GongYi Home of Hope

It was a normal day… actually, quite nice outside… and Nathan was at his computer answering letters. He had just sat back down after taking his afternoon medications which he is still taking in follow up to his foot surgery awhile back.

Suddenly this strange feeling came over him and he had this sensation as if he was going to faint. It felt like his desk chair was moving back and forth (sideways) and like his head was spinning… his first thought was he had made a mistake and taken his meds twice and was having some side effects to that. He leaned back in the chair but that didn’t help. The movement continued.

He sat up in the chair and for some reason looked around the room and realized the office door was swinging open and shut. Since he had spent many years in Japan as a small boy, he was somewhat familiar with earthquakes so quickly knew what was happening and ran for the front door. As he ran, he started yelling at anyone who could hear him to evacuate the buildings while at the same time being grateful most of the children were at school. (A false reassurance that only came to realization later since our facility is built better than the school’s.) No one else was in the house at that time. As he ran past the living room, he saw the Canary cage that hangs there swinging back and forth as though being push by a great wind. Of course the Canary wasn’t bothered by it at all!

As soon as he was outside the movement stopped and all was quite. Another day at the Home of Hope.

Soon news reports started coming in and initially, and as is always the case, there were no injuries and no damage but the news went on to say that later that night, maybe around 11:00 PM we would experience another earthquake. We guessed this is the way they describe aftershocks. Later into the next day and the day after true reports began to filter through about the carnage, death and destruction in WenChuan County and the close surrounding areas of the SiChuan indigenous region. Such a very sad and terrible thing. It has been reported that people in places as far away as Beijing, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan felt the initial quake.

Many have written and asked how the earthquake effected us and if we are OK. So we thought we would post this page. Also many have asked were we are in relation to the epicenter of the earthquake. Below we have two maps, one showing the USA and one showing China and offer some comparison to known location in the States and locations in China to compare with to give one a little better feel for the various locations.

Most Internet Browsers will allow you to “right mouse” click on the photos and you can download them to view in a larger scale.

Several things to notice:

• The epicenter of the earthquake (see the China map) was about the same area that would be a little north of Dallas, Texas on the USA map

• The Gongyi HOH is located in an area that would be somewhere in the vicinity of South Western Ohio on the USA map and is indicated by the top left house of one of the three houses that show our two Home of Hope locations and the proposed third location to be opened soon.

• The XuZhou HOH is located about 298 miles East of our Gongyi facility

• For orientation purposes a person can imagine Beijing and Detroit, Michigan being somewhat in similar locations.

Maps are the courtesy of Google Earth.

We want to thank everyone who has written and voiced concern for our welfare and the welfare of the children. As far as the earthquake is concerned we suffered no damage or injury. Thank you for your prayers.

The Home of Hope Children Give

We give the children allowance money each week to teach them the value of money and how to save and be responsible to buy their own things like pencils, paper and small things they need as well as small snack and things. Depending on the age of the child they get from 2.30 Yuan to 15.00 Yuan per week. The college age children qualify for the 15.00 Yuan and the primary school age children receive the 2.30 Yuan. 2.30 Yuan is about .33 cents US and 15.00 Yuan is about 2.15 dollars US. The allowances are handed out on Saturdays.

Today the children asked if they could get their allowance early this week so they could send money to SiChuan to help in the relief effort for the victims of the earthquake. This afternoon they turned in 295.00 Yuan (about 41.40 US Dollars) to the victim relief fund. We are sure happy to see them learning to have a heart to help others.

There will be a new post shortly showing our current activities. Thank You for being part of the Home of Hope Orphanages in China.