Welcome to If a Tree Falls..., a creation stewardship program of the Church of the Brethren. This is an effort to assist in the preservation of rain forest in Belize and in the reforestation of severely deforested areas in Guatemala. It is part of a multifaceted Brethren effort to work with people and Christian organizations in these countries to protect God's creation while enhancing human life.

We hope Sunday School classes, youth groups, Vacation Bible Schools, camps, and congregations will take part in this exciting and important enterprise. What follows are possible ideas for using this project with a group in order to raise funds to support it. This is an approved designated fund of the Church of the Brethren General Board, with funds going directly to the programs being highlighted.

Getting Started
Become familiar with the material included in this packet. There should be a description of the projects labeled "Background", which includes specific information on each project; an 11x17 educational/giving chart poster; the article "Save the rainforest–but why?"; and a map of these two countries. Additional copies of any of these items are available on request. The poster also is available (an edition without the giving chart) for distribution to participants.

Next Steps
Set a goal for how much the group hopes to raise over the period of time allotted. Explain how much forest will be protected and how many trees can be planted by raising certain amounts of money. For instance, at every thirty dollars will purchase about a quarter acre of rain forest—or about the size of a typical suburban lot (How much would that much land cost in your community?). The same thirty dollars will help plant 300 hundred trees to be used for erosion control or for firewood (@ ten cents per tree), or 30 fruit trees (@ one dollar per tree). After the group has set a goal, mark the sides of the giving chart to show the progress toward the goal. If the goal is to purchase an acre of rain forest, put $125 near the top of the chart. Mark various stages on the way toward the goal in any way that's helpful–$12 equals about a tenth of an acre, etc. Or if the goal is to help plant trees in Guatemala, and the goal is to purchase 5,000 trees, put the figure $500 at the top (@ ten cents per tree). Leave some room at the top in case the goal is exceeded.

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Whose World is It Anyway?
Invite the group to think about how they treat something that belongs to someone else. If they've borrowed something that belongs to a friend or sister or brother, what are some of the expectations that person may have of them? Make a list of the "rules of using something that belongs to someone else." Now, ask what happens when something you've borrowed ends up getting ruined or broken or lost. Invite the children to tell about a time that's happened to them. What can be done to resolve this situation?

Now have someone read Psalm 24, verse one. If the earth belongs to the Lord, is it kind of like we're borrowing it for our use? What rules should apply to humans as they live on this planet that belongs to God?

What are some ways we haven't treated God's world very well? What happens when we don't treat the earth well? To the earth? To the people and animals and plants? What are things we do to show that we are treating God's world well?

If a Tree Falls. . .
Today, talk about trees. Invite the children to make a list of all the things a tree is used for when it is cut down. Then invite them to create a list of all the things trees are good for when they're left standing. (Did they list things like their shade reducing cooling costs in the summer and the fact that they serve as wind breaks reducing heating costs in winter? How about their ability to keep soil from eroding and floods from happening [a forested hillside holds five times more rain water than a deforested one]. Are trees "valuable" for how they look to our eyes? [studies have shown that people are happier and there's less fighting in areas of cities where there are plenty of trees]. Trees also turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, acting like the "lungs" of the planet. And some trees in the rainforest have their own species of insect—it doesn't live anywhere else!)

Invite the children to name prominent trees in the Bible (the Tree of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the tree that Jonah sat under, the tree that Zacchaeus climbed, the tree Abraham sat under when the angels of the Lord came to visit him).

Every year in the world 37 million acres of trees are cut down. Half these are cut for firewood by poor people, the rest go for things like paper, packaging, building materials. The average American uses 730 pounds of paper per year. A person in Africa uses less than two pounds.

What happens when we cut down too many trees from an area of God's earth? (soil erosion, flooding, animals lose their place to live and find shelter and food, there is less rainfall because trees are cycling moisture back into the atmosphere, etc.) What can we do to help preserve trees? Make sure the group lists things that are both "big" ideas, like preserving wilderness, and closer to home ideas like using both sides of paper and planting trees in their own yards.

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Paint by the numbers
One way to help the group visualize their project would be to place a large piece of butcher paper along one wall. Every day's offering could be represented on the paper by a certain number of trees or other plants or animals that classes would take turns drawing on the paper. For instance, if the goal is to plant 5,000 trees, the first day's assignment could be for one group to draw a typical Guatemala landscape. There could be steep hills, volcanoes in the distance, a few trees at the very top of the hills, people walking along paths carrying firewood or other people cutting down trees to plant corn. The next days' drawing groups could begin adding to the hillsides the number of trees that day's offering will make it possible to plant. Using the tree guide, groups of certain trees could be drawn on different days, labeling the trees.

If the choice is made to draw a rain forest, each day new plants, animals, and trees would be added to the picture. Perhaps the entire piece of paper could represent the goal (one acre, five acres or whatever goal the group chooses), with a section drawn each day to represent how much forest has been preserved so far in the week.

It's in the bag
An additional suggestion is to invite one or more classes to create short dramas set in one of the countries. These plays could tell the story of people who live in the area or plants or animals living there and how the disappearing forests is a threat to them. One way to do this is to give a different group each day a bag containing certain items or words related to the project, with the challenge to use these items in a skit later in the day, perhaps at the end of the day.

On group's bag could instruct them to tell the story of disappearing rain forest from the point of view of a howler monkey. Its habitat is being threatened by an encroaching orange grove. This group's bag could contain an orange, a piece of vine, some kind of a nut, money (to represent the profit the orange growers hope to realize), a BVS logo (representing the BVSer working there) and various other odds and ends to make the skit interesting. The group then must create a story and act it out in front of the group, involving every person in their group and utilizing all the items in the bag. The story should show how important saving the rain forest is to the monkeys, and how the land eventually came to be preserved.

Another group could act out the scene from the point of view of a certain plant. Of course, part of its problem is that unlike the monkey, if the plant's habitat is threatened, it cannot quickly move to another location. This makes its plight even more poignant.

Yet another could be instructed to set its drama in Guatemala. Their story could be told from the point of view of a young girl who must walk a long way each day to gather wood, or from the point of view of a village that is flooded because the hillsides were deforested and there were no trees to hold the water. How does our project help them solve their problem?

Wrapping Up
Find a way to celebrate the amount of money that was raised during your project, and the number of trees planted or rain forest saved. Let the congregation and maybe the community know what you have done.

Send the money to the General Board, with the check clearly marked "If a Tree Falls project." We will send you a "deed" signifying and thanking you for your contribution.

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