On Friday, December 30th, to add to the already ‘busy-ness’ and excitement that always surrounds this time of year, we were blessed with a new little girl! (Left)

An elderly couple were out for their early morning walk and found this little one abandoned on the steps of a vacant building.  Of course they were at a loss as to what to do so they took her to their local village doctor who suggested they bring her to the Home of Hope Orphanage.  And we are glad they did!

This little one smiles all the time so we decided to give her the English name “Happy” and her Chinese name is Xiong Le (熊乐) which also means “Happy”.  We took Happy Xiong Le to the hospital as soon as we had her all cleaned up and she was given an excellent report as far as her immediate health is concerned.  One problem… she is has Albinism and so will in all likely hood have some vision problems as she gets older.  It is so cute…. a little Chinese baby with white hair, white skin and red eyes!… along with a normally, bright smile!

We weren’t sure how the staff would accept Happy as this is the first time we have received a child with Albinism and one never ceases to be surprised with some of the local superstitions that surround almost any subject one can imagine!  However, everyone thinks Happy is just adorable and even in the top left corner of this group of snapshots to the right, that is little Morris’ hand holding Happy’s bottle… feeding her!

The doctor guesses that Happy is about three months old so we are designating October 1st as her birthday.  Of course, Happy does not have a sponsor so if you would like to sponsor or support her you can do so by going to our support page on our website at: http://gongyi.homeofhope.org/donations/  Your offering will be greatly appreciated and will go toward giving the child you choose a much better life, full of hope!

MITCHIE LIU FENG NING
The little guy to the left is Mitchie Liu Feng Ning (刘丰宁) who came to us in the Summer of 2011.  His father passed away from muscular distrophy and his mother, though alive, has mental problems brought on by high fever.

Mitchie is a great little guy.  Very smart and gentle.  He likes to observe everything going on around him and is quite adept at getting along with all the other children.

Since he has been at the Home of Hope we have all learned to appreciate his being around and I personally like to catch his ready smile as often as I can!  Welcome Mitchie!

WATER STERILIZER

The Gongyi Home of Hope was blessed by a gift from Dion and George Russell (see the picture of the plaque to the right) a short time ago.  For years we have either had to boil our water or purchase sterilized water for drinking.  Both processes were very costly.  With this new system that was donated to us, the water goes through the sterilizer and is ready for drinking immediately.

We are very grateful for this awesome gift of clean water and this is something that provides benefit to each and every person at the Home of Hope.

Thank You Dion and George Russell!

WE NEED YOUR HELP

We purchased our orphanage van in 2002 and it has been a great workhorse with many, daily trips to school, doctor visits, hospital visits and marketing seven days a week!  The van has had two engine replacements and in general has seen it’s better days.  In addition to that,  China has a law regarding “van type” vehicles that says they must be scrapped after ten years of use.  This means two things that are quite detrimental to us!  First of all, we can’t buy another used vehicle as it too would quickly fall under the 10 year rule.  The second thing is that even though we could cripple along with our present van, the law will make us scrap it Spring of this year.  We have to purchase a new van!  For doing that we need your help.

A new van costs $17,500.00 and the orphanage simply can’t do without a van.  We are shooting for 100 people to give $100.00 each toward the purchase of a new van and 15 people to give $500.00 toward the purchase.  Of course if a person wished to give a different amount, either more or less, that would be greatly appreciated and a great help as well.  This is something we MUST do!  We will be lost without a service van.

Anything you can do, large or small will be so helpful at this time and appreciated more than you will ever know. 

To make a donation please go to our website’s  “Donation”  page.

Blessings and deepest Thanks!

We were also able to finish our stage area in time for the Christmas program – with the bulk of the work being done by ‘David‘ Zhang Hai Tao – a Home of Hope Alumnus and ‘Zak’ Cao Hua Wei, home from college – to go along with the stage curtains we installed last year.

