Reflecting on her camping experiences, Jennie Warkentine challenged her audience to change their eating, driving, and disposable habits. Warkentine, a sophomore from Wichita, Kan., won the annual C. Henry Smith Peace Speech Contest at Hesston College Wednesday, April 8. Her speech was titled “I Want to Pass It On.”
Warkentine admitted that camp “is a special place for me…. Maybe it is the creation I experience around me. I feel the closest to God when I am outside in nature-when I am away from technology, away from vehicles, away from work, away from all the busy distractions I find for myself. This is my peace.”
Warkentine said one way we experience God’s peace and peace with all living things is by restoring our relationship with all creation. “One doesn’t need to look far to see how broken the relationship is between people and all creation.”
“God is going to hold us accountable for what we do and don’t do for the earth,” she continued. “We know how we are hurting creation, science and simple observation tell us that. The Bible repeatedly tells us to care for God’s earth and as environmentalist Emma Sleuth says in her book It’s Not Easy Being Green, “saying ‘we didn’t know’ to God isn’t going to cut it” (page 15).
“We must find a way to be peacemakers,” Warkentine claimed. “We won’t be able to change people, to change systems overnight, but if 100 people begin making small changes, added together those actions can have a big impact. Even on your own, if you practice small changes daily these can add up during a lifetime.
According to Warkentine, simple ideas that can make a huge input include changing our eating habits. “We can eat foods that are fresh, locally grown, and seasonal. Cookbooks like Simply in Season, Extending the Table, and More-With-Less are treasures that teach us according to the introduction that “there is a way of wasting less, eating less, and spending less which gives not less but more” (Doris Longacre, page 8). We can also choose to make ‘summer’ meals that require little heating time and ‘winter meals; that use the oven when it takes less energy to cool the house again. Buy organic and fair-trade coffee, tea, etc. Avoid extra packaging and Styrofoam as much as possible.
Warkentine also suggests changing our driving habits. “Lightening our cars gives better gas mileage, choosing to carpool, take public transportation, walking, ride a bike, waiting to run an errand until you have other stops to make in the vicinity, and keeping your car maintained to increase its efficiency.”
Her third suggestion is to change our disposable habits. “Recycle whenever possible, avoid using disposable cameras, take cloth bags with you to the grocery store, when going through the drive-through decline plastic utensils (keep some real ones in the car), start a compost pile for food scraps and lawn clippings and use the compost instead of chemical fertilizers, when buying clothes don’t buy the latest style, buy clothes that will last and stay in style. Use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones. The list goes on and on as long as we are willing to be creative and responsible.”
Warkentine concludes her speech with some personal reflections. “Currently when I hear the word ‘peace,’ I think of my inner peace. This semester I have been struggling with personal challenges and that peace has been elusive. But I have found through music and the warm spring sun, through memories of camp and walks at the Dyck Arboretum, a peace that has calmed me and given me hope again.
“Because of this source of peace, I have been inspired to make a change, to work towards and think about living simpler, to consume less, to care better for God’s glorious creation-to care for the place where he expresses himself to us and where I meet Him. This is peace. This is right relationship. Through the beauty of peace between me and creation, the God of peace has come to me, and I want to pass it on.”
The second-place finisher, Matt Lehman, a sophomore from Kidron, Ohio., presented a speech on how to attain peace by tackling our fears. Tied for third-place were Perry Ellis, a freshman from Chicago, Ill., and Bereket Gebremariam, a freshman from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Warkentine’s first-place speech will now be entered in the bi-national 2009 C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest. The bi-national contest, administered by Peace and Justice Ministries of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) U.S., is open to students in every Mennonite and Brethren in Christ college in North America. The top three speakers receive cash prizes as well as scholarships to attend a peace-related conference or seminar. Winners of the bi-national contest will be announced later this year.