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 is often not a result of laziness. They possess the will to work hard for their living, but just lack a helping hand to restart a new page in their lives. This is exactly why God imposed the rules of Jubilee on His people (Lev. 25), in order to bring about freedom and celebration for starting anew.
I just came back from India before the Chinese New Year. In New Delhi, I met a young girl called Julie at a garbage dump site. Julie has been living with her parents and three younger brothers in the site for quite a while. She is now 16 and has been joining her parents to support the family by working as garbage sorters, and has never been to school as the family cannot afford it. Seven months ago, Julie was enrolled into our project and started learning some basic writing skills. Today, she is hired by the garbage collectors in keeping records of garbage items sold by the sorters in the site. She treasures so much the learning opportunity from the project, and hopes to find a better job after being more literate, and so, to move her family out of the garbage dump site. The project offers a kind of assistance that offers the marginalized a chance of starting all over.
By the end of our fiscal year 2016, we had extended different “helping hands” to the people in poverty and injustice through 70 plus projects in 12 countries across Asia and Africa. I have enclosed our 2015/16 ministry report for your review, and hope you appreciate the transformational achievements made through our partners in the past year.
Your companionship, both in prayer and donation, is vital in bringing hope and love to the underprivileged. Though we encountered a financial deficit of HK$2,569,290 in the past 7 months ending 31st January 2017, we are still praying for more resources to expand our reach to many more beneficiaries in 2017. I hope you will consider stepping up your support to CEDAR, to allow more people to experience justice and compassion.
Have a blessed year of the Rooster!
You brother,
Raymond Kwong