All in all, everyone agreed this was the best Christmas program ever… so far there have been eleven of them… so we want to show you a lot of snapshots and a few film clips from this very special night when we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

‘TWAS’ THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS

About one week before Christmas (on or about the 18th of December) we decided to try to get our stage finished. This has been an ongoing wish-list project for several years now but due to funding it has always been pushed to the bottom of the list.

Last year we were able to open up the wall for the stage area and purchase the curtains but we had to settle for plastic hanging around the area that would ‘someday’ be our stage.

This year, due to some awesome people in a California Church group who donated funds for the children’s Christmas gifts (as we mentioned above), we were able to realize a little relief on our otherwise demanding gift purchasing load (sixty plus people is a large number to buy Christmas gifts for) and so we were able to complete the stage and back and side drops.

“TWAS” THE EVE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (DAY)

All day on the 24th, the Home of Hope was buzzing… little groups here and there practicing their parts of the program. Trying to get everything just right.

In the kitchen, the hustle and bustle was enough to drive a person crazy… So many fancy dishes… and not a Turkey or Sweet Potato or Cranberry Sauce or Pumpkin Pie or Minced Meat Cookie or Fruit Cake to be found among them…. No Mashed Potatoes, no Cornbread Dressing, no Giblet Gravy… oh my what is this world coming to…. But the dishes that were being prepared are some of the most favorite to the Chinese people…

Goat Kebobs, Sweet and Sour Tofu, Peppers stuffed with Pork, Pan Fried Ribbon Fish, Sticky Rice with JuJuBee, Deep Fried Rice Cakes, Fruit Soup, Corned Beef, Dumplings, Chicken and Green Beans just to name a few….

Nathan was making last minute changes to the sound system and lighting and barking orders at everyone else… . It was really an exciting time getting ready for the big evening ahead!

“TWAS” THE BIG CHRISTMAS DINNER

At last it was time for the long anticipate Christmas Dinner which has become the standing tradition for the holidays at the Home of Hope. December 24th is now recognized as the set schedule for our Christmas Dinner and Program. Friends and Home of Hope alumni come from far and near. First there is the dinner, usually at around 5:00 PM and once that is over it is time for the now famous Home of Hope Christmas Program. One of our older children rode a train all night to be here for Christmas Eve!

There isn’t much to say about the pictures above… just one great big and tasty meal with around seventy or more people, young and old, participating.

Prior to eating, Nathan always tells about Christmas and why we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Generally about the time everyone is getting antsy and really wanting to eat, he winds down, offers Grace and then everyone digs in!

‘TWAS’ THE HOH CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

Our Christmas dinner started right at 5:30 PM and by around 7:00 PM people were finishing up and we were getting the big multi purpose room set up for the evening’s Christmas Program.


The first act up was by some of our 3rd and 4th grade children (the ones who are taught here at the Home of Hope) and they performed a dance to “Who is the King of the Jungle”. We loved it when the answer came back, “J – E – S – U – S”! This particle dance was performed by Mosie, Ruthie, Rose and Autumn – all abandoned babies and what fine children they are growing up to be!

The following are just a lot of snapshots taken during the evening…

FILM CLIPS FROM THE 2011 HOME OF HOPE CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

The raw footage of the movies taken during the Christmas Programs were over three hours. Thanks to Brian Ren Bin Ke (another one of the Home of Hope alumni) for taking the movies. However, there is no way we can put all of that on our web site so we have made four clips… each one is around five to six minutes just giving some hi-lites of the program.

We hope you enjoy!
Blessings!
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The Last Days of Summer
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Just click on the little black arrow at the bottom of the screen above and the film will start. You need to have Flash Player installed on your system to be able to play the video. If you don’t have Flash Player on your system you can download it -click here- for free.

A little before noon, Bob Sayre pulled into the GongYi Home of Hope yard with quite a few of the XuZhou children. The rest of them will be arriving by train later this evening or in the morning. They are being escorted by Kelly, the XuZhou HOH assistant administrator.

