Dear reader,
Faith
"I believe in a God who lives, who can give a return to His commandments and who is a hearer of prayer," is how I ended an interview on Family7 in Featured! following the results of the Italian elections. And this faith puts our work 100 percent in perspective. We do not have to stand in our own strength when we stand up for life, the traditional family and freedoms such as of religion and education. The results of the Italian elections, won with the motto ‘God, land, family’, indicate that the people want to change course. My hope is that countries like Poland and Hungary, which often stand alone in their pro-family policies, will have their support.
Golden Cross
That Hungary greatly values such support is evidenced by the award we received last month. Accompanied by a letter from Victor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary, and a statement from President Katalin Novák, I received the Golden Cross of Merit of Hungary from the hands of the Hungarian Ambassador to the Netherlands, Andras Kocsís, last September 6.
Concerns and calls for support
We can be concerned when we follow the debate on the Transgender Act being held in the Netherlands. Or when we take note of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a Jewish university must allow LGBTQ clubs to be established at their school, as our board member in the U.S. describes. Or when we see evil things, like mandating abortion or having to provide comprehensive sexuality education in schools, being imposed on developing countries from the West. Recently Pieter Beens wrote an article about the latter on CNE.news. With the resources given to us, we try to do everything possible to turn these things around. Your (financial) support is indispensable in this!
Pray and work
Together with our Africa consultant, we have again done a lot of work on the EU-ACP agreement, the proposed 20-year binding trade treaty between the EU and the 79 ACP countries. Furthermore, we were able to strengthen ties in the US. Our representative to the UN in New York followed some meetings. We underline his appeal: Please pray against the UN's relentless pressure to make abortion a human right.
Please read about all this further in this newsletter.
We wish you God's blessing from the bottom of our hearts.
With heartfelt greetings,
Henk Jan van Schothorst
Director Christian Council International