Check out the Father's Day gift on offer this year - www.cnecpi.com.au/cement_for_dad

Help us help our partners in Kenya to pour a cement slab for a new school floor and help your dad feel helpful!

Right now, Pakistan is experiencing the worst natural disaster in its 63 year history as an independent nation. According to the United Nations, at least 1,600 people have died and another 20  million are displaced or otherwise affected. Our partners are responding, even as huge areas of farmland and entire villages have been swept away. Roads and bridges have crumbled, leaving survivors with no access to dry shelter, food and clean water.

The flooding started in the northwest, an area that experienced some of the harshest Taliban rule in the past. As in other disasters, our partners can't compete with the big relief agencies. They don't have cargo planes and helicopters. But they have something else. They know the people on the ground and they will be there long after the big agencies move on.

This is a time for the Church to serve in the name of Christ and continue to build relationships. The people need supplies but they also need love and care and someone to walk with them as they try to rebuild their lives.

We are working with a local partner agency to provide immediate relief to families in six hard-hit areas in the north. The agency is ministering in the northwestern provinces where there has been significant flood damage. He has already been in touch with his network of contacts and they are ready to respond as soon as funds are available.

Please consider sending a gift today to help provide emergency relief.

$50 provides a package of food and essentials

$60 provides a tent

$120 provides bedding for a family

$325 provides a family of six with food for 2 weeks, clothes, bedding and a tent

Even before the floods, Pakistan was a needy place. May the love of Christ shine through local believers now more than ever. Thanks for your help to enable them to do just that. Click here to make your donation today.

We regret to advise that we will no longer be accepting AMEX credit card donations. As part of our ongoing effort to minimise overheads we have discontinued AMEX as a payment option because the merchant fee transactions are five times more expensive than for Mastercard and Visa. We thank our supporters for their understanding.

Why not check out our new prayer blogspot? Subscribe to the RSS feed and be an active intercessor for our partners in developing regions. www.cnecpi.blogspot.com. Travel the world via the Flickr galleries on the blogspot and learn more how our partners live and work.

We apologise to all those expecting to see their day-by-day prayer subjects online for the month of May.
Unfortunately, our Coordinator is unwell and unable to produce this resource todate. If you would like a PDF
version, click here to download a copy.

The pressure to conform to an idealised body type in a sex-saturated culture which values girls who are thin, hot and sexy is taking a massive toll, manifested in eating disorders, depression, anxiety, self-harm and low self-esteem. How can we help our girls resist the negative messages from popular culture and recognise their true value and worth?

On May 15 (7pm), Melinda Tankard Reist, well known social commentator, will be our guest at Hurstville Civic Theatre. She will be addressing this very  issue of the increasing sexualisation of girls in our Western popular culture. This event is co-sponsored by Penshurst Anglican Church and CNEC Partners International.

Melinda will speak on the need for us all to work together to create a more healthy environment in which to grow our girls. We recommend a minimum age of +15.

There will  be the opportunity to buy signed copies of Melinda's latest book, "Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls" and to support spiritual and medical care for women and girls made fistula through rape being used as a weapon of war in DR Congo.

Read more about our partner, HEAL Africa, in DR Congo.

Click here to buy tickets to this event. For more details about this event view our Events Calendar (15th May).

“I am John Wandera 44 years old married to my wife Jesca with 4 children and 12 orphans in our house. I knew Christ at 16, shortly after the regime of Idi Amin. A few years later I felt the Lord speaking to me saying “Son send I you to my lost sheep" Born to a non -Christian family, I went through a tough time of family denial and persecution to the extent of being denied my rights and higher education. I went almost half naked without clothes, denied by my friends because of my faith in the Lord Christ but I kept strong in Him and His word.

Since I could not proceed on with my higher education to University but zealous to serve Christ, God spoke to a Korean missionary in Uganda to sponsor me to a Bible College in Nairobi Kenya to train, equip and be prepared for ministry and leadership. With a heart for people who didn't know Christ I started reaching out into villages and communities with the good news of the kingdom. I began planting churches and called them Christian Fellowships and this is how I founded the "Christian Fellowship Ministries"(CFM) from scratch.