About twenty minutes later, Ben and Michelle arrived with their children from the PingYu Home of Hope! All of a sudden the GongYi Home of Hope tripled in size! Of course we were ready for them and so excited for their welcomed arrival.

Pre Camp – Registration, Room Assignments, and Fun!

Day Two – Day one of the schedule

Please click on the “Play” button below to see some snapshots of our activities on the 2nd day of the Home of Hope Summer Youth Camp!

We had face painting, “T” shirt painting, more swimming of course, divided the children into teams, some weird “Kleenex” box… “shake the ping pong balls out” game along with good quality teaching and character building.

Ben and Michelle Godard, administrators of the PingYu Home of Hope are in charge of the planning and implementation of the Youth Camp and they are doing an awesome job! Bob Sayre and Nathan Bell do what we can to help but they are the driving force that makes this go each year! Yeah!!!! Ben and Michelle!
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Day Three – Day two of the schedule

Today was water day and it was planned and scheduled to get everyone wet… and that is exactly how it turned out!

The day was hot and so the ‘getting wet’ part didn’t bother anyone… in fact it was quite enjoyable…

There was one activity that involved the children dividing up into their three teams (GIFT, POP and FIRE) and passing water balloons to the head of the line where Bob Sayre (XuZhou Administrator), Nathan Bell (GongYi Administrator and founder of the Home of Hope Orphanages) and Ben Godard (PingYu Administrator) were seated… one in front of each line.

The objective of this exercise was to get the water filled balloon to the front of the line and then break it over the administrator’s head, covering him with water.

When the balloon got there the captain of that team would then break the water balloon over the administrator’s head and it would count as one point.

Of course many of the balloons broke along the way so everyone got a little wet but for sure, Bob, Nathan and Ben got the brunt of the dousing! “Water Boarding” for sure!

We hope you enjoy this slide show.
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The last day – Sunday, July 24, 2011

The children lined up right after breakfast and it was already hot. They were told about today’s schedule and then were all given popsicles… and they had a hard time eating them before they melted… (Oh for yesterday’s water games!)

Next came an activity that ended up touching my heart too the core.

First of all each child was given an envelope and were told to decorate it nice and pretty and then to place their name on the envelope in a very VISIBLE location.

Once all the envelopes were done, the Captains of each team hung the envelopes on the windows in the play room. These are the “You are Special cause you are Loved!” envelopes.

Then the children were told by clear explanation that throughout the day, anytime…. anyone could write a short note and tell why he/she liked you so much and slip it into the envelope of the child they were writing to.

The touching part is shown so well in the picture below.

The center picture is of one little girl who gazed at the envelopes for a long, long time. We couldn’t help but wonder what was going through her little mind! Maybe, “I have never been told I was special before…” or “Will someone really write me a letter and tell me I am special and they love me?…”

We often need to remind ourselves what these children have gone through and what they HAVE NOT had in their lives that so many of us take for granted! Like ‘being loved’… ‘being thought of as special’….’being cared for’…. if nothing else, ‘just being liked for who I am!’

Later others were seen staring and looking for their own messages… Everyone needs a little love! That’s for sure!
Other Activities
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This concludes our coverage of the Home of Hope, 2011 Summer Youth Camp.

We hope you have enjoyed your visit! We apologize for the lack of professionalism in the creation of the film clips and snapshots, but our specialty is in ‘children’ not journalism! Thank You for understanding.

NEW BEDS FOR THE CHILDREN

Some time ago we realized the children’s beds were in dire need of replacement. Some more than others, as you can probably imagine. After ten years of use, all the beds at the Gongyi Home of Hope have started to deteriorate in various degrees of wear. Fortunately, a church in California along with a kind lady in Mississippi provided the funds for new beds.

Interestingly enough, providing beds for over fifty children is not something that is easily accomplished. There are no wholesale houses where one can go order fifty or sixty beds and to achieve any kind of quality (greatly needed due to being used by a lot of energetic children) one has to make sure the materials being used are good enough to provide long term use.

