Thus said the angels; "and on earth, peace and goodwill to all men" (Luke 2:14). This peace, however, is difficult to see in a world ruined by climate change, war, prices, political turmoil, consumerism at an all time high...​

How do we put a stop to all this? The least we can do is respect God's green earth more, by walking through and appreciating it! We can also protect our health this way by means of exercise!​

My name is Jack Baynes, and I am a Second Year Theology Student at the University of Nottingham! In the wake of global environment crisis, I felt like we humans need to reconnect with the environment.

I hold an interest in walking around beautiful, green spaces, which Nottingham, as true to the Robin Hood stereotype, has loads of! Yet I feel like I am one of the only students who enjoy walking this much! I want this Challenge not just to prove me wrong, but help people reconnect with God, care for their environment and get their excercise as opposed to sleeping and overuse of screens!

I've always believed that there has been a rift in understanding health and God's planet. Growing up in East London, most people had two attitudes to choose from: exercise competitively in the heritage of the 2012 Olympics and/or West Ham United, or commit to a consumerised, tech-savvy way of life typical of an urban environment. A lot of people thought that there weren't a lot of parks in the area to choose from. I remember a lesson of CORE RE at Sixth Form, where the teacher linked religious sites to parks: they are not as non-existent as you think, you just need to research and then visit them.

I felt quite upset about this: the number of Sundays me and my family would travel to green spaces in Essex to get away from the city, and exercise, only to realise that your classmates probably won't find that very interesting because of lifestyle.

Besides, my family aren't even Eastenders; they generally take their love of the environment from their upbringings in more rural parts of the South. My mother, for instance, grew up in northern Dorset. After her mother died in 2004, her father moved back to Dorset, but this time, on the coast. Dorset's natural and coastal landscape has been important me and especially my mother; between 2014 and 2021, she quit her job to recover her mental health, and this partially involved embarking on a number of walking holidays in Dorset, whilst visiting her dad, stepmother and stepmother's parents.

In the holiday after my GCSE's, I even got a chance to join her on such a holiday, and from a direct experience, I cannot put into words how huge a role nature can have in destressing!

I sincerely hope you will enjoy walking 10,000 in some of the most beautiful parts of the East Midlands!

Creation is crying out. Our natural world needs help. Working together and in tune with Gods earth, we can make a significant contribution at a critical time.

In cities, towns, villages and gardens across the UK, our plan is to transform 75,000 acres of Christian-managed and church-linked land for nature by 2025. Can you help A Rocha UK to transform land for nature here in the UK at a new and ambitious scale?