this writer’s imagination – the Creator’s artwork, and the Creator’s heart behind his creation.

However, I felt that something was missing in the reading of that passage. Oh yes, the familiar and dreaded Genesis 2:16: “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

It was time for self-flagellation again. Because of Man’s disobedience, we cannot enjoy the garden anymore. So, we must quickly win souls! So that the end will come! And we can speedily go up to Heaven, and enjoy the reset wonders of the new world there.

Thankfully, the Conference did not focus on Genesis 2:16. Instead, we were gently guided to think about what we can do now as stewards of God’s creation here on the earth that we still have with us. If God has not given up on this world, who am I to abandon it?

Educational booths as well as booths selling sustainable merchandise encouraged 2022 conference participants to care for creation in their every day lives.

Yes, I had been doing my part to use less plastic and recycle more. But I was doing it for my children and the next generation, so that activists like Greta Thunberg would not point their accusing fingers at me, with the words: “You come to us young people for hope? How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”

Like secular people, I bought into the viewpoint that the earth is dying due to my fault – deforestation leading to soil erosion and whole eco-systems being killed off; ocean pollution leading to extinction of corals and marine life; greenhouse emissions resulting in global warming, so on and so forth.

Participants deep in small group discussions following the keynote lecture by Rev Leow Wen Pin on the biblical basis for creation care and how creation is present throughout the gospel.

However, as the Conference proceeded, the still soft voice of the Lord became clearer.

Creation care, unlike strident and aggressive environmental activism, was about wonderment. Creation care is not about “guarding limited resources or else our kids will be left with nothing” (this is not biblical). It is not “if we save one more drop of water, or use one less plastic bag, then our world will last longer” (also unbiblical).

Caring for creation is about appreciating the natural world that God has created (Genesis 1) and stewarding it (Genesis 2:15).

Pauline went on to write the series Once Upon a Green World: Fairy Tales with an Environmental Twist. She uses The Little Mermaid Saves Our Seas as a tool to explain ocean pollution and beach clean-ups in preschools.

I’ve sat through countless church sermons, but I’d never heard messages like the ones being preached at this Creation Care Conference. It had me madly thumbing through my Bible, incredulous that I had missed God’s will, thoughts and feelings.

However, if the messages were thought-provoking, what happened at lunchtime was more powerful in its tangibility.

The Conference was held in Katong Presbyterian Church (KPC), which was adorned with beautiful furniture made from the church’s recycled pews.

Then, we were introduced to their unique dishwashing method that minimised water wastage.

Even visitors and KPC’s own Senior Pastor Lam Kuo Yung wash up after themselves. The washing point has become a starting point of many conversations about caring for God’s world. Photo by Gemma Koh.

I learnt that KPC had spent a decade incorporating creation care into the church’s ethos, so that it was now thoroughly ingrained in the members’ philosophies.

Most unforgettable was chatting with one of the speakers, Ms Prarthini Selveindran, a volunteer of A Rocha International and co-editor of the book God’s Gardeners: Creation Care Stories from Singapore and Malaysia. Her tone was gentle rather than pulpit-pounding. She did not insist that I must embrace creation care; rather, she suggested that I simply “consider it”. Also, I was vastly entertained by her passion for … frogs.

Prarthini Selveindran is not your pulpit-pounding proponent for creation care. She wins people over with her gentle approach.

I was like a baby taking its first steps – I felt I needed time to learn.

But God didn’t.

Within months, I was offered not one, but three environmental writing projects. Indeed, like sowing a dandelion seed, one need not strive but wait for God to bring His plan to fruition.

To date, I’ve written all three projects.

At the recent Singapore Book Awards 2025 held on July 24, one of the books won Best Custom Publishing Award for crafting meaningful content tailored to the needs of its communities. Timmy and Bill Meet the Explorers of Sentosa features upcycling sculptor Thomas Dambo’s four Giants, which are made from discarded wooden pallets and crates.

Another book Dung, Dung, Dung, DUNG! featuring a small poop-loving beetle with a big job in the forest, was a finalist for Best Picture Book Award and Best Illustrator of the Year Award. Yet another book, a fractured fairy tale starring The Little Mermaid, garnered the support of SG Eco Fund.

Besides being thankful for the acknowledgements, more importantly, I felt that these endorsements are in line with the Lord’s message that the times are urgent for voices like ours, sending gentle exhortations to focus on the marvel of God’s creation, while taking sensible steps to respect and conserve natural resources.

The 2025 edition of Creation Care Conference: “On Earth as it is in Heaven” will be held on September 12-13 at Faith Methodist Church and Queenstown Chinese Methodist Church. It is organised by Our Father’s World. To register, click here.

RELATED STORIES:

“When you house-sit for someone, you don’t trash their property”: Advocacy group Our Father’s World on being good stewards of God’s earth

“A fresh expression of an Acts 2 church”: How one church’s green renovation ushered in a spirit of caring and sharing

“Studying this world just strengthens my faith”: Christian climate scientist Prof Katharine Hayhoe on integrating science and faith