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Tag: Church and Community Mobilisation

The Letter from CEDAR | March 2018

Greetings, Brothers and Sisters in Christ! It was rather cold in Hong Kong in early February. “Severe winter” and “high summer” are used to describe different seasons, and it is likewise applicable in international relief and development work. Governments and Non-government organisations (NGOs) are often key players in disaster relief and development work. To NGOs, the 80s and 90s of last century could be considered as the golden days. At that time, growth in geographic coverage as well as development theories and effectiveness had experienced a period of “high summer”. But, the situation has changed in recent years. Economic progress of some developing countries allow their governments to assume a more active role, and in turn, narrowing down

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Local Churches – the Local Power of Community Development

Written and edited by: Tsun Wan Yan, Jojo Poon The act of poverty alleviation often gives the impression of aid workers carrying with them gifts of livestock and funds sponsoring children and their education to some remote villages. However, have you ever considered that the local churches are better suited in bringing continued and sustainable development and support to the people in need? To address the root causes of poverty for the poor, we must help the poor learn how to fish instead of relying on outsiders’ help. To prevent dependency on foreign aid, which would consequently hinder community growth, the average span of a development project is usually five to 10 years, and the development organisation will

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We Saw Clearly that the Lord Was With You

Written by: Pastor Daniel Ding During the past 10 years, the Church was able to integrate into the Chinese community through the government’s social service policy which encouraged non-profits to reach its residents. Yunnan was one of the pilot areas. Pastor Daniel Ding, Social Ministry Officer of Yunnan Christian Council, stressed that integration does not mean altering the truth we preach to fit in, but the challenge is to find a way to let our core values prevail. Pastor Ding is going to reflect on Isaac’s faithfulness described in Genesis 26:1-32 and his experiences in the Christian service scene in Yunnan, and let us see how God has always been with us as we serve our community. Isaac

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The Church and the Public – Three Pastors on Community Service

Written and edited by: Tony Chan To echo this issue’s theme: Church and Community Mobilisation, we interviewed three pastors who are heavily involved in caring and serving their communities. They are Rev. Anders Chan Ming-chuen (Associate Senior Pastor of Mongkok Baptist Church), Mr. Jonathan Au (Lecturer of Christian Ministry Institute; Deacon at Kai Tak Peace Evangelical Centre), and Ms. Teo Yun-sarm (Conference Parish Worker of The Methodist Church, Hong Kong). They share their experiences in mobilising the Church to serve the community. It was an enriching conversation, touching on topics such as Gospel and social services, preaching social-related topics sermons, and advocating for justice. Though each of them had different views and approaches on social service, they all came

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Mobilising Churches: From a Social Organiser’s Perspective

Written and edited by: Tsun Wan Yan The Church’s role in Hong Kong’s social development dates back to early missionary times. However, in recent years, churches in Hong Kong were often accused of being absent from major social discussions, except issues that spiked its interest. For this issue’s “TAKING ACTION” section, we interviewed the Organiser of the social organisation, HK Citizens, Daniel Man, and asked him how they mobilise churches to respond to current issues through Community Organising. The Beginning: Non-profit Work in England HK Citizens oragnises community to work together for common good, which involves mobilising churches to bond with their communities. And this is not something new to Daniel. Daniel started off as a social worker

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The Letter from CEDAR | August 2017

Dear Friends of CEDAR, Recently, I made a family trip to Cambodia. It is not a typical tourist country, where you find lots of amusement parks, resorts, beaches, special landscapes, or big shopping malls. However, it is surely a place where you can do a lot of reflections. The genocide from 1975 to 1979 was one of the most miserable times in recent human history. About 2 million people were killed directly or indirectly, which amounts to one-fourth of the country’s then population. At the genocide museums, I kept asking how people can become so cold-blooded merely for the sake of their own interests or for an ideology, and also why God allowed this to happen. This was

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This is Hong Kong

Author: Tsun Wan Yan It appears that Hong Kong has nothing to do with human trafficking, and our government did not sign the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking In Persons. In fact, Hong Kong is a port and destination of sold human commodities, and it has been placed on the Tier 2 watch list (same ranking as Afghanistan, Cuba, and Tunisia) for two consecutive years in the Trafficking in Persons Report by the U.S. Department of State. The ranking describes a country that is experiencing a significant increase in human trafficking victims, and that no tangible measures were established by the authorities. The Hong Kong government denies it has a human trafficking problem, but the Erwiana abuse case in

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Walking with the Refugees – An Interview with Christian Action

Banner image: (Left to right) The author, Executive Director of CA, Mrs. Cheung-Aug Siew Mei, CEDAR Staff, Jojo, and Director of CA’s Centre for Refugees, Justin Gaurav Murgai. Interviewer and Editor: Lincoln Chong Refugees are often viewed as a group of aliens in foreign lands who would only appear on the international news occasionally. The vast majority of Hong Kong people hold the same views, thinking refugees do not concern their well-developed city; yet we forget that our society was built by refugees escaping from civil wars. The waves of Vietnamese refugees in 70s to 80s were also an integral part of Hong Kong’s history. We visited the Christian Action (CA) to find out more about what Hong

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Living with the Poor – An Interview with Sir Mok

Interviewing & Editing: Tsun Wan Yan The acts of distributing necessities and visiting elder homes are still the dominant means of social involvement for some of the churches and Christian groups in Hong Kong. Mr. Mok Hing Luen (Sir Mok), a veteran in the field of Hong Kong’s social involvement and social work education, thinks that there are much more we could do to our society. “The church is complacent in giving the resources it has received from God to the people it sees that has a need,” said Sir Mok, who argues that such a downstream mindset of social involvement and poverty solving adopted by churches is self-limiting. But first we must cease boasting our roles among

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The Letter from CEDAR | June 2015

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, In the early morning of April 25, I returned to Hong Kong after attending a Forum on Reconcilation for NE Asia in Nagasaki, Japan, in which Christians from China, Japan, Korea and the States gathered to discuss possible reactions to those pains from the Second World War. And just a few hours later, Nepal was badly hit by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake. Up to now carrying out relief and rehabilitation work is still very difficult and many Nepalese are in dire need of help. In 2011, Japan was hit by a “triple” disaster: earthquake, tsunami and nuclear radiation. The churches in Japan responded in unity to serve the needy. Today, Nepal is

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