GongYi Home of Hope

Shannie writes: When we arrived at the hospital on Saturday afternoon, this tiny lady was there. She was wearing torn clothes, had cataracts in both eyes, no teeth, and her hair was in tangles. She was taking care of our Little Henry. We asked who she was and Mr. Li told us she was the woman who took Henry in up in the mountains. We had not seen this lady before, so we were very curious as to how she came to know our Henry.

She told us how she was the mother of the woman that came in and stayed with Henry for his first surgery. This explained some of it to us and made us feel a little more comfortable with her. Then she began to tell us a story that totally melted our hearts.

Henry had been passed from one family to the next from the time he was born. From his own paternal family to Uncles and Aunts, all the way through ten different families. The last family to have him decided they would do him a favor and save him from a life of shame. They decided that throwing him into the river was the best thing for everyone, so they did. Without another thought, they tossed this little boy into the river, turned and walked away.

Our little woman noticed many people walking past the river and looking, so she decided to take a look too. Half blind with the cataracts in her eyes, she made her way past all the people that stood and stared at this horrible creature. She waded into the water to see what it was that was causing so much fuss. When she saw little Henry, her heart broke. She pulled him out of the river, wrapped him up and took him to her home in the cave. It didn’t matter that he didn’t look pretty, he was a part of life itself and she knew he deserved a chance to live just like anyone else.

How dear this woman must be to our Father, and how touched were our hearts at this story and her courage. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow her all the days of her life.” Moses — how could he have any other name than Moses? Taken from the water by a woman who was not his own mother and given a new life. Thanks to your goodness and the love of our Father, he has been restored to a brand new creature. Serving Him is such a beautiful life and each one of you are sure to be greatly rewarded for your contribution to making this lovely child’s life a better one. I believe that one day, you will all know of this young man. This is just the beginning for him, I know it in my heart.

We want to give you a little insight to this last surgery. You too may feel the happiness that makes your hearts sing and your eyes overflow with tears from the river of joy. He had his second surgery on Saturday afternoon. We went to the hospital as we did before and stayed with him until they came to take him to surgery. It’s sort of funny, he was up and walking around, still in his street clothes and tennis shoes right up until the time when they came to get him. He walked up to the operating room and right in. Things are done so differently here than what we are used to. But our brave young man followed close behind, walking up the stair to his next operation.

He looked back at us a time or two and then disappeared around the corner. We left after they took him into surgery and went back over to see the children. Finally, at about 7:30 that evening, Mr Li called us at the Orphanage while we were having dinner with the children. He told us that Henry was out of surgery, still heavily sedated and sleeping well. He said “The surgery was a great success!” Little Henry was doing fine. Mr Li suggested we go on back to the house and rest since it was already so late. We could see Henry tomorrow.

We were overwhelmed when we walked in the door and saw him laying there sleeping. We were not even sure it was the same little boy to tell you the truth. Had it not been for the stitches in a perfect V-shape between his cute little nose and his perfect little lips. We would have thought it was another child all together. Not even we dared dream that he would look so lovely, but he does!

He is a gorgeous young man. He was in and out of sleep and even tried to smile up at us once or twice when his eyes would open and see us there with him. We were overjoyed. We wanted to jump up and down, to sing and rejoice, to laugh with great triumph for our little Henry. Coming home in the car, we would think about it and laughter would tickle the belly, climb up the throat and spill out of our mouths uncontrollably. It was so wonderful to see such a great miracle. Bless little Henry. His whole life is changed !!!

How can we express our gratitude to you for all that you have done for him? We just don’t know the words to tell you. If you could just see him, if you could touch him the way we can and know how awesome this miracle truly is to this boy. We can only say thank you.. with all our hearts, thank you. We look forward to sending pictures of Henry as he recovers and the success of this last operation becomes clearer and clearer for us to see.

He still has one more surgical procedure to get through, but that will be in about three more months. This will be to repair the tissues inside his nose, between his sinuses and palate. But for the time being, we are quite pleased at the progress he has made and know that this will have a great impact on his life.

Other news to tell you relates to us going back up into the mountains next weekend and seeking out 30 more children for the Orphanage. We have located a new site for housing which is right above the home they have set up for us. The building is new and in good condition. It will house about 50 children and 6 House Mothers nicely. What makes it even nicer is that we will be at the same place they are when we are in town and can spend more time with the children, This makes us very happy !!!!

They tell us they can have this facility ready by the second week of June and move the children in before August. We do not want to actually bring the children down before their schooling for this year is over with. That is why we must wait until August to bring them down. But, this weekend we will begin our search for new Orphans. Please pray for us and hold us up while we are in this phase of searching. We want total direction from our Father and trust that His perfect will shall be done for these precious children here. Thank you again for all that you do, from holding us up in prayer to your awesome contributions and your help in clothing and materials for the children. Every thing is a blessing and will bring great blessings in return we are sure.

As a foot note, I want to tell you of some side plans that we are trying to incorporate into our program here. People like this little woman that pulled our boy from the river are everywhere up in the mountain caves. This little lady is not the only one who has saved a child from death or near death from starvation. We would like to take these children back up into the mountains and deliver staples such as flour, sugar, salt, and rice to some of these people who have kept our Orphans until we could take them into our home. They deserve to be rewarded and I believe that our Father would reward them in such a like manner as to supply them with what they need most, food. Won’t you help us by praying for us and asking direction for us in our new idea?

We appreciate all that you do, truly we do. May our Father bless you richly in your lives and keep His hand ever present in each of your lives. We look forward to seeing you this summer.

Postscript: It is so good to see Henry Moses living in the orphanage now with the other kids. He is still adapting and is still learning how to eat again. But all in all he is doing fine. We were able to take flour, rice, oil, sugar and salt up into the mountains to the old lady that pulled him from the river. She cried and cried and told us that only God could have done such a wonderful thing for Henry Moses… We will return to see her again soon.