CORD 40th Anniversary

On Saturday Lois and I went to Coventry Cathedral for the CORD 4oth Anniversary celebrations. CORD (Christian Outreach Relief and Development) is an interdenominational Christian relief agency which specializes in working with victims of conflict around the world. As Project Vietnam Orphans it was founded in 1967 by Lois' parents, Pat and Marion Ashe.

The very first time I saw Lois in 1980 she was speaking at London Bible College about the dreadful conditions along the Thai border where she and her family were working to help Khmer refugees. Lois worked in Vietnam briefly before flying out on the Daily Mail Airlift when Saigon was falling to the Vietcong. She then worked for 4 years in refugee camps in Thailand.

In 1985 I went to Sudan for three months with Christian Outreach, as it was then called, during my first year as a curate in Hereford. We were setting up camps for Tigrayan and Eritrean refugees. For several years we were involved, with thousands of others, in shipping blankets by the container load to Sudan. I became a member of the executive committee of Christian Outreach and later a Trustee and chairman of the committee. I finally resigned in 2000 when I got more involved with our own diocesan link with Zambia.

Saturday was a wonderful and very moving occasion. It was great to catch up with friends from so many different stages of CORD's history and our involvement. For Lois this included childhood friends going back 40 years. In the morning there were seminars and we went to one about CORD's involvement with Angolan refugees in Zambia. Then we went to a presentation on links CORD has with other projects in Asia. This was very moving for me as I had visited all three projects - Christian Care for Children with Disabilities in Thailand, Gospel Outreach (amongst Santhali tribals) in India and Shepherd of the Hills Orphanage in the Philippines. I was thrilled to see Wasan, Jonanthan and Nathaniel all ministering together.

Not only was it great to catch up with so many friends from Thailand and Sudan years but we also managed to link up with many new projects and opportunities such as an AIDS awareness project for Central Africa.

The Thanksgiving Service was very moving, starting in the ruins of the old cathedral with an emphasis on pentitence for the horrors of war. Then we moved into the Cathedral for a presentation of CORD's history which started with a drama about the very beginning when Marion was ironing whilst watching a Julian Pettifer report on orphans in Vietnam. When she brought tea into Pat's men's prayer group she suggested they should do something to help the children. One person said "what can we do to help so many millions like that", to which Pat replied "what if we were to pray that God would show us how to help just one child?" Lois and just about every one else was in tears at the sight of young girls playing her and her sister Jane alongside Marion in this little sketch.

The third part of the service in the chancel looked to the future and Colin Bennetts the Bishop of Coventry, as patron of CORD, spoke very powerfully of the need to look to Jesus, echoing Pat's own quiet yet determined witness down the years. He also expressed pride and gratitude for the link CORD has had with his diocese and cathedral over the years.

We went home challenged again wondering what we should do next!

You can find out more about the work of CORD and how you can get involved at www.cord.org.uk