This was not the first time we have had to replace beds. The end of 2008 we had to replace quite a few of our beds which had already deteriorated beyond use. The funding for that project came from a church in Texas and was greatly appreciated. This time however, all the remaining beds needed to be replaced.

To insure the quality of materials, we first had to go to the lumber mill and order the milling of the wood to our specifications. One thing neat about this is, we see the actual log the material is going to come out of before the milling process starts.




Once the timber is milled, we go through it, one piece at a time, selecting the wood we can use and rejecting that which has large knots or splits or pockets of sap. We then pay for what we take based on a pricing schedule similar to that calculated on “board feet”. Of course here they use the metric system.

Once the wood is selected, it is loaded on carts pulled by donkeys and hauled several killometers to the wood working factory where it will be processed into the final beds.

This takes quite a few trips by donkey carts. No matter how long we are here, we never get used to seeing the contrast of heavy laden donkey carts going down the State highway along side modern busses, trucks and cars.

We always have quite a bit of sympathy for the donkeys because we know their fate! Once they are old and can’t work any longer they are then butchered and used for meat dishes. Quite tasty actually! (Grin)

HOME OF HOPE PING PONG TOURNAMENT

In China, the main time of celebration is the Chinese New Years, often referred to as “Spring Festival”. This celebration/holiday is scheduled based on the Lunar calendar, so as far as the Western calendar is concerned, it never comes on the same date. This year it actually starts on the 14th of February (Valentines Day).

During this time, everything shuts down (we mean everything except emergency services) for a minimum of five days starting with the first day of the holiday. The schools also shut down for at least a month so right now, all the Home of Hope children are home including all the college kids.

This allows us to have many activities with all the children which is somewhat difficult to do during the school year. A typical day during the normal school year, the high school and middle school students get home after 6:30 PM (leaving for school between 5:30 and 6:00 AM) and of course the college kids only come home on special occasions.

Shortly after Christmas, we decided to have a Ping Pong tournament, open to all the children and based on a handicap system to make it as fair as possible for each child. Almost all the boys and several of the girls signed up for the tournament. Nathan was the judge and Ben Godard (the director of the Home of Hope #3 in PingYu) helped with the score keeper chores, as we had two tables going at the same time. We want to do this again during this New Years break!

Those children not actually playing in the tournament came to watch, so we had a large gallery of ‘observers’ cheering on the participants.

Above right, are the three finalists, (left to right) Wayne Li Meng Di, John Yao Shu Xing and Adam Zhang Lang. We were all quite impressed with their skills at the game. John has grown so tall over the last year and it seemed as if he had no equal with his ability to reach all areas of the playing surface.

Wayne is a different type of player. Nothing fancy but with a serious and steady defense. Adam is a very aggressive player using a lot of English and slams. This made for a very interesting series of play-off games.

In the end it came down to a final play-off game between John and Wayne.
Initially, we were a little worried that no matter how hard we tried, the hanidicap system we were using wouldn’t give each child an equal shot a victory, but it really worked out well.

The final series of games between John and Wayne were very close with the point spread of the scores being just a few points seperating the two.

John came out on top as the winner of the tournament and all the children said they wanted us to do it again very soon with many of the girls saying they would join in the fun the next time..

We hope you enjoyed this update. We will be bringing you more stories and information during and after the Chinese New Years Holidays. (Spring Festival) Blessings!

We had to go to Hong Kong to do some work with the Chinese Consulate regarding our long term visas and when we got back, our car which we left at the airport, had over fourteen inches of snow built up on it. Amazing for our area.

In the picture above and left to right are Ruthie, Gracie, Mary in the front… Rose in the back, Autumn, Abby Joy and Isaac with Mosie behind Autumn and Rose.

The following Slideshow was made from pictures taken over a 48 hour period while the snow was falling and getting deeper and deeper.

If it hasn’t already done so, this Slideshow may take a couple of minutes to download, depending on your server speed, but it is well worth the wait.

