Day 8 of COP30– Neighbor's Houses

Authors: Svenja Akwaba (Germany/Kenya) & Ron Rienstra (USA)

Ron and Svenja update us on Day 8 at COP30

Here’s a few reflections from our newsletter writers for today:

Ron: My badge says that I’m an “observer” here, but I have “participated” in a couple small ways. Yesterday I offered a concluding prayer to a session convened by a coalition of Christian climate groups. Today I participated in a small protest in the Blue Zone supporting fair funding for a just transition. And we all participated in a large march this past weekend. So what I’ve been thinking about is what it means that we observers aren’t really in “the room where it happens” -- where the actual political decisions are made that will make a difference people’s lives. But it’s not insignificant that we are here in the hallway, ensuring that the decision-makers have to see us, hear us -- not to mention the people we try to represent who aren’t even here in the hallway. I was in Florence a while ago and visited the Uffizi gallery-- the offices from which the Medicis ruled. Connecting those offices to their homes was the Vasari Corridor, a passageway ensuring that those who made the decisions didn’t have to encounter common people and their concerns, didn’t have to see or hear them. I’m glad that’s not the case at this COP.

CCOPer Naomi participates in an official climate protest in the halls of COP30

Svenja: This evening we went on a boat trip. We lifted our eyes beyond the COP walls into the distance, beyond all the troubles that are addressed at the conference towards the horizon where heaven and earth touch. And it reminds me again why I am here. Because I am dreaming of that very spot where heaven and earth kiss, where God's goodness is present. For everyone.

It is so easy to chase meeting after meeting, running up and down the blue zone to make the best of the time. It is so easy to forget our motivation behind it, the reason why we came here.

Today it poured and poured and I rejoiced in the welcome refreshment after days of heat. Just like I did 3 years ago during the first rains in Kenya after months of drought. When I woke up the next morning and our neighbors houses were washed away from the floods, I felt ashamed for ever rejoicing in the rain.

That and so much more is the reason why I am here. And while I watch the line between heaven and earth blur as it gets darker, the memory hurts, I hope it always does. And so I still dream of heaven on earth, I still give it my all.

Sunset from the Bible Boat on the Guamá River

Prayer Requests

• As we ran through a very typical Amazonian rainstorm today we were reminded of the need to pray for all the folks for whom a downpour like that isn’t an occasional and almost delightful break from the hot sunshine, but for whom it’s a source of regular  dangerous and often deadly flooding.
• It’s getting to be crunch time at COP, and we ask for prayers that the delegates will be able to agree on a fossil fuel roadmap and that the work both of delegates and observers witnessing and testifying may bear some recognizable fruit.