Environmentally Sustainable Development in Thailand

[ ‘SHARE’ Mar-Apr 2017 ] FOCUS ~ AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

Written by: Jojo Poon

What is “development”? What kind of development will lead to better living? In what way will go by contraries? We might be able to find out more from the experience of the farming tribes in Northern Thailand.

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Cared for by the Creation (Matthew 6:24-34)

[ ‘SHARE’ Mar-Apr 2017 ] BACK TO THE BIBLE

Author: Dr. Bernard Wong (Assistant Professor (Theological Studies) & Associate Dean, China Graduate School of Theology; CEDAR Board Member)

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:24-34)

Jesus taught us to not worry over what to eat, drink, and wear, as God knows and will provide for our needs. He reminded us of our worth compared to birds of the air and flowers of the field, where we shall not have any doubts in God’s provision when even the birds and flowers were fed and clothed. He further reminded us that to worry and work solely for monetary gains is in fact serving money over God.

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Sharing Land and Cultivating Lives

[ ‘SHARE’ Mar-Apr 2017 ] JOIN HANDS JOIN HEARTS

Traditionally, our impression towards children ministry might involve sponsoring a child or orphan in their daily expenses or education, but did you know that we could now combine children ministry with community resettlement and agricultural development?

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A Passion for Farming—An Interview with Hand the Farmer

[ ‘SHARE’ Mar-Apr 2017 ] TAKING ACTION

Interviewer and Editor: Tsun Wan Yan

In Hong Kong, we would often hear someone tell a person to “Go back to farming at your ranch” to tease one’s lack of wit. Now people don’t need to farm at a ranch, nor are they foolish to be a farmer. We found a perfect example of that in Wu Ying Luen, Hand—a young, humorous, and radiating farmer—from the Society for Indigenous Learning (SoIL) in Hong Kong, who differs greatly from our traditional image of a farmer.

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