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Tag: Creation Care

Happiness is Caring for Creations

Written by Ness Ma (Communications Officer) Caring for the created world is a significant and complex issue. We may have lost hope and motivation because of living in the Apocalypse. Nonetheless, our Chief Executive, Dr. Chan Pui Si, shared the encouragement and acknowledgement of her poverty alleviation and environmental protection work in an online talk, ‘Caring for the Created World in the Apocalypse Regardless of Success or Failure’, on 6 January evening. Pui Si noted that disasters happen every day and around us, and the difference is whether they are in front of us, in the news report, or not even reported. She exemplified the floods and droughts in India last year that anthropogenic climate change certainly plays

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Witness the Struggles in Mountain Areas

Written by Ness Ma (Communications Officer) Many tribes live at the country’s border in Northern Thailand, mostly farmers. Because of poverty, many of them have never received a good education or learned any effective farming method. They live in mountain basins and receive no services or support from the government. In addition to the worsening extreme weather events because of climate change, river floods in rainy seasons cause soil erosion, and droughts lead to a lack of water sources. Both circumstances affect the harvest. To continue farming, farmers have to purchase more chemical fertilisers, increasing their financial burden and damaging the lands. CEDAR Fund has been supporting Upland Holistic Development Foundation (previously Upland Holistic Development Project) since 2013

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Response to Climate Change Victims

Written by Wendy Fung (Church pastor) 5Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?15Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.16If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:5, 14-17

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‘BEYOND FEEDING THE POOR’ CAMPAIGN

Written by Edward Lai (Senior Communications Officer) ‘I hope that my little donation will help you and can make a change to your life!’ ‘I pray that you will be joyful, that the Lord will help you and that you will have a prosperous life!’ These are the words of primary school students in Hong Kong when they wrote words of blessing to our beneficiaries overseas. Though most of them have never seen the beneficiaries of CEDAR’s projects. They have realised, through our activities, that there are people living in poverty: these people only want a simple, happy life; they do not want extravagance. There is a popular saying in Zimbabwe, ‘Hungry men are angry men.’ When one

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The Letter from CEDAR | December 2019

Dear CEDAR Fans, Peace be with you! I would like to share with you a little reflection of mine during this season of Christmas. From birth to death, the life of Jesus was full of times when He had or was being forced to compromise on His dignity. He was laid in a manger after His humble birth, He was ignored and attacked by His people, betrayed by one of His beloved disciples, and died in the most insulting way of His time. Though He didn’t need to, He entered into all these solely because of His love for us. In our world, the poor and marginalised are often the ones who are least respected. Their powerlessness forces

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A Spiritual Response to Structural Oppression: Paul’s Reminder

Written by: Professor Ip Hon Ho Alex (Assistant Professor, Divinity School of Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) The economy of the Roman Empire was founded upon oppression and exploitation. In the early period, one third of the Empire’s population were slaves; while another third were freed slaves. There were also many people who owned no land and served no masters. These people were often employed as casual workers or day labourers. To put it simply, the relatively high economic growth during the early period of the Roman Empire was a result of exploiting manual labourers who did not have much power to fight for their own interests. However, structural evil did not arise from

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The Letter from CEDAR | October 2019

Banner image: Raymond in Dubai Dear companions of CEDAR Fund, Shalom! I paid my first visit to Dubai lately and wowed by this “artificial” city. Though this ancient Middle East city sits on the coastline of Persian Gulf, it was all the time a small trading port due to its desert terrain (population was below 200,000 in 1970s). Large-scale development begins only in the millennium by heavy government funding. She now owns a few “top of the world”, for example, the tallest building, the largest shopping mall, the largest artificial islands under construction, the biggest indoor theme park, etc. To build a modern city in the desert, numerous extraordinary difficulties need to be solved, like land quality, water

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Caring for God’s Creation and Discipleship Training

Written by: Raymond Kwong (Chief Executive) Mankind is unique in God’s creation because we have been made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). We are living beings (Genesis 2:7) and we have been granted stewardship to take care of all other forms of creation (Genesis 1:28-29; 2:15). These are mankind’s intended identities. Unfortunately, when sin enters the world, these identities are distorted. Our stewardship has been altered beyond recognition. Mankind’s role has morphed from stewards of God’s creation into owners, or even exploiters. God’s creation should have received mankind’s love and care, but now it has become an instrument for personal gain. This simply goes against God’s intention in Creation! Jesus Christ’s salvation is to enable mankind

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My Plastic Reduction Action – after the CEDAR’s Exposure Trip 2018

Banner Image: Sarah Hong (far right) Written by: Sarah Hong (Participant of CEDAR’s Exposure Trip 2018) The world God first-created was in a stable and balanced peaceful condition, which illustrated Shalom. He gave us the responsibility to manage the land. Yet, we failed our task, destroyed the land and its eco-system and caused a lot of problems, such as climate change. I joined the CEDAR’s exposure trip to Thai-Burmese border and rural northern Thailand in December last year. During the trip, my companions and I visited UHDP [1], CEDAR’s partner. UHDP understood God’s heart for reconciling relationships between human and other aspects, including the nature. Therefore, they adopted an agricultural principle that can sustain development, protect the nature and reconcile

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Faith, Hope, Love, and the Creation

Source: Unsplash/Bonnie Kittle Written by: Raymond Kwong (Chief Executive of CEDAR Fund) Christianity is about the pursuit of faith, hope and love. As we ponder upon the teaching of these virtues, we often limit it to only between God and man (ourselves), yet the teaching of Colossians 1:15-20 reiterates that the salvation of God through Jesus Christ is for all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together…and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by

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