Carrying out Public Welfare Undertakingsand Social Service Activities
Christianity is a religion stressing love and dedication. TakingJesus as their model， the broad masses of Chinese Christians，led by the Churches at various levels， have been actively devotedto the spiritual construction of society. They are dedicated tocarrying on the positive spirit in Christian ethics and servingsociety as well as the people.
In the 20 years since 1978 when the policy of reform andopening up to the outside world was adopted， the Chinesechurches did much work to serve society. Churches at differentlevels mobilized believers to devote themselves to public serviceactivities， led and organized them to do good deeds for the people，for instance， building roads and bridges， helping poverty-strickenpeople and providing medical services， etc. Through such service，Christians were better involved in society and the social profileof Christianity further improved. In Chuanshi Island in FujianProvince， there was a group of PLA （People"s Liberation Army） soldiers safeguarding the border. These soldiers were busy withtheir everyday training and work， thus did not have time to takecare of their own lives. To make things worse， limited water andinconvenient transportation posed a big challenge， especially inwashing clothes. Then， eight Christian fisherwomen voluntarilyformed a group to help the soldiers. They gave up their leisuretime every Saturday and Sunday， got to the garrison in the earlymorning， and washed and mended the soldiers‘ clothes， shoes，socks， quilts， etc. Hot summer or cold winter， they never stopped.
Their actions deeply moved the soldiers and a tight friendly relationship between them and the Christians was established.
Later， when the Christians were short of labor in building theirchurch， the PLA soldiers automatically came to their help， asembodied in their "fish and water‘ relationship. The eightfisherwomen received church awards many times， and the churchwas also praised by the provincial government and the militaryas an excellent organization in socialist spiritual construction.
In recent years， owning to industrial restructuring， thereappeared many laid-off workers in many cities， mainly middleagedwomen in their 30s or 40s. It has become a major issue forthe government and society with regard to how to help them getre-employed. The National Association of Young Men"s ChristianAssociation established a foreign-related family service college，which was the first of its kind in Shanghai， offering trainingservices to the laid-off women for free. The college not onlytaught skills of cooking， ikebana， washing and ironing， but alsooffered such lessons as "The Role， Status and Professional Ethicsof Housework Managers‘， "Foreign Culture， Custom andEtiquette‘， "Employer Psychology’， English， etc. "EmployerPsychology‘ was even taught by a foreigner. Many laid-off womenbecame foreign-related nurses after the training， and saw theirown value in the work， so that they were able to regain their courage as well as confidence in life. The college also offeredmany training programs on economic courses like commerce，taxation， etc， so as to help more people obtain the necessary skillsfor survival in modern society.
In China， many places have entered the period of an agedsociety， and the issue of elderly people has become an outstandingproblem. Many Christian churches established various kinds ofhomes or apartments for the aged to help those feeling lonely orsick to enjoy their lives. compared with those in foreign countries，the homes for the aged established by the Chinese churches weresimple and crude， but the love offered by the managers andattendants was not disappointing. They not only satisfied the material needs of the elderly people in their daily lives， but alsoheld activities like choral singing or dialogues to maintain theirmental health. And the attendants also gave special treatment tothose who could not take care of themselves. Limited by theactual financial situation of the Chinese Churches， some homesfor the elderly people invented a lot of special ways of nursing.
Take the "Apartment for the Aged‘ in Hangzhou as an example， itimplemented the "ladder service‘ model， in which the relatively"young‘ old people who were about 60 years old were expectedto attend to those who were sick and could not take care ofthemselves. By this means， it was not only conducive to theestablishment of harmonious relations among the elderly people;in addition， it solved the problem of insufficiency of human andfinancial resources. With this model handed on from generationafter generation， the old people who offer their love today willsurely be rewarded in the future.