Soon after this my brother died of HIV/AIDS leaving 7 children helpless. It is when God spoke to Jesca and me to become a father to the fatherless and mother to the motherless. It was beyond our ability as we had no income to sustain them, but, the burden became heavier until we said God we obey your voice to have them in our house. We fed and provided them with education though in a hard way. This is how we started the "New Generation Orphan Care (NGOC).

A few years later, the Lord spoke to me saying I would like you to be a voice to the voiceless beyond and outside your family - this was the orphans not related to us. To us it was a blow of mind as we had lots of questions as to how we shall go about with these since we knew nobody and nobody knew us except God. Shortly I came across an "On Being" magazine from Australia where I got the Fowey Lodge Bible College in New Zealand address. I was offered a scholarship and waited upon the Lord for one whole year with my bag packed till the Lord opened a door for my air fare. It's where I learnt about CNEC and desired to be a partner.

By His Grace we have now planted 33 churches in rural parts of Eastern Uganda and Western Kenya, giving support to 300 orphans now but my target is 2000 orphans, train and equiping pastors and leaders for effective ministry and also to be sent back to their communities to reach them for Christ."

Would you like to hear John speak around Australia? Contact us at cnec@cnecpi.com.au to find out the details. Call us if you would like to host a meeting - 02 9712 8222

I am married, and I had 8 children, but only two are alive right now. Two died as a result of the war; the others died through illness. I have two boys left. The oldest is eighteen, and the youngest is thirteen, and they still go to school. The eldest is in his third year of teaching school, while the other is in his sixth year of primary school. While I am here, the children stay with their father’s family.

I am here at HEAL Africa, because my foot is wounded, and needs to be operated on. But there are also many other issues due to the sexual abuse I was a victim of. It happened in September 2009. You know, the school year starts in September here, in D.R.C. As my husband and I didn’t have enough money to prepare the school year for our two sons, I had decided to go to the field to cut some bananas, make the traditional drink, and sell it to the market to cover for the school fees. Due to the lack of security in our forests, caused by the F.D.L.R. presence, I had asked my husband to join me to the field. Unfortunately, he had refused. He had preferred to stay in the village and play Mangula (an African game similar to Chinese Checkers), as men usually do in our village.

So, another woman from the village, also with financial difficulties, joined me. Once in the field, about 10 F.D.L.R. guerrilla turned up. The other woman had spotted them from a distance, and had fled without telling me. The F.D.L.R. men said, “Tembo women are proud, we have to hurt her much before raping her”. This is why I was stabbed in the foot, with their bayonet, and then raped.

It was the men from the village, who came to pick me up, and take me back to the village. When my husband heard the news, he told me I must already be infected with a deadly disease, and, as a consequence, he would not live with me anymore. He packed up his things and left. He is currently in Walikale, a neighboring territory.

After 6 weeks, I knew I was pregnant, a pregnancy as a result of this rape. Two days after the rape, a health worker from the village next door gave me first aid, and sewed the wound on my foot, and that was all the treatment I’d received, as there is no hospital or health centre in our village or surrounding area. If there, I could have gotten medicine that could have saved me from this pregnancy. It is now 4 and a half months old.

A son of my brother, called Matata, lives here in Goma, and knows HEAL Africa and their programs quite well. While he was visiting the village, he advised me to come here to get appropriate treatments. My family got me from my village up to the Ngungu village in Massisi, and from there I was brought to Sake, where a HEAL Africa vehicle picked me up. The doctors, in charge of me here, say my foot must be operated on, but before this can happen I have to take some medicine for a while.

Today is the 8 March, International Women Day. I can see many joyful women, but I am not joyful, as I suffer. I do know that back in my village there is no celebration for women, as when there is no peace, there is no celebration. Women keep running away and they spend the night outside, in the bush.

I believe only God can end our current sufferings, as men haven’t been able to do so.

