Twas the Day After Christmas
All the planning, prelim work, decorating, baking and cooking were over. As we sat back and reflected about the Christmas we just finished we were overwhelmed with the fact that so many people who support the Home of Hope Orphanages, have never and possibly will never get the chance to experience what we just had.
We hold so many fond memories of awesome Christmases from our own childhood. Neither Shannie or I can remember any that could hold a candle to the Christmas just past. The Home of Hope Children were just – here it goes again – AWESOME!
As was everyone else from the housemothers, the kitchen staff, the Driver, the older children (who pitched in to help when possible) and even the guards.
Quite awesome when one thinks about the fact that until they came to the Home of Hope, a Christmas celebration like this was not even in their thought process let alone in memories from their own childhood.
Of course the ‘fare’ was not Western but rather special Chinese dishes. In the pictures above are some ‘Thousand Year Old Egg’s (the yellow dish – a Chinese favorite), sticky rice with Jujube (the white dish), broccoli and specially seasoned cucumbers, to name a few.
All in all we had over seventy people at our Christmas (Eve) dinner including the employees who were off that day as well.
After dinner and after all the dishes were washed and put away, everyone gathered in the rec-room which was all decorated including red and green table clothes and lots of nut, candy and fruit set at each person’s seat.
Many of the children had developed their own skits. From the 1st and 2nd graders in our own primary school, all the way up to the college kids who got time off from school to ‘come home’ for Christmas. Logan could not come because she was in the middle of Mid Term exams.
Soon the festivities began.
Rather than show a lot of ‘still’ photographs of their various skits, we thought we would share this video with you. You can just click on the arrow in the center of the picture to start the video.
The load time may take a couple of seconds but it is well worth watching.
Ben and Michelle Godard (the administrators for the PingYu Home of Hope number three) performed a dance to a Christmas song which everyone truly enjoyed.
…. then their three boys, Jaxin, Eli and Tyler did a skit on the three wise men which was really cute!
Ma Hai Tao, Nathan’s assistant, the HOH driver and maintenance man and all round “jack of all trades” (on the left) graced us all with a song which was really great. (I didn’t know you could sing, Hai Tao)
Then Hazel gave a splendid recital on the electric keyboard.
We could go on and on about the various skits and activities that took place but there is not enough room and we don’t want to be too ‘long winded’ here.
Needless to say, it was an awesome night and it was made possible by you, our friends and supporters. To all of you who gave to make this special day an exceptional one and to those who are going to contribute in the future, we all say a big “Thank You” from the bottom of our heart!
We want to make special mention of a wonderful church in California who provided the funds to buy all the children new, warm winter coats and new winter shoes/boots.
Also, a first for us in China…. a Chinese company, the Chinese Division of the “Crocs” shoe company, provided fleece lined “Crocs” House Shoes for all the children at both the GongYi Home of Hope and the XuZhou Home of Hope. The children were thrilled with their new coats, winter shoes and house shoes. We send out a big “Thank You” to the Crocs Company in Shanghai.
In the picture below you can see many of the children (some had to return to school so are not in the picture) in their new coats and Crocs House Shoes.
We wish we could show you more but there is one more thing.
We have our personal family Christmas on Christmas day. But Shan and I decided this year we would invite the older children of the Home of Hope to share Christmas dinner with our family and the Godard family.
In the short film clip below you will get a small sense of how neat that was as well!
We hope you have enjoyed this Christmas update from the Home of Hope. We solicit your prayers for us here in China and want you to know how vitally important your being a part of the work here is to all of us!
Happy New Year to you and yours!
Posted: January 2nd, 2010 under Uncategorized.