Every year, on April 5, the people in Korea celebrate ‘Singmogil,’ or, in other words, Arbor Day, in English. It is a national celebration and effort to promote trees, forests, tree-planting, and gardening. During the Japanese colonial occupation from 1910 to 1945, the forested land in the Korean Peninsula was seriously exploited and consequently devastated. After liberation, the Korean government established Arbor Day and began to recover forested land that had been destroyed. Three years later, in 1949, Singmogil became a national holiday and demonstrated the people’s will to restore their forests. Nowadays, Singmogil is no longer a national holiday in Korea. However, for many decades, it stimulated the attention and efforts of Koreans for the conservation and cultivation of their forests. As a result of their longstanding efforts, there are now many forests in Korea.
Interestingly, this coming Sabbath is Korean Arbor Day, April 5, and the children’s Sabbath at Willowdale. The children of our church will lead every part of this week’s Sabbath worship program. This is amazing! The little ones and early teens actively participate in the church worship program, leading praises and prayers, reading the Scripture, and sharing the Word of God. I believe this will be an invaluable experience for the children and will contribute greatly to their growth as future workers and leaders of the church.
In a sense, we can say that the children’s ministries, as well as the Adventurer and Pathfinder ministries, are like planting young trees in the Lord’s garden of Willowdale. Our children are young saplings now, but we believe and expect that one day, they will become full-grown and bear abundant fruits for the glory of God. But this doesn’t happen overnight; it takes years and requires much hard work and investments backed by prayer. The children’s ministries department and its leaders and volunteers are doing great work. But children’s ministries is not something they can do alone. They need the prayers and support of the parents and all other church members.
This is even more so for Vacation Bible School, which is the biggest event of the children’s ministries at Willowdale. This year’s theme of VBS is Mountain of Miracles: God’s Love is Rock Solid, and the children will learn about God through the stories of the prophet Elijah and related activities from July 14 to 18. We had a great VBS last year, and I am sure that this year’s VBS will be as awesome as the previous one. Like the children’s Sabbath this week, VBS in July is one of the most important efforts we can make to plant and nurture the young trees in the Lord’s garden. Please send your children and the children of your families, relatives, neighbors, and friends. I believe that VBS is the best initiative for sharing the gospel with the children and their families. Online registration is already open. Do not wait. Register now. You find the link to the registration here: https://willowdalechurch.ca/vbs/
We also need more volunteers. It does not matter whether you are young or old. You can be used as the Lord’s instrument in witnessing the gospel and sharing Jesus’ love with the children and their families. You can find the volunteer registration link on the same webpage: https://willowdalechurch.ca/vbs/
For Koreans, this year’s Arbor Day is more special than any other year since South Korea has just experienced the worst wildfire outbreak. The fire, which had started on March 21, was finally extinguished on 28. This disaster killed 31 people, and more than 37,000 people had to leave their homes. The wildfires have destroyed extensive forests and damaged some of the country’s cultural heritage as well. It takes a long time to plant and nurture trees and build a forest, but it only takes a moment to lose it all.
The same is true for the children’s ministries and the other church ministries as well. From infancy to adulthood, it takes a long time and a lot of work to raise a mature Christian, but it only takes a moment to lose that Christian. Therefore, we must continually plant and cultivate the trees of little souls in the Lord’s garden of Willowdale and do our best to conserve them. I hope and pray that the children in our church will grow into healthy trees that bear abundant fruits for God’s glory. In this sense, I am very excited about this week’s Children’s Sabbath and the upcoming VBS in July. Please come to church this Sabbath and be blessed and check our young trees and how they give glory to God.
Concluding this posting, I want to share one Bible verse in Psalm 1. Psalm 1 tells us about the happy or blessed person. “That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers” (Psalm 1:3, NIV). I pray and hope that every child of Willowdale, as well as all the other church families, be this tree planted (to be more correct, ‘transplanted,’ I will tell you about this when I preach on Psalm 1 in August) by the streams of living water bearing much fruit. I will see you at church this Sabbath. May the Lord bless you all!