And out of the ground Yahweh God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9.)
As in all lands of the world, God made every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food to grow in Afghanistan. Among these trees God also planted the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Many streams of religious spirituality have flowed into this land, yet the fruit of the tree of life has generally been denied to its people. The policies and actions of its kings, warlords, and tribal chieftains who manipulated the power of the knowledge of good and evil for their own advantage reduced the quality and quantity of the life of the people they governed.
Moreover, from time to time invaders subjugated the country and exploited its inhabitants. More recently, since the 1950’s, Afghanistan has been a cold war pawn of the superpowers. The Soviet Union wooed the country with raw materials; the United States was interested in establishing air bases for refueling its long-range bombers and therefore financed massive aid projects. New leaders arose who aligned themselves with the Soviet Union and proclaimed a new Democratic Republic; and when they could no longer contend against the growing armed resistance, a Soviet staff of military advisors took up residence in the country. The Soviets expanded their military presence to stem the resistance of the Mujahedeen (“those who struggle”). Ten years of war followed and five million Afghans fled the country, two million people died, and the Soviets suffered severe losses.
When the Russians finally withdrew in 1992, four years of civil war followed between rival warlords. The Taliban, who introduced a new era of Islamic zealotry that had never before been experienced, ended that period. They eliminated banditry and lawlessness, returned hijacked vehicles to foreign relief agencies, restored order in the cities, and cleared the roads of the mines the Russians had laid. But they in turn laid land mines of their own. Their literalistic interpretation of the Quran induced them to constitute a religious police force for “Promoting Virtue and Prohibiting Vice.” Women were banned from working, from receiving a formal education, and from showing their faces in public. Television, kite flying, sports, and music were prohibited. Soon after 9/11 the U.S. military ended the domination of the Taliban and, together with the International Security Armed Forces of the United Nations, has been engaged in maintaining the peace of the country.
The people of Afghanistan, their numbers greatly increased by the return of millions of refugees, are now confronted with the immense task of rebuilding their country; and that includes tree planting. For the trees that Yahweh God had made to grow in the ground of Afghanistan, trees pleasant to the sight and good for food, had been destroyed by continuous warfare or cut down to provide firewood for cooking and heating.
Ashford Wood, an elder of First Church of San Anselmo, Calif., conceived a bare roots planting project for Afghanistan. Could the undertaking of tree planting and tree gifting revitalize the hope of its people? The prospect of imitating God by planting trees is a manifestation of God’s love and therefore also of Christian discipleship. We planned to do this in a manner that would allow us to interrelate with the local Afghan people, respecting their integrity and dignity and using their knowledge. Ash evoked congregational enthusiasm and support for this project, and in March 2005, nine people left for Kabul.
Our first planting-site was on the slopes of Maranjan Hill, overlooking Kabul, the hill on which the people have resumed their kite flying in this post-Taliban era. We labored with ten men who had been assigned by the government and together we planted 2,000 pines. These trees, good for the sight in their growing, would unite with the kites flying on Maranjan Hill to bolster the joys, the hopes, the freedom, and the life of the people of Afghanistan.
After completing this project we drove into the Shomali Plains to present 1,000 fruit trees (apricot, apple, and pomegranate) to the people of the village of Istalif, whose homes and fields had been devastated by Taliban rockets and land mines. Later we entered the Women’s Garden of Kabul, a walled enclosure of grass and gravel, and with the collaboration of ten widows we planted 400 fruit trees, good for food to be sold in the marketplace to supplement the income of Afghanistan’s widows. We also planted 100 rose bushes to enhance the beauty of their garden.
Fruit trees were also presented to a women’s organization dedicated to helping widows and members of poor families to acquire an education, to develop skills necessary for earning a living, and to offer professional physical therapy services. We joined members of “Afghans 4 Tomorrow” at the graduation ceremony of a school for girls and planted fruit trees in their school grounds. Finally we also planted fruit trees on the grounds of a mosque and within the compound of an orphanage. By the end of our stay several thousand pines and three thousand fruit trees had been planted or presented as gifts. Men and women had been hired to water and care for these trees to keep them alive and to insure their growth. A group planned to return later in 2006 to distribute 200,000 pomegranate trees that were gifted to our congregation for planting in Afghanistan.
Our hopes and prayers for the people of Afghanistan include the fulfillment of Isaiah 55:12:
For you shall go out with joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Herman C. Waetjen is Robert S. Dollar Professor of New Testament emeritus at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, Calif.
