Dear supporters,
A new film is being widely discussed called ‘Don’t Look Up’, in which human beings, for various reasons, regard a crisis of the earth’s destruction as a rumour and thus do nothing to save it, and everybody ends up dying together.
The story is, of course, fictional, but it also gives me something to reflect upon – there are many things that we know in our hearts. Still, because of our sinful nature (unwilling to make changes and reluctant to tackle our problems), we often end up having to eat the bitter fruit of living our own ways.
When the Lord created the heavens and the earth, He saw that everything was good. As God’s stewards, we have disrupted the natural order of things. We have not followed the laws of nature and the principles set up by Him. Now more resources and efforts have to be devoted to saving and mitigating the damages we have done to the climate and the earth.
CEDAR has been walking with poverty-stricken communities for a long time, and we understand very well that the poor are not the people who cause the most damage to nature. But, in fact, they often directly bear the consequences of climate change. It may surprise you, but the poor tend to be guardians of the environment. If we pay attention to their lives, we will find that the traditional customs of many indigenous and ethnic minority tribes are based on the law of coexistence with nature. For instance, herders know how to conserve the grassland vegetation so that their livestock has enough food; the ethnic groups in the mountains do not hunt excessively. They know how to protect forest resources, whilst many grassroots families living in slums actively recycle resources. In contrast, our so-called developed cities are dominated by the consumer economy. Our incessant consumerism and our disposable culture are depleting the earth’s resources.
We hope that we do not live with a ‘Don’t Look Up’ attitude but instead revert to a sustainable way of life. We should actively make up for the damage we have caused the earth from rapid urban and industrial development over the years.
As a response to God’s mission, please give to support CEDAR’s ‘Care for the Disaster-stricken Poor’ Donation Campaign. Let us walk with the poor who have been severely affected by the various disasters and crises.
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;
Psalm 24:1
In Christ,
Chan Pui Si
Chief Executive