Sweet Potato Harvest

The children love to cook their own sweet potatoes over an open fire. I suppose one would call that “roasted” or some thing like that. Anyway, to make them even better, they grow their own. We haven’t actually taken a count but it seems like they harvest them about two or three times a year.

However, we have noticed that one of the motivations for their getting out and harvesting what is ready is more than the desire to have roasted sweet potatoes.

Our small truck farm area is not fenced and since this is a social country, everything belongs to everyone. About the time we notice increased activity with the local villagers coming to our sweet potato patch and gathering potatoes for themselves, the Home of Hope children get out and have a major harvest. Makes sense to us.

“Rachel, Rachel” – “Come here Ye Ye”

It wasn’t long ago that little Rachel (abandoned at our gate at birth) would burst into tears whenever Ye Ye would come around. We often thought it was because she associated spending time with Ye Ye to her trips to Beijing for surgery. Now it is totally opposite. Every time she sees Ye Ye (Nathan) anywhere, she calls to him to come and play or hold her or whatever.

This time Nathan was walking down the hall outside the Nursery and she saw him and (even though it was nap time) she jumped up and started calling out to Ye Ye to come and play. Nathan was on the way to take some pictures so had his camera and grabbed a couple of shots in passing! What a doll!

Of course Aaron (also abandoned at our gate at birth) was also awake and started laughing and begging to have his picture taken as well so he was accommodated! It is such a joy to watch these little “Real People” grow and develop their own individual personalities, habits and traits. Fun and heart warming beyond imagination!

“We need your help!”

Hard times have come on the Home of Hope orphanages primarily due to the economic slowdowns in the countries where our support comes from. At the same time, strong inflation is hitting China and the dollar to RMB exchange rate is depreciating. We are in the process of determining where we can cut back on less critical operational expenses while at the same time the start up of the PingYu facility is taking off this month. We could use your help. You can go to our “Donate Now” page to make a contribution. Anything you can do to help the work here, either large or small, will be greatly appreciated.

Thank You and blessings!

Let it Snow!

All winter long the children have been asking and asking when it was going to snow. Unlike past winters when we received more than our share of snow, rain and heavy winds, this winter has simply been cold. Nothing more. No snow.. very little rain or drizzle… some high winds but not even enough of that to talk about… just cold, cold, cold! We were very aware of that too because our utility costs (heating and hot water) have been way up this winter. Finally on the 27th of February it started to drizzle and then a short time later it turned into a very minor snow.

School had already started back up so the only children here during the daytime were the children in our own school and our kindergarten. The kindergarten children were not allowed outside due to the extreme cold but we did let our first graders who were not down with colds go out to enjoy what little bit of the snow they could. The fact that there was only 1/2″ to 3/4″ of snow didn’t matter to them at all. In no time there were small snowballs flying around as well as Jaxin Godard (Ben and Michelle Godard’s son), Moses Xiong En, Ruthie Xiong Shan, and Autumn Xiong Duo had built a small snowman complete with eyes, ears, nose and mouth they had fabricated from sticks and other things they had found.

Even though it has been many years and a long time since we have felt the excitement at seeing snow the way six, seven and eight year olds do, their joy was contagious and so we thought we would share it with our readers.

New Year’s Fireworks

Another part of the ‘wind-down’ to New Years or as they say in China, “the beginning of Spring” (though it sure doesn’t feel like it right now) is the annual fireworks display the Government puts on for the people of Gongyi and the surrounding villages.

It is one of the most amazing displays we have ever seen before coming to China. Of course we have read that fireworks have their origin in China (true or not we don’t know for sure) so it is only natural they would have a great show. There were major fireworks going off constantly for the better part of an hour. There was even one that when it exploded way up in the heavens, dropped hundreds of glowing lanterns as well as many designs in the sky including hearts and such developed from the exploding pieces. Everyone had a great time!

Hazel Goes to Beijing

A long time ago we started our children’s e-mail pen pal program and it wasn’t long until a lovely couple in Germany made contact with Hazel Ge Hua Zhi. They have built a great relationship over time and when the couple decided to come to China for a visit they called us and asked if Hazel could spend a few days with them while they were here. We agreed.