To give regular support to HEAL Africa's important ministry, click here.

Read a bird's eye account from our partner in Santiago, Cesar Guzman.  Go to our Current Appeals page if you would like to help.

Dear friends,

Thank you for your concern. We have received many emails enquiring about our well being after one the worst earthquakes in the history of Chile.

The earthquake was during the night (Friday to Saturday) at 3 a.m.This is my 3rd earthquake but certainly the worst I have been through. We awoke suddenly as the ground beneath and the house around shook convulsively, we could barely stand up and objects began to fall and break around the house adding to the already loud noises. It went for endless 3 minutes. Once it stopped and checked we were all right we checked the structural integrity of the house to make sure it was ok to stay indoors. The house withstood the violence of the quake. We had water and gas, but no telephone, internet or electricity until a couple of hours ago. We had 3 guests with us, 3 incoming CEP students, were with us until they found a flat to rent. It was a blessing to have their company during a long, long night. The tremors continued all night long, in fact until today, so we spent the rest of the night in the living room trying to get whatever rest we could and thanking God we were fine. About 4 a.m. my mother, brother, his wife and new baby turned up as they live in a high rise building and did not want to stay there the rest of the night, and stayed with us until yesterday.

Next day we started checking on friends, relatives and church members. Nobody was hurt and damage to property is minor. Santiago is in relatively good shape after such a big quake. Communications and transport are back after 48 hours and most buildings are standing. Still there are 1000 people dead, several hundred thousands homeless and many injured. Some are still without power or gas. One of the big hospitals is closed, the airport is useless and some of the freeways impassable. Schools are closed.

The worst took place south of Santiago in the Concepcion area (city 500 kms. south). The area is devastated, like a war zone (the energy released by this earthquake was 80 times worse than Haiti). Many buildings collapsed and further misery is being added to the situation, as pillage and looting are becoming rampant. The government has sent the military to the streets to maintain order and a curfew at night has been ordered.

There are 3 Anglican congregations in the city plus a couple more up in the mountains among Mapuche natives. We have almost no information and churches here are making donations to take food and other aid to church families down there.
The Sunday service, with those who were able to get to church, was emotional as we gave thanks to God for His protection and prayed for those suffering.

Please pray for our nation and our authorities as they try to lead us in difficult times. Pray for the church that we may show Christian love and concern and take this opportunity for gospel witness.

In his love
Cesar & Ani Guzman

Today Haiti's president says the government has buried 170,000 bodies in mass graves since an earthquake struck a month ago. John Rose, Chief Executive of our affiliate WorldShare in the UK, recently met with Luckner, our Haitian ministry leader, and 40 other Christian leaders from the island country. Here, he shares an update on the scale of the damage caused by the January 12 earthquake.

"The scale of the disaster is tremendous," Rose said. "In fact, it actually exceeds the horrific tsunami that struck Southeast Asia in 2004. Deaths in Haiti are estimated at 210,000 and rising daily, more than 200,000 are injured, 2 million are homeless, and more than 3 million are significantly affected by the earthquake. This is more than a quarter of the entire population of the country."

Why This Disaster is Different
Rose shared that in most disasters you can usually rely on several factors to aid in recovery. "First," he said, "often the government and military are part of the solution, aiding in rescue and opening roads. But in Haiti, a failed state, this has not happened. Second, in most disasters you can acquire resources locally, thus stimulating the recovery of the economy. This is also not possible in Haiti. Industries to provide food and building supplies hardly exist locally.

Everything has to come from outside. Third, in most disasters you can rely on the population itself to be helpful in getting the country back on its feet. But because of Haiti's insecurity, the bonds of society have broken down. People are primarily concerned about themselves and their families. They have nothing and their mentality is survival. This explains some of the rioting and violence we've seen on television news reports. The people are so desperate."

Rose also related that after tragedies like the tsunami, the goal is to return the population to a normal life that is stable and sustainable. But this type of lifestyle has never existed in Haiti. "There is nothing to return to," he said. "It has to be created."

