Our thoughts and values guide our everyday life and decision we make. The same applies to farmers and pastors.
“You’ve never been a farmer so you may not know, but that tiny piece of land of his could never have anything good grow out of it!” said a pastor to our project staff, Pui Shan, after visiting an impoverished Palaung family in northern Thailand and saw their backyard. If you were that farmer, you might not want to pick up that plow again after hearing the pastor’s words.
To the poor living in desperate conditions, the border-crossing roads between countries are the roads of hope. Unfortunately, they are also fragile bridges hanging above the crack of slavery.
Lincang is a city in southwest Yunnan that connects with Myanmar and serves as a hub for the traffic from China towards the Indian Ocean, bolstered by 12 international and domestic transportation routes. Sadly, such accessibility was often taken advantage of by human traffickers.
Continue reading Repairer of Broken Border, Restorer of Roads with Dwellings
Churches who participate in MBC’s programme realise their mission to serve their neighbours and community through Bible studies
We have shared with you CEDAR’s work in Yunnan in a previous ePrayer where we are actively facilitating churches in China to take part in transforming their own communities. Using the SALT model, we hope to help believers to establish relationship with their community as the salt of the world. We thank God for the great testimonies told by them. Today, we would like to share our similar efforts on mobilising churches in Myanmar to take part in their community.
Over the last three years, CEDAR have been partnering with Myanmar Baptist Convention (MBC) to encourage about 50 churches to train their congregation in transforming their communities, using the Umoja approach. Following the lead of the Holy Spirit is a core value of Umoja. Facilitators would conduct regular Bible studies to help believers realise their mission given by God; and through prayer, they would ask for the Holy Spirit’s help to think about ways to practise their faith in their community.
Continue reading Mobilising Churches to Serve Their Neighbours
[“SHARE” Oct – Dec 2017 ] FOCUS ~ Church and Community Mobilisation
Written and edited by: Tsun Wan Yan, Jojo Poon
The act of poverty alleviation often gives the impression of aid workers carrying with them gifts of livestock and funds sponsoring children and their education to some remote villages. However, have you ever considered that the local churches are better suited in bringing continued and sustainable development and support to the people in need?
Continue reading Local Churches—the Local Power of Community Development
The crisis in Rakhine state, in Western Myanmar, is not new. Rakhine state is one of the least developed states in Myanmar, being prone to natural disasters from storms and cyclones. The socio-economic situation there has deteriorated since the outbreak of intercommunal violence in 2012. Renewed tensions in northern Rakhine state in August have displaced Rohingya communities (mainly Muslims) and many fled to Bangladesh.
Our partner Eden Ministry is committed to help the sexually exploited to restore a dignified life.
“Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.” Genesis 2:8
God created the world in order, all creatures were made according to their kinds and God saw them as good. The Garden of Eden manifested God’s intention for His creations. “Eden” has the meaning of “delight or pleasure” in Hebrew. Yet, Adam and Eve sinned against God and were driven out of the Garden. Immediately after their fall, they experienced poverty and hardships, and fell into the cycle of sin. The value of people were degraded and some of them have even been put on a price and sold to others…This was not God’s intention.
Continue reading Helping Human Trafficking Victims to Enter the Garden of Eden
