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Tag: Urban and Rural Development

The Poor You Will Always Have with You, But…

Author: Dr. Chan Nim Chung (CEDAR Board Member) A common response to Jesus’ words in Matthew 26:11 that we often hear is that, “Why should we prioritize helping the poor over evangelizing?” Such argument has dwindled in recent years (people might just have been too embarrassed to talk about it publicly) until Rick Perry, one of the 2016 US president candidates, Texas’ former head of state, and a conservative Christian, definitively reciprocated the exact thoughts while being interviewed by the Washington Post about the large income gap in Texas. Today we are going to take a closer look into some possible explanations of this verse. The Bible did not treat poverty in urban and rural areas separately, hence

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The Letter from CEDAR | December 2016

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 This is the verse we often see and read in this time of the year. As we have already entered into Advent, have you made any plan in response to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ? Last week, I just returned from a trip to Bangladesh. I paid a visit to some of our partners and their projects. One of them is the Outfall Telugu Community School. It is an elementary school incepted by

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The Letter from CEDAR | October 2016

Dear Brothers and Sisters, I paid a visit to CEDAR’s Kunming office recently. Though this was not my first time to this city, it was my first time encountering heavy traffic jam there. If we are not too particular, “traffic congestion” can be a simple and easily-available indicator to reveal fast economic growth in any city of less developed countries. Surely economic development does not come without a price, and the inconvenience caused by traffic congestion is one. In fact, impacts do not only rest with the residents, they might also be extended to the NGOs (Non-Government Organizations). Over the last three decades, China’s economic condition has strengthened substantially, and in turn, financial assistance from foreign NGOs has

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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

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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’

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