Focusing on Long-Term Impact
Rose shared his esteem for our local partner, Luckner, who has himself suffered greatly in the disaster losing a number of his family members. "He is a man of great vision and resourcefulness," he said. But CNEC Partners International is moving cautiously with our reconstruction work in Haiti. We are taking care not to put too much immediate pressure on Luckner or his ministry which is a small church network, not a relief agency. Time is being taken from the beginning to work through longer-term project plans and help the team gather expertise and funds.

In the next week or two, our Alliance is sending a team to Haiti to work with Luckner and his ministry to develop a joint plan for reconstruction. One team member is a crisis relief expert that we have worked with since the tsunami who will train local believers in effective crisis response, a long-term strategy with church planting as the end goal. Another member from our affiliate office in Canada will be looking specifically at job creation.

While the need in Port-au-Prince remains tremendous, Luckner shared that everywhere outside Port-au-Prince, people kept asking him, "When will someone come and help us?" Most people outside the capital have seen no help whatsoever. Thus, we plan to help primarily on the island of La Gonave where the ministry is headquartered. There, 20% of buildings have been destroyed and 70% have been damaged. More than 4,000 people from La Gonave were lost in the quake, primarily because they were working or at school in Port-au-Prince. "This has robbed La Gonave of its best and brightest," Rose said.

A Seminal Moment in Haiti's History
While the scale of the disaster is overwhelming, Rose stressed that this is a seminal moment in Haiti's history. "The local church is the one ray of hope, and it has an incredibly important role to play in ministering to people in need. Our focus must be on working through the local people to create something sustainable, something that the Haitian people can carry forward with their own resources and abilities. And hopefully, this will give Haitians a quality of life they've never had before."

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has been hit with a series of catastrophic earthquakes. The main quake took place this morning and registered 7.0 on the Richter scale. Many aftershocks have followed. At least two million people live in the affected area. Numerous buildings have collapsed including apartment buildings and a hospital. You will see this all over the news tonight and in your local paper tomorrow morning.

At CNEC Partners International, we believe that local churches can be a great source of help and comfort at times like this. They might not have the huge resources of governments or big relief agencies, but they know the local people and will be there long after the big players have moved on. The church shines best when it is walking alongside hurting people, helping them rebuild their lives.

In cooperation with our affiliate in the UK, Worldshare, we have a partnership with a local church-planting and community development ministry in Haiti that has been working in the places where the quakes hit hardest. They have been starting churches, schools, and small businesses to help their people. We are working now to find out what of this work has survived.

Haitian Calvary International Ministries, with whom our affiliate has an active child sponsorship program, runs schools on the island of La Gonave, located just off the Haitian mainland and a short distance from the earthquake epicentre. The sponsorship supports the education of around 225 children in Anse-a-Galets, at HCIM's Calvary School.

WorldShare managed to contact Luckner Stimphil (HCIM director) by phone. "A lot of people we know are dead," he reports. "There is no contact to La Gonave, where there is no electricity. TV/radio are down."

Are you able to help? Your gifts will help church members, students and local families recover and also become a means for further outreach into these devastated communities. Click here to make a donation.

Please pray urgently for:
- children sponsored through Worldshare in Haiti, and their families
- HCIM staff within Haiti
- HCIM director, Pastor Luckner Stimphil, and his leadership team as they respond
- International search, rescue and aid agencies in the critical days immediately ahead

CNEC Partners International invites you to join us at one of our Chinese New Year dinners being held in Melbourne and Sydney.  Our guest speakers for both of these dinners will be Alfred and Alsie Ng, our China local ministry partners. Come along and celebrate what God is doing in China.

Melbourne Supporters' Dinner

Wednesday 24th February, 7pm for 7.30pm start till 10pm.

The venue is The Treasure Restaurant, 482 Springvale Rd, Forest Hill VIC.

Cost: $40.00 per person.  Click here to buy tickets.  RSVP 17th February.  Phone Phil Cogger on 03 9899 2044 for further details. 

