GongYi Home of Hope

After a few short weeks of trying to find out what was required to satisfy our vision of working with orphans, we found the way completely open to us to begin an orphanage with the blessing of the Chinese Government. On January 19th, 2000 we started on our search for orphans. The following is a preliminary pictorial of our first two and one half days of searching. The orphanage, named “GongYi Home of Hope,” will officially open on February 14, 2000.

Our quest is for true orphans, kids with no parents to care for them. During this phase we will be taking in only children in good health. Shannie, Aaron and I, accompanied by government officials and our interpreter “Renee,” have walked and climbed all over the mountain areas into villages, caves and holes in the mountains, looking for and interviewing orphans, neighbors and relatives.

The GongYi Government has been very helpful and supportive of our plans. We were escorted by the very people who the week before said we would not be allowed into the mountain areas… It is amazing how DAD changes the hearts of men! <smile>

We have just begun making our selections of the children for the first phase of the GongYi Home of Hope, and are already developing a plan for the second phase… another home and another twenty orphans. The third phase will be a complete orphanage complex with playground, multi-unit buildings and a private school, all of which have already been approved by the GongYi Government.