Not long after Easter, some Christians took part in a tree planting activity for charity put on by theSpecial Committee of Social Service and Communication under Tianjin Christian Church.
According to the WeChat account "Shanxi Lu Church Share Gospel and Meet", the activity was to celebrate the 70th anniversary of People's Republic of China and the 40th anniversary of Chinese Arbor Day.
Since its founding, the special committee had held many activities for the public to show the love, peace and harmony of Christianity, to have Christians integrate into and serve society, and to honor God and benefit people by charity.
Chinese Arbor Day could be traced back to 1915, when Ling Tao-yang, Han An and Joseph Bailie submitted a statement to the Beiyang Government asking for April 5 to be designated as Arbor Day. Who were they? Lin Tao-yang and Han An were tree horticulturalists and Christians, who had received a western education as children. Joseph Bailie was a Presbyterian Missionary from Canada, and the founder of higher agricultural education in China. Thus, we can see the relationship of Chinese Arbor Day to Christianity.
-Translated by Lin Changfeng