Hazel went to Beijing to meet her friends and she had a great time! We are sure she had never seen anything like what she experienced in Beijng. From the nice hotel she stayed in to the love she was shown by a couple she had only met via e-mail.

…. from the Grand Piano they had in the lobby of the hotel they stayed in where she was allowed to show what she has learned on the piano, to actually being able to visit the Great Wall of China… a dream never realized by many Chinese people.

Hazel came back with many great experiences to share with us! We were really glad she had a chance to make the trip!

We hope you have enjoyed this short update. We will add more very soon.

If you would like to contribute to the lives of the children of the Home of Hope, please go to our donations page.

At about 8:30 AM our gate guard called and said he had found a bundle outside the gate. We hurried over and there it was! All wrapped up in six layers of blankets to shield it from the cold (it was about zero outside). As is our custom we asked the guard many questions about where the bundle was laying and if he saw anyone drop it off and so on.

We slowly started to unwrap the bundle and our normal concerns and apprehensions set in as they always do. “What would we find?” “Would the baby be healthy?” “Would the baby be cleft lip?” Would the baby fall under the parameters that we have to follow regarding the health of the babies we can keep and the ones we are not able to help?”

All of these questions as we unwrapped layer after layer until finally a little head appeared. Right away we could see this little one was cleft lipped but we still didn’t know about the condition of it’s palate so we kept removing blankets and then it’s baby clothes until we could check everything on “his” (turned out to be a little, baby boy) little body.
Ten toes, eight fingers and two thumbs… Good! Legs seem sound… Hands and arms seem normal… no “birth trauma” visible to his little head. Just the cleft lip problem… Now let’s make him cry so we can see inside his mouth.

He wouldn’t cooperate at first but finally he did and there it was… the cleft palate. This is something we have grown accustomed to seeing after these many years in China, and it is something that is very treatable with surgery and help with learning to speak clearly.

We were actually quite happy to see this because it is rare for 100% healthy babies to be abandoned at our gate. We have had several but most of the time the abandoned little ones have some type physical problem.

This last six months has been extremely hard on us as we have had eight babies abandoned at our gate who have either passed away shortly after being discovered or had a major physical problem that we are not equipped to deal with or which are not allowed to keep based on our agreements with the government.

That is why when we discovered this little guy had a cleft lip – cleft palate problem we felt some sense of relief since this is an operable situation and in our experience the cleft lip – cleft palate babies are usually pretty healthy other than that single, small problem. The most difficult part of the cleft palate baby is in the feeding while they are still in the “new born” stage. They have to drink their formula very slowly so they often fall asleep before they have taken in as much as they should.

In the picture above you can see the small note and the 100 Yuan bank note that was found inside the baby’s blankets. The note asks us to take care of the baby with love and kindness and states that he was born five days before which puts his birthday at January 15th, the same birthday as Nathan’s father. Since we already have a child named John, we decided to call him Morris after Nathan’s father’s middle name. His Chinese name is Xiong Hui (Full of light) not to be confused with “Charity”. Charity’s name is also Xiong Hui (Virtuous) but the Chinese character’s are different giving the two names two entirely different meanings.

If you would like to contribute to the life of Morris Xiong Hui and be involved with him from the very beginning you can do so by going to our donations site.

New Years Fun

Those of you who have been part of the Home of Hope family for several years are aware that Chinese New Years is the biggest time of celebration in China. During the New Years “week” those Home of Hope children who have friends or distant family in the villages where they came from, go back to visit for a day or two.

Those Home of Hope children who have no known family or village roots don’t go anywhere during this time so we always try to do something special for them. This year a new “arcade” facility opened in Gongyi and we decided to take the children there for an afternoon of fun and games.

As you can see in the picture above as well as the following pictures, they really had a good time. There were bumper cars, air hockey, several different types of rides and other games to play.

