A Rocha’s 2012 resource pack – The Life of Trees and the Tree of Life – is now available to download from http://www.arocha.org/int-en/resources/church-resources/12352-DSY.html.
The pack includes resources for sermons, orders of service, powerpoint for sermons (which you could just watch at home as a meditation), suggested hymns, activities and much more.
Why trees? Martin Luther said: “God writes the Gospel, not in the Bible alone but on trees, flowers, clouds and stars.”
Today human behaviour is leading to massive deforestation around the world. All of A Rocha’s national projects are involved with protecting and planting trees or forests, and A Rocha International’s Tropical Forests Programme links several of these.
In fact, our human lives are dependent on trees in multiple ways. The Bible also starts and finishes with trees – in the Garden of Eden and in the heavenly-earthly City. In between, Jesus’ death on a tree expresses our misuse of God’s creation as well as God’s wonderful saving plans for people and all creation.
The pack contains a variety of documents in Word and Adobe PDF form, along with PowerPoint presentations, and a short downloadable video suitable for showing in a church service.
Although the pack is free, churches are encouraged to support A Rocha’s work through a special collection or regular giving. More details can be found here.