Sydney Supporters' Dinner

Wednesday 3rd March,.7pm  for 7.30pm start till 10pm.

The venue is The Dynasty Restaurant, 26 Bridge Rd, Belmore NSW (inside Canterbury Leagues Club with on-site parking) and a delicious banquet awaits.

Cost: $35.00 per person.  Click here to buy tickets.  RSVP 24th February.  Please note tickets are limited for this event so book early.  Phone Reverend Joanne Huang on 02 9712 8222 for further details.

Further details of these and other events are available on our Events Calendar.

In Zimbabwe, President Mugabe continues to oppress his own people. You may have heard that the film, Mugabe and the White African was named best documentary at the British Independent Film Awards last month and has been shortlisted as one of the 15 films from which the Oscar nominees will be drawn next month. The documentary highlights the suffering of one particular family who have been run off their mango farm by Mr Mugabe’s thugs. Mr Campbell, aged 76, and the farm owner, hopes the film will force the international spotlight back on the campaign of violent, state-sponsored farm evictions, which has continued under Mr Mugabe.

Meanwhile, we need your help!  Our partner has everything ready to dig 15 to 20 wells for communities across Zimbabwe.   These are the most needy of many dozens of communities which need a well.   The wells cost $7,000 AUD – that’s the price they are being charged by the contractor.    So many people need wells that they can charge more or less what they want.   However, this is a deep well, which should last and be safe, and includes drilling, lining, pipes and a handpump, adequate to serve a local community.

With your help, CNEC Partners International plans to provide life-saving clean water to up to 20 hard-hit communities in Zimbabwe. Through our partner agency, Hope for Africa Ministries (HFAM), we are able to reach these vulnerable rural communities.  In 2009, we were completely satisfied with the accountability of the expenditure of the funds we raised for food aid.

Thank you for prayerfully making a generous gift today. Click here to provide clean water.

Thank you for your patience as we "tweak" our new website.  We apologise to those supporters who have been experiencing problems with logging in.  We believe that we have resolved the issues causing the error messages.

Please note that if you have received an email with a new username and password (applicable to those who were previously registered on our old site) you need to make sure that you include the "." (dot) that appears between your first name and surname, as per your email.

If you are continuing to experience problems, please contact our office at cnec@cnecpi.com.au or phone 02 9712 8222 and we will respond to your enquiry as soon as possible.

Thanks to all our supporters who were previously registered on our old website.  Please note that your previous username and password are now invalid.  All previously registered website users will receive an email after midnight tonight (Monday 14th December) and you will receive your NEW Username and Password.  After you have received this email you will be able to access your user account.  You are still able to make a donation on our website today, without logging in - just go to the Donate pages and enter your details.  Please do not hesitate to contact our office if you need any assistance with our new site.

Welcome to our new website.  We thank God for this invaluable tool in communicating about our partners and their ministries.  This new website is integrated with our database so there are many additional features that will benefit users and CNEC/PI staff.

If you are a registered user you will have access to the new Members Area when you login.  If you are not currently registered you can do so at any time and enjoy the benefits of being an online member including updating your profile, signing up for newsletters, indicating your interests and viewing your giving history.

Our offices are closed for the Christmas break from 12pm Thursday 24th December.  Our Sydney office will reopen at 9am on Monday 4th January and our Melbourne office will reopen on Monday 18th January.

Thank you to all of our supporters and donors who have enabled our partners to continue with their ministries and welcome to our new supporters and donors.  We thank God for your partnership with us.  May you have a blessed Christmas resting in the hope of Christ.

After 32 years at Badminton Road Croydon our Sydney office has moved to Five Dock.  We are thankful for the blessings of being in Croydon for so many years and for the provision of our new office.

Our new address and contact details are:

Street Address:  Level One, 61-63 Great North Road, Five Dock  NSW  2046
Phone:  +61 2 9712 8222         Fax:  +61 2 9712 5055
Postal Address:  PO Box 711, Five Dock  NSW  2046