Author: CEDAR Fund

The Letter from CEDAR | August 2014

Dear Brothers and Sisters, In 1814, Napoleon lost and Paris fell; in 1914, World War I started; it’s now 2014 and humans still have yet to learn from history. There are people being plunged into an abyss of misery and our land is beset by war. From the news and messages circulating on online communication media, people are extremely concerned about the brutalities of ISIS, an extremist Islamic organisation in Iraq. Children and civilians are killed or forced to leave their home in great fear. The world has no idea how to bring this to an end. The calamities of war are too ghastly for the eyes; the historic Israeli-Palestinian enmity causes endless fire and violence in the

The Letter from CEDAR | April 2014

Dear Brothers and Sisters, ‘Spitting is disgusting and will be subject to a penalty of HKD 2,000.’ After years of hygiene education, Hong Kong people have learnt the importance of keeping our city clean. Whether it is for promoting health or securing life, or for minimizing the economic loss, or for effective allocation of medical resources, ‘prevention superior than cure’ is the obvious principle behind. Similarly when facing the destructive disasters, there are measures to mitigate and resist the impact and damages caused by natural and human hazards. Ironically, human hazards are usually the most destructive power in a disaster. HKSAR government has an advisory committee on disaster relief fund. Few weeks ago, the Director of Administration called

The Letter from CEDAR | February 2014

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: Hong Kong people in middle-aged or above are familiar with a song of Sam Hui in the 70’s describing the hardship from water suspension; and remember the day we shouted ‘Hey My Neighbours below, turn off your water tap!’ Nowadays with the steady water supply from Dongjiang, we seldom need to worry about water shortage. Instead we often hear people advocating today for a simple lifestyle for environmental sake. In fact this is easier to say than to do. The easiest way maybe is pushing the government, manufacturers and logistics industry to take up their responsibilities in environmental protection. However, what they supply every day is merely for satisfying and stimulating our

The Letter from CEDAR | October 2013

Dear Brothers and Sisters, When we think of ‘poverty alleviation’ we may have the impression that it is the ‘rich’ initiating to help the ‘poor’. When I first left Hong Kong 33 years ago, I met some friends from Africa and India, and learned about their ministries. I realized that they had already developed many mission work and social ministries themselves. They were indeed not just recipients of aid. That started in me a lot of respect and appreciation for our friends in different countries. I have recently met another African pastor. He is involved in leadership training in many countries. In our sincere, open and happy conversation, he shared a striking news to me, that the population

The Letter from CEDAR | August 2013

Banner Image: A sponsored child in Ethiopia wrote ‘Jesus is LORD’ on the wall at home. Dear brothers and sisters, In the last couple of decades, there were lots of discussions around the globe on the issues of poverty alleviation and development. People have exhausted all political and economical means but failed to solve the problem of income inequality. And in fact the global wealth gap has become wider and wider. The optimistic belief and confidence relying on human wisdom to solve this issue grows dim and dim, and even displaced by hopelessness and blame. CEDAR started to use the term ‘TRANSFORMATION” a few years back, and this term has a different meaning than ‘Development’. ‘Transformation’ has a

The Letter from CEDAR | June 2013

▲ CEDAR works with Sichuan churches and Christian groups to implement quake relief work. ▲ ‘Long term service’ and ‘total commitment’ are required to support communities to face potential disasters. ▲ CEDAR is a member of Integral Alliance, responding to disasters worldwide in partnership with Christian relief agencies around the world. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: An earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale on 20 April struck Lushan County in Yaan, Sichuan, promptly bringing back the memory of Wenchuan quake five years ago. However, the public media soon turn their focus on whether HKSAR government should grant China 100 million HKD relief fund and the integrity of relief and development agencies. Also many people said, ‘I

The Letter from CEDAR | April 2013

Banner image: Yunnan pastors map out the progress and achievement to evaluators on their social ministries in the past six years. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: In early March, CEDAR invited several experienced development workers to evaluate our six-year Church Mobilisation programme in Yunnan, China. Their findings and appreciation give us great encouragement. This project was started as we move from rural community development to church mobilisation on Integral Mission. Apparently it may seem an easy task with training only and without any hardware construction; however, it is more difficult to change one’s soul and mind. To the Chinese government, the Christian approach to drug detox, HIV/AIDS prevention and caring work are sensitive and knotty issues. Thank

The Letter from CEDAR | Who can Change a Country?

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: Last Christmas, my wife and I, along with three volunteers, went to Myanmar to visit CEDAR’s partner organisation, Full Moon. During this trip we had the rare opportunity of traveling to the mountainous areas in Mon State. Last year, CEDAR received a designated fund that supported the post-conflict rebuilding project in this restricted area, and the first programme of the project was to build a new school. In the past few decades, there were continuous conflicts between the Karen and Burmese government army in those mountainous areas, causing countless deaths and injuries. Not all have access to this area; even the Burmese people do not dare to enter this mountain. The ‘peace leader’