When it came time to leave, the owner said he wanted to donate the fee as a New Years gift to the Home of Hope. So nice!

Temporary Workers!

In keeping with the New Year’s Holiday, we try to allow our staff as much time off as possible so during the days when some of the children go back to their villages to visit… a time when our work load demand is not as great, we allow some of the staff to have off as well. However, it leaves a condition of not being so fair as they all want time off, but we can’t accommodate everyone because this is an orphanage and demands 24 hours a day service from the work force.

To alleviate the problem and keep all the staff happy, this year we called on our eleven college students to work during the New Year’s… which several of them with no place to go, gladly agreed to do.

Hank, Brian and David took care of the kitchen duties while Julie, Logan, Holly, Esther and Linda helped out in the nursery and also in taking care of the younger children who have moved out of the Nursery. We were so proud of these young people as they did an amazing job! Actually, better than the staff in some areas!

Logan on the left, Esther on the right

Holly Hou San Juan on the left, Julie Zhang Yan Yan on the right

Hank on the left, Nathan and David on the right

We want to again express our deepest appreciation for your prayers and support. These last few months have been quite a challenging time for us with both social and financial adversities brought on by the current economic situations in China, the States and other parts of the world. It is such a comfort to know you are standing with us and are a true part of the work here. The efforts we put forth together are already starting to show great results in the lives of our children.

Thank you so much! From all of us here in China, to you and yours!

We send you best wishes for this New Year and pray that God will bless you abundantly….. As the Chinese New Year’s greeting says… “Good Health, Good Success, Great Happiness and Good Luck!”… in other words.. “Be Blessed!”

A few days ago, Michael Yang Wen Bo (11 years old), Calvin Ge Hua Wei (14 years old), Peter Ma Hong Qi (10 years old) and Joseph Li Shi Yan (13 years old) decided to play “hooky” from school in the afternoon.

As he does everyday, our bus driver took them to school (along with the other children) and dropped them off at the front of the school and watched them all walk toward the main building. Little did he know that as soon as he drove away, the “Fearsome Foursome” turned and ran to a construction site near their school where they encountered a challenging wall to climb. Very soon, climbing wasn’t enough and their outing turned to the game “King of the Mountain”. As anyone who has ever played “King of the Mountain” knows, if your on top, everyone is going to try to make you go to the bottom. That is what happened to Calvin Ge Hua Wei and the result was two broken arms. He is recovering just fine!

Prayer/Memory Bracelet

Above is a picture of our Home of Hope Prayer/Memory Bracelet which we would like to send to all our Home of Hope friends while supply lasts. On one side is our web site address and on the other side the words “Home of Hope”. There are three sizes available. Large and medium for adults and small for children.

If you would like to receive your own bracelet to help remember us and as a reminder to pray for us, please drop us a note to:

Home of Hope Orphanage
DufuBan, YongAn Lu, LiGou Cun
Gongyi Shi, Henan 451200
China

Please include your mailing address and indicate quantity, color and size, we would love to send this to you to keep as a daily reminder that you are part of the Home of Hope in China. (Limit four per household please. Organizations i.e. churches and clubs can request larger quantities.)

It has been quite some time since we included any pictures of the area we live and work in. Needless to say, in keeping up with the rapid economic growth in China, Gongyi has also developed quite a bit in the nine years we have been here. Of course, the growth is mostly in the government sector while the individual people have seen little by way of personal economic growth. Lack of employment and poverty still abounds in our area.

Whenever we go out to take pictures we cannot help but take a few snaps of the elderly around the area. One can’t help but wonder what all is stored in their memories… from the last Emperor in China, the Cultural Revolution and now the modernization of China. One thing they always ask is “How much do I have to pay you to take my picture?” When we tell them “nothing” they give us a large, toothless smile and then offer their best pose.

In the two above, notice the silver bracelets on the elderly lady. This indicates she is not from such a poor family. We do see this occasionally but not so often.

