New Year Greetings!

Celebrating Chinese New Year with the children we serve

This weekend, more than 1.4 billion Chinese will celebrate Chinese New Year. On the first day of the New Year, we will honour a traditional custom and visit the homes of friends and families to wish them a Happy New Year. This practice is known as "bai leen" in Cantonese (or "bai nian" in Putonghua). Simply put, the phrase means to "wish someone a Happy New Year" or to "exchange New Year's greetings”.

This traditional action is indeed one of my favourite things to do during the holiday season. It's a time to slow down and focus on strengthening family ties. But year after year, surrounded by those I love dearly, I can't help but think of the ones we serve who live in an institution and have no one to visit and no one they can visit. There are also those who are too poor to travel hundreds of miles to see family.

As you celebrate in the coming weeks, please keep the people we serve in your thoughts and prayers. We're so blessed to create a sense of family here at Christian Action, and I hope to see greater breakthroughs for these precious lives in the year ahead!

Wishing you and yours a blessed Chinese New Year,
Siew Mei