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Tag: Creation Care

Creations are Groaning, Neighbours are Suffering – How should Churches Respond?

In our seven weeks of Lent practice, we explored Creation Care from different perspectives. We also reflect on our relationships with the nature, neighbours in poverty, and our community through scriptures, songs, and actions. Creation Care is indeed propelling us to embrace the created world and all creations with care and love. This is what Jesus manifested to the world. Therefore, this care and love for creations and people are obviously evangelistic and missional. Nowadays, climate change is worsening, and the ecological environment is losing its equilibrium, which forces many poor communities into adverse situation – in India, years of crop failures lead to detrimental impact on many farmers’ livelihood, putting them in enormous debts that some of

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‘Hill Tribes’ Blood is in My Veins.’ – An Advocate Walking Alongside Marginalised Hill Tribes

Written by: Lai Ka Chun In mid-2018, a junior football team and their assistant coach were rescued after 18 days in Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. Their 25-year-old coach’s care in the cave was indispensable. This incident made the coach a hero in Thais’ hearts. However, this coach was originally stateless, as well as the other 3 boys, who had no Thai citizenships. According to UNHCR, there are about 480,000 stateless people in Thailand, and most of them were living in remote mountainous area near the border. As they belonged to no country, they could not enjoy the rights of education, healthcare, employment, and social security as other citizens. Even though they lived

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2018 CEDAR’s Exposure Trip Sharing: All Things Bright and Beautiful

Written by: Janice Cheng (Participant of CEDAR’s 2018 Exposure Trip to Thai-Burmese border and northern Thailand, church pastor) All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small. All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all. These are lyrics from a classic children hymn called All things bright and beautiful. I looked it up on the internet, you will discover the songwriter’s intention was to explain the first sentence of the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” Participants of this trip to Thai-Myanmar border came from all walks of life, including rookies in the workplace, retired people, pastors, Christian organisation’s staff, and seminary teacher. This combination enriched our

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Resurrection and Integral Mission

Written by: Au Bing Chung (Lecturer at the Christian Ministry Institute) Resurrection is an eschatological idea, and Integral Mission addresses the responsibility and stewardship of Christians living on earth. Although there seems to be no apparent connection between the two, the eschatological view of Christians will affect how they interpret their missions. For instance, if a person believes that the world will be in ultimate destruction at the end days, he will put less effort in constructing a world that will be wiped out eventually. On the other hand, if the believers anticipate a forthcoming new world that is connected to and evolved from the present world, they will somehow attend to the world’s development and conservation. Paul

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Climate Injustice: a Christian Perspective

Written by: Edward Lai Ka-chun (Senior Communications Officer) On 15 March, thousands of students from New Zealand, Australia, India, Thailand, and Hong Kong skipped school and took to the streets to protest against the collective inaction of governments and other world leaders on alleviating global warming. The wave of ongoing protests against climate change has spread across the globe since last Autumn. In an interview with foreign media in February, a French student who boycotted school said, “Why study for a future, which may not be there?” This is somewhat true. In recent years, the United Nations has issued multiple warnings on the imminent threat of climate change: If the countries do not collaborate and adopt comprehensive policies to stop temperature rises, based

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What is Creation Care?

God and his creations “Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” – Romans 1:19-20 When Apostle Paul explain the gospel to the church in Rome, he pointed out that the created world manifest God’s eternal power and divine nature, and no one can hold excuses against it. In the Old Testament, the writers wrote numerous times about the world’s creations to praise God, for example, in Psalm 8:3-4: “When I consider your heavens, the work

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The Letter from CEDAR | March 2019

Dear Friends of CEDAR, Few weeks ago, I took a train to Yuen Long for a meeting. Arriving at the train station’s lobby, I heard a loud and angry voice with foul languages from a short distance. A young man was yelling at a Station Assistant because the ticketing machines would not take his HK$100 note and he was in a hurry. The Assistant patiently advised him to purchase a ticket from the ticketing office. At the ticketing office, right after handing in the HK$100 note, he started scolding again for the same issue. The staff then had to respond to his complaint, instead of getting him a ticket. I didn’t stop to see how he finally got

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Understanding Integral Mission through God’s Sovereignty

Written by: Dr. Mok Chiu Yau (CEDAR China Programme Advisor) When presented with so many suffering and adversities on earth, Christians usually respond with sympathy, expressed by charitable giving and voluntary services. But gradually, Christians may realise that the problem of suffering is too heavy and difficult to solve, therefore they think that the paramount thing is to evangelise people. The belief is that once a person (who suffers) knows Christ, he or she can have strength to persevere in the world’s suffering, be comforted by fellowship members, and eventually enters into heaven after death and never suffers. Yet, such belief  is a one-sided understanding of God’s mission to believers. God’s mission to believers  is a holistic mission.

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Give US our Daily Bread

Written by: Tony Chan (CEDAR’s Senior Partnership Development Officer and Pastor) Matthew chapters 5 to 7 documented Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. At the end of the teaching, He invited the crowds to make a choice: Enter through the narrow gate and live faithfully according to His teachings. He pointed out the consequence of their choices (7:13-23). Jesus then told the parable of the wise and foolish builders; and the wise would put His words into practice (7:24-27). Jesus often took reference from daily life to explain through parables about difficult teachings. From the parables of the house builders, we learn that even in Jesus’ times, people were aware of the power of the nature and would try

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The Letter from CEDAR | June 2018

Dear Friends of CEDAR, Have you ever experienced any instability in life? From 2004 to 2011, my family somehow lived a life of nomads, as we had to move home for four times within seven years. Such frequent house-moves didn’t render us the luxury of settling down in the new environment. We felt like sojourners. Though this was not a pleasant experience, I saw it as a blessing from God, as it allowed me to get a taste of what the displaced people face. According to the UN Refugee Agency, there are over 65.6 million displaced people worldwide today. This number is reaching record high. CEDAR has been helping refugees. In last few years, we have stepped up

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