GongYi Home of Hope

CHRISTMAS 2012
A huge “XIE XIE” (Thank You) to all of you who made the 2012 Home of Hope Christmas an awesome occurrence.

Even though the weather, the local electric company and the local gas company did every thing possible to insure we did not have a Christmas, We did have it!

Sorta of made us think of the movie, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” only with the name being changed to “How China Stole Christmas”… But, We did have it!
On Christmas Eve, the electric company decided to turn off the electric to our entire area for some construction modifications and the outage was to last for a minimum of three days.

Consequently our water pumps wouldn’t work and the gas company had to shut down the sub-station that serves our area so our heating system (hot water and steam) wouldn’t work either. No lights… only candles… no water… only bottled drinking water and no heat…

Of course we couldn’t prepare a large Christmas dinner under those conditions so we found a hotel who had a banquet room free for the night of Christmas Eve so we completely changed our otherwise “normal routines” to fit with the current mini crisis!

We got all the children together around 3:00 in the afternoon, had the Christmas Story and then opened the gifts.

A Sunday School group from California had sent the funds for Winter Coats, Hats and Shoes for most of the children and the balance of the funds needed to cover the total costs were met by individual donors from across America. To those of you who participated, we shout a huge “Thank You”!

We saved our normal Christmas program and performances for the dinner we were having at the local hotel.

This is China, so we never know who is going to show up for Christmas… both for the program, the opening of gifts and the dinner.

As our staff makes purchases and orders special foods and snacks for the program, word gets out that we are having another “Christmas Party” and people just show up. We always prepare “Extra” gifts and extra food for this very reason. Also, all the employees are encouraged to bring their family to join in our celebration of the birth of Jesus which they always do. This year we served more than 100 people on Christmas Eve. This is an excellent opportunity to tell the true story and meaning of Christmas.

Our older children, who have finished college and joined the general work force as productive adults living in various places in China, also came. It was so nice to see them all and have a complete compliment of the Home of Hope children with us at this time.

There were only four children who did not make it. Esther who is expecting her first child and lives in Beijing, Holly who is in Europe, David who is working in ShangHai and couldn’t get off from work and Dean who was also working.

When we made arrangements with the hotel to use their banquet room (the room was free as long as they served the dinner) we picked out the food we thought everyone would like. This WAS NOT the normal Christmas Dinner fare by Western standards… but they were foods commonly eaten by the Chinese people during times of celebrations, so it worked out fine.

Here are some of the dishes that were served!

After the meal was served and everyone had finished eating, we had several presentations done by the children. It was neat to see, even the older children participated in presenting performances to everyone!

Again, Thank You so much for your support, both financially and in Prayer. We hope you have enjoyed this small glimpse into our GongYi Home of Hope Christmas!

Blessings!