Category: Letter From CEDAR

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

The Letter from CEDAR | June 2017

Dear Supporters of CEDAR, Poverty and injustice often result in “hopelessness”. One common goal of our projects is to restore hope. That is why I often ask our project participants this question – “What is your dream?” For CEDAR and our local church partners, we also need to have dreams, because without dreams ourselves, we wouldn’t be effective in helping our project participants to re-gain hope. Few weeks ago, I was in Yangon, Myanmar, for a workshop with our partners to envision the future of their ministries as well as CEDAR’s. On the second day of the workshop, I led a devotion about “dream”, and I would like to share it with you here. The dream portrayed in

The Letter from CEDAR | April 2017

Dear Friends of CEDAR, I’ve been asked “What does CEDAR do” a lot, to which I have prepared two pitches depending on the time allowed—The short and sweet, yet encompassing “Helping the poor and providing disaster relief,” and the “Reconciliation works” which is the actual personal choice if time permits. We can categorize the 70 something poverty alleviation and disaster relief projects of CEDAR into 9 categories—Humanitarian, Urban Development, Children at Risk, Anti-human Trafficking, Health, Church and Community Mobilization, Income Generation, Creation Care, and Advocacy and Education. We could all describe the specific challenges within each field, but ultimately, they are all the symptoms of our sins that broke us away from the harmony we once had, which

The Letter from CEDAR | February 2017

Dear Friends of CEDAR, “You are the light of the world… let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14 & 16) Happy Chinese New Year! For a long time, “eating” has been a core part of our Chinese culture, especially in times of festivities. Over Chinese New Year, I was “food overloaded” and felt a strong sense of guilt as many people in the world are still undernourished and suffering from hunger. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, around 800 million people are facing hunger, representing 11.1% of the world population. From experience and observation, we know that their hunger

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

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

The Letter from CEDAR | August 2016

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Early this month we had our first Typhoon Signal No. 8 of this year. Most of us were given with half a day off. Did you spend it on watching TV, sleeping, or chasing monsters outdoor? … No matter what you did, I believe most of us felt calm while wind and rain were strong outside. This sense of security does not come without effort, as we have spent time and resources in strengthening this city’s infrastructures and systems to stand against the hit of typhoons. … However, this is not necessary the case to the developing world. People there are highly vulnerable in front of natural disasters. Their weak infrastructures and poor emergency

The Letter from CEDAR | June 2016

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Greetings in the peace of our Lord. What a privilege to meet you here! This is my fifth week at CEDAR Fund, and my learning curve is still long. I come to know CEDAR for over a decade, but have never imagined of joining it, and not to say, leading it. It is really an honor to be part of this great family. I could not recall when the poor started having a place in my heart. However in 2000, God called me to serve the needy; and to respond to that call, I quitted from my banking job and began serving the impoverished children in Southeast Asia on a full-time basis in early

The Letter from CEDAR | February 2016

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, The count down clock is ticking! I will step down from the position of Chief Executive from 1 April this year, and enter into sabbatical. In my whole life I have always been busy with ministries and medical practice, not having any chance for a sabbatical year. So I teased myself saying that the coming year should be called the “Jubilee” for me instead! And I pray that in future I could continue serving in CEDAR on an honorary basis. I have served as the Chief Executive of CEDAR for 11 years. Before that I worked in Afghanistan. These are tough training for me. Exciting, difficult, joyful, regretful, doubtful, trusting…I have experienced

The Letter from CEDAR | October 2015

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, After watching the Indian movie “PK”, many of my friends (whether Christian or not) praised it for being realistic and emotionally engaging. It set a new record in Indian box office and was highly controversial in India. Those who liked the movie enjoyed it immensely, some hated it enough to sue. It is rumored that another Indian movie “OMG” (Oh My God!) is even better than “PK”: the shop of an Atheist shopkeeper was destroyed in an earthquake and the insurance company refused to pay. He therefore came up with an idea to sue God, but no lawyer would take up the case. Then he recalled that people from various religions claim