GongYi Home of Hope

Greetings from the Home of Hope in GongYi, China.

We are so grateful for your participation as we labor together to raise as many Chinese orphans as we can in excellent health and good character. It is only because of you and others like you that we have been able to keep this work going for the last twelve and a half years. Thank You so much for your generosity and faithfulness!ART CLASSES

A short time before the Chinese National Day,a group of art teachers from ZhengZhou came to see us and asked if they could come and give art classes to our children who were interested,. Wow.. of course we agreed and sure enough they showed up and started teaching our children art.

Almost all the children wanted to join the classes. It was very interested and amazing the talent these children showed! We wish we could show you more pictures but sadly, space doesn’t allow. They will be coming each week and we were pleasantly surprised at the professionalism the teachers have.The children (above) enjoying their art class are: (left to right) Jacob, Abby, Enoch, Beau, Michael and Jenny (hiding behind their fans) and Mitchie.
This week they painted designs on fans. One thing we really like about these teachers; instead of forcing the children to follow so much ‘structure’ they want them to express their own ideas of what something should look like. We think this keeps it much more interesting for the children and is a good way to teach. October 5th, we had to put Moses Xiong En (see pictures above) in the hospital with Pulmonary Pneumonia. The little guy was in the hospital for seven days and was so afraid he wouldn’t be home for his birthday on the 12th. The doctor said he could come home that afternoon and he was so happy. The prognosis is a long up-hill battle though. He has to stay in bed most of each day and we have a village doctor come to hook up the IV that Mosie has to have each day. He will be on this daily routine for at least three weeks and has to go back to the doctor every three days to see how he is doing. With his last X-Ray the doctor was encouraged as it seems the infection has reduced somewhat but it is still there. He will have his next X-Ray in ten days as they don’t want to give him too many. He was so happy to be home for his birthday with his best friends.

For those of you who have not been following the Home of Hope since February 2000, Mosie was the first abandoned baby to come to the Home of Hope. Because the local government was adamant that there was no such thing as abandoned babies in China, we kept him hidden for almost a full year. (Thus the name Moses.)
He came to us with a severe Cleft Lip – Cleft Palate problem and we took him to Beijing for remedial surgery. He has been doing fine but due to the problem remaining from his Cleft Palate condition he is very susceptible to cold, bronchial conditions and lung infections. Please remember him in your prayers, that his recovery will be quick and complete! Several of our children started first grade this year so we went to their school just to see how they are doing. Orphans are usually treated fairly poorly in this rural area but when the teacher and students see the children have an American “Grandpa” things have a tendency to change.

In the pictures above you can see how full the class rooms are in China. Forty to fifty students peer room and per teacher. Also, the children the teacher things highest of or who do the best in class sit on the front row. Ironically, the ones who need the most help, are made to sit on the back row! We were happy to see our little Mary (above right) sitting on the front row, right by the teacher’s desk.

We we have so much more we could share but it is late and we want to get this posted. Nathan had a fairly serious injury to both hands so has not been able to do a lot of work on letters and website for the last couple of weeks.

Again, Thank You for your support and prayers. We say this all the time, but it is continually on our mind so here it goes again… “we just don’t think we could make it without your being part of the Home of Hope.

Blessings!