Dear Friends,

The entire staff of Chinese Christian Herald Crusades (CCHC) is spending most its time on disaster relief work for Sichuan nowadays. Although our normal daily activities continues, we are indeed working vigorously on both short and long term plans for the recovery of the disaster area in Sichuan, China.

We give thanks to God for the beginning of Herald Cares (HC) few months ago – the disaster relief entity of CCHC. Before the disaster relief work in Sichuan, this new organization was able to learn and help out in relief work with the snow storm disaster in China recently and the earthquake recovery effort near Lima, Peru late last year.? This time God opened a new way for us. Through support and trust of churches we have received over a million US dollars. Although this is not a huge amount of donations in comparison with what other organizations specialized in disaster relief work have received, but it is an amount large enough that we can manage and be good steward.

We would like to share with you a three phase, ten years plan CCHC has in Sichuan.

Phase One: Between now and mid-July. Our target is to recruit 100 volunteers to serve 2 weeks terms in China. The plan is to include medical professionals, physical rehabilitation trainers, spiritual and guidance counselors, musicians, civil and structural engineers, interpreters and educators. The recruitment starts at our headquarters in New York and branch offices immediately. While Herald Cares will be providing training to volunteers prior to departure to China, Rev. David Lee, our field director will work with Chinese Red Cross and the local churches of Sichuan to map out a comprehensive plan. And Rev. Billy Yip from the headquarters will travel to Chengdu in June to establish an office to serve as a base and supporting point for CCHC.

Phase Two: Between 7/28 and end of October. Principal staffers from CCHC will lead five teams into the disaster area to follow up on some of the caring working started in phase one. They will also plan for the future. These volunteers from different churches will serve as the nucleus for the 10 Year Plan. Our most recent plan is to rebuild at least one schools, build a special children village and rebuilt two churches. Since all eyes are on Sichuan nowadays and the Chinese government will most likely take up the responsibility of rebuilding schools, rebuilding churches, broken families and people with broken hearts should not be a problem for us.

Phase Three: Starts after the 26th Anniversary of CCHC in mid November and details are yet to follow. But we have already seen God’s guiding hand at work. Rev. Lo met a Canadian architect / builder recently at a memorial service and have learned that his company has just recently been invited by the Chinese government in Beijing to start shipping building materials to the disaster area for temporary housing. This builder has promised to assist CCHC in establishing a formal link with the government. In another word, CCHC can work directly with Chinese Red Cross, local churches, as well as government agencies in China directly. Together with the network of supporters we built from the past 25 years in north America, we trust that our objectives can be reached. We thank God and thank you for your support.

Your Co-worker,

Reverend Pak Cheung Lo