Unlike most homes in the Western Culture, the common Chinese house has little by way of amenities. Consequently during summer and winter, the older people spend most of their daylight hours sitting around outside, visiting with friends and neighbors and playing Mahjong or Chinese Chess.

The two ladies above agreed to let me take their picture. As you can see, the one on the left was very shy and the one on the right seemed a little angry that I wasn’t paying her for taking her picture!

Of course these two men are spending their day playing chess. You can see these two men at the same place day after day doing the same thing.

The following pictures give one a glimpse of how the 21st Century is rapidly covering up the ancient landmarks in our area.

If you look at the above pictures very carefully, you will see how modern development (in this case, the valley is being filled with dirt in preparation for some high rise buildings – top picture) is moving in and covering up the old cave dwellings. A small truck farm is being covered up along with some additional cave dwellings and cave storage facilities in the middle picture and in the bottom picture a High School that was built about thirty years ago is also going by the way of modernization development. Until last year some of our children attended this same High School.

Additional Snapshots

On the left is a “Cabbage” delivery truck and on the right is a common Gongyi taxi. Also, many people who are out of work and yet own motorcycles wait on the street corners and give people rides to the destination of their choice for a few Yuan less than what a “taxi” would charge.

Surprise Visitors

Last Saturday morning, quite early, there was a knock on our door. No knowing who was there, we decided to surprise the person by opening the door with camera in hand.

As it turned out it was Julie, David and Brian visiting from college for the weekend. We were so happy to see them!

We hope you enjoyed this update. Thank you for visiting.

As soon as the children start getting out of school for the summer, we not only do chores together but we play together as well. Some of the things we do are preliminary trials of some of the activities at the youth camp.

David (on the left) has the part time job of being pond/pool guard when the children nine and under are enjoying the water. We have various scheduled times when the children ten and over can swim… nine and under can swim and certain times are set aside for the nursery children and their house nannies.

David does not need to be on guard while the ten and above children are swimming since the pool/pond is only two and a half feet deep in the deepest part so during those times he continues to work on other maintenance items at the Home of Hope although part of his pool/pond guard duties include keeping the water “skimmed”, checking the chlorination and PH balance three times a day and keeping the bottom vacuumed.

Of course like children the world over, the Home of Hope children love playing in the water. Above two pictures show Jaxin and Eli Godard, Moses and Isaac in the water while the older boys (not their turn) look on.

Sack Races, Human Wheel Barrow Races,Tug-of-war, Watermelon Eating Contest and Spin around the Stick

Most of the following pictures are self explanatory showing the activities we had one afternoon to celebrate the children being out of school for the summer. (Sack races… no sacks… just one foot of each person tied to the other person’s foot)

Adam and Mathew………………………………….Zak and Bruce

Mosie and Jaxin……………………………………….Ruthie and Joy

Isaac, Autumn, Mosie and Jaxin…………………Mosie and Jaxin

Autumn and Rose, Isaac and Grace…………..Michael and Tony

Mathew and Adam…………………………………..Lily and Rena

Heidi and Shirley………………………………………Shirley and Autumn

Mosie and Jaxin (Tony in back)…………………Vincent and Joseph

Adam with the ball…………………………………..Whole group watching a “swisher”!

The following pictures show a new game we had not played before at the Home of Hope. It was introduced by Christopher Green (shown in the pictures), a short term volunteer. The children really bonded with him.

The game is a lot of fun in that the child has to put his nose on the end of the stick as shown and then walk round and round the stick. It seems the object of the game is to walk until one falls down from dizziness… however, we think there was some type competition involved… we just could not figure out what it was.

Gracie‘s turn……………………………………………Isaac’s turn

Ruthie’s turn……………………………………………Joy’s turn

Dizzy Enough Already!

Can you handle it Zak?……………………………..I think I can

No hands Henry……………………………...………Now it’s a race!

Enough! Enough… No more watermelon please! I’m stuffed!

Thank You for visiting our short excursion into the Home of Hope early summer. We hope you enjoyed your visit and we hope you come back again soon!

Thank You!