GongYi Home of Hope

Abby Joy – Xiong Miao Yin – We jokingly call her “Our Little Monk” because she was brought to us by Buddhist nuns when she was just a new born.

As it turned out, Abby Joy was abandoned at a Buddhist convent far up in the GongYi mountains. Since the take over of the communist party and the “new” social society here in China starting with the early 1940s, Buddhism has slowly lost it’s appeal and generally speaking the only people who still practice Buddhism are the extreme elderly. This has also led to very little attention being given to Buddhist temples, monasteries and convents, other than the historical interest and the esthetics of the surroundings, since the nuns and monks do keep the facilities in excellent shape.

In Abby Joy’s case, there were only three nuns left at the convent where she was dropped off, and from what we could determine, the youngest of the nuns was over seventy five years old. The nuns cared for her for a few days but quickly realized they weren’t able to give her the proper attention she needed, especially with her cleft condition, so they called and asked if we could take her in. Of course we were happy to comply and Abby Joy has been here with us ever since. The nuns still come to visit her about two times a year but now there are only two left and we know that soon the other two will be gone as well. When they do pass on, the convent will be closed. Abby Joy is a “joy” to have around!

CHILDREN’S DAY

The Chinese are really big on Children’s day and so the various schools our children attend had parties and shows to commemorate this year’s “Day of the Child”. We elected to show our representation at the Kindergarten children’s show and it was really neat.

To the left are Ron and Caleb performing a Kung Fu routine all children are taught in Chinese schools.

Here the children are performing some type of dance with Mary taking center stage. She has come a long way from the little newborn abandoned at our gate with a foot twisted around to more than 90 degrees!

All of the children had some part in the program but since there was so much movement we weren’t able to get very many good pictures. It was cute to see who was afraid or shy and who was ready to just jump out front and be part of everything. It is such a thrill to watch as each year brings a new dimension into the personality of each child as they grow, develop and learn new things!

In this picture are (left to right) Dawn, Jacob, one of their classmates and Rachel. We think the little guy toward the back with his back to the camera is Beau. With his hearing impairment, he often just dances to his own music. He really is a neat kid! His picture is also the fourth one down on the right (above).

It looks a little bit like Dawn and Jacob are having a conversation between themselves which one could imagine goes something like… “Do we really want to go out there in front of all those people?”

Next year, Morris will be in Kindergarten so we will be doing this all over gain.

APPRECIATION – We are so grateful for your willingness to join with us in making the Home of Hope Orphanages a success. Thank you so much for your contributions in keeping this awesome work going from month to month and year to year. We know there are times when it is very difficult for you, as we know you have many other obligations. Yet you continue to sacrifice for the children of rural China who, without your compassion and help, would never know the meaning of “Hope”.

We hope you have enjoyed another small glimpse into life at the Home of Hope orphanage in GongYi, China. We covet your prayers as we continue to serve the children in rural China. We just received an email from a lady who has been wanting to help us establish the next Home of Hope in a Jewish settlement near Kaifeng. We have mentioned this before and thought that perhaps it was not going to materialize but now it appears things could begin to move ahead rather quickly.

Again, Thank You for all you do for the less fortunate children of China!