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Tag: Church and Community Mobilisation

Peace in Turbulent Regions of Myanmar

Written by Edward Lai (Senior Communications Officer) ‘Our dream has come true! We may have our new house very soon. We now come here every day to help build the house.’ Mg Byar Woo, a ten-year-old boy in Myanmar said excitedly.  He invited CEDAR Fund’s partner, Fullmoon Family Foundation (FMFF), to his current temporary shelter and said, ‘every family has only a small living space. We sleep and cook in the same room.’ His family slept on the same narrow bamboo bed with neatly folded sheets.  Though the temporary shelter was crowded, at least he and his family were safe. In his mind, not only his family was safe, but also over 40 other Lisu families, who had

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CONTINUALLY INSPIRED, UNCHANGING MISSION

Written by: Edward Lai  (Senior Communications Officer) A Haitian woman sits on the floor beside several circular mud cakes. She rubs pieces of dust off the mud cakes, and slowly puts the cakes into her mouth, chewing slowly. To her, and to many other Haitians living in poverty, these cakes – made by mixing mud with water and salt, kneading the mixture into the shape of a cake, and setting the cakes under the sun to dry – were their daily meals; their life-saving meals. Our founders, Mr and Mrs Oliver Mark, were deeply touched by the sight of women eating mud cakes. They were in the UK at the time; after returning to Hong Kong, they were

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Transforming lives, Serving the Community in Myanmar

Banner image: The war-torn Karen State of Myanmar Written by Edward Lai (Senior Communications Officer) The situation of Myanmar following a military coup has captured international attention. Apart from mass protests demanding the restoration of the civilian government, tensions rise between the ethnic armed groups and the military junta. Myanmar is a multi-ethnic country, the conflict between the military and ethnic armed groups has lasted since its independence. Since the 1990s, CEDAR has been cooperating with Christian partners in Myanmar to carry out relief and development projects across the country to empower local residents to respond to different regions’ needs. Natural disasters, war and poverty have been ravaging the country for years. Yet, we have witnessed many former

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Children Ministry – Commitment and Collaboration

Written by Clara Chiu (Head of Partnership Development) In order to transform the society, we first have to give children a chance to grow up healthily so that they can become leaders of good character who obey God’s will. We provide basic life and human rights protection, learning opportunities and spiritual courses for poor children in many countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. In the previous year, CEDAR supported 14 partners and carried out a total of 17 children and youth development projects. Among them, we have a 15-year-long project in Zimbabwe to empower children and families affected by HIV/AIDS in the suburbs of the local city of Mutare. In the first phase of the project

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“Do Gospel” with 16 HK’s Churches, Food Assistance Ministry Benefited over 3,500 People

“We are ‘doing gospel’, not only ‘spreading gospel’. Through our witness indeed, more people can receive the bread of life from the Lord through food assistance,” said by the representative of the Church on The Rock Yan Shing Church “Our church has only around 100 people and many of them are grassroots people, therefore we do not receive many donations. CEDAR’s ‘Journey through Pandemic Crisis – Short-term Food Assistance’ Funding Scheme has encouraged our church. After the completion of the food assistance project, we have allocated the same amount of fund (HK$60,000) previously funded by CEDAR to carry out the second phase of the project. In doing so, we have reached out to some disadvantaged groups that we have

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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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Fear Not the Slander and Shadow, but to Break the Silence – Interview with Indian Anti-Child Trafficking Activist

Banner image: Aashima Samuel, the National Director of EFIC@R, interviewed by CEDAR “In Indian villages, when we and church pastors advocated anti-child trafficking, some Hindi nationalists accused us of, or even attacked us for ‘brainwashing’ villagers to convert them into Christians. In fact, among them, there were traffickers slandering us to extinguish our anti-trafficking voice,” said Aashima Samuel, the National Director of Evangelical Fellowship of India Children At Risk (EFIC@R), CEDAR’s partner. Samuel experienced obstruction at the entry into villages, unreasonable accusations, being tailed many times, and not being helped by the police, and more. She has experienced all these at work. Although the risk of and resistance against anti-child trafficking ministry are gigantic, Samuel perseveres to break

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The Letter from CEDAR | July 2019

Dear Friends of CEDAR, Shalom! In human’s perspective, a subject’s values are often determined by its benefits to people. For example, a down coat is a necessity for people living in cold areas, but often useless for those living in tropical areas. This methodology of defining a subject’s values not only applies to materials, but also to human beings. An old Chinese tale “Wu Yen” is a good illustration. When the country was in crisis, the all-rounded ugly queen, Wu Yen, gained attention from King Xuan of Qi Dynasty. However, when the war was over, the King avoided her the furthest as possible. Nowadays, many social systems value an individual by his/her contributions, which is well exemplified by

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The Trap of Discrimination in Poverty Alleviation

Written by: Wance Kwan (Assistant Professor [Practical Studies], China Graduate School of Theology) “If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:3-4) If you are one of the few in your church who are involved in poverty alleviation work, you may be angry with the snobs in the scripture above. You might probably think that you would never be like them. However, have you ever thought that always putting the poor at the receiving end can also

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How do Churches Instill Hopes to People in the Midst of Disaster?

Banner image: Herda, elder of Boladangko Church (Right) and Cynthia, who lost her father Written by: Jady Sit (Communications Officer) In early November 2018, a few CEDAR’s staffs visited Sulawesi of Indonesia to learn about the local conditions from partner PESAT and visit families devastated by the earthquake. The article below is our staff’s sharing after her visit. If you would like to understand more about CEDAR’s relief work there, please visit the page “Indonesian Earthquake and Tsunami Relief”. “During the earthquake, the door was locked, and thus Cynthia’s father was trapped inside the house. When it collapsed, he died,” Herda, an elder at the Boladangko Church, said emotionally with her arm surrounding Cynthia. Sulawesi was struck by an

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