In Abby Joy’s case, there were only three nuns left at the convent where she was dropped off, and from what we could determine, the youngest of the nuns was over seventy five years old. The nuns cared for her for a few days but quickly realized they weren’t able to give her the proper attention she needed, especially with her cleft condition, so they called and asked if we could take her in. Of course we were happy to comply and Abby Joy has been here with us ever since. The nuns still come to visit her about two times a year but now there are only two left and we know that soon the other two will be gone as well. When they do pass on, the convent will be closed. Abby Joy is a “joy” to have around!

CHILDREN’S DAY

The Chinese are really big on Children’s day and so the various schools our children attend had parties and shows to commemorate this year’s “Day of the Child”. We elected to show our representation at the Kindergarten children’s show and it was really neat.

To the left are Ron and Caleb performing a Kung Fu routine all children are taught in Chinese schools.

Here the children are performing some type of dance with Mary taking center stage. She has come a long way from the little newborn abandoned at our gate with a foot twisted around to more than 90 degrees!

All of the children had some part in the program but since there was so much movement we weren’t able to get very many good pictures. It was cute to see who was afraid or shy and who was ready to just jump out front and be part of everything. It is such a thrill to watch as each year brings a new dimension into the personality of each child as they grow, develop and learn new things!

In this picture are (left to right) Dawn, Jacob, one of their classmates and Rachel. We think the little guy toward the back with his back to the camera is Beau. With his hearing impairment, he often just dances to his own music. He really is a neat kid! His picture is also the fourth one down on the right (above).

It looks a little bit like Dawn and Jacob are having a conversation between themselves which one could imagine goes something like… “Do we really want to go out there in front of all those people?”

Next year, Morris will be in Kindergarten so we will be doing this all over gain.

APPRECIATION – We are so grateful for your willingness to join with us in making the Home of Hope Orphanages a success. Thank you so much for your contributions in keeping this awesome work going from month to month and year to year. We know there are times when it is very difficult for you, as we know you have many other obligations. Yet you continue to sacrifice for the children of rural China who, without your compassion and help, would never know the meaning of “Hope”.

We hope you have enjoyed another small glimpse into life at the Home of Hope orphanage in GongYi, China. We covet your prayers as we continue to serve the children in rural China. We just received an email from a lady who has been wanting to help us establish the next Home of Hope in a Jewish settlement near Kaifeng. We have mentioned this before and thought that perhaps it was not going to materialize but now it appears things could begin to move ahead rather quickly.

Again, Thank You for all you do for the less fortunate children of China!

Yesterday, our first and second grade tutors asked if they could take the children to the park for their PE and Study Hall classes and we agreed as long as they would take the camera and get a few pictures of the children during the outing. They did and we thought we would post some of them.

In the picture above we are focusing on, left to right – Autumn, Rose, Ruthie, Isaac and Moses. These children were all newborns, abandoned and either found on the street by the police and brought to us, or abandoned at our gate, usually during the night hours.

We want to “thank” those who have helped with ‘contributions of love’ for the Home of Hope this month and over the years. Lately, we have felt the pressure of the combination of continuing our current growth at the existing facilities while at the same time gearing up for the ‘Start Up’ of PingYu. However, we feel strongly that this is the time and place for the third Home of Hope and as we continue to believe for guidance in this project we know that provisions will come in.

Your participation in the Vision for the lost and needy from the mountains and rural area of Gongyi is so greatly appreciated and though we say this a lot, we know that without your involvement in the work here, we could not continue, so again, Thank You!

We thought we would show you one more picture from the field trip with insets of each child when they first came to the Home of Hope so you can see just how much your contributions toward their life has truly accomplished. These little guys are smart, loving and just exciting to be around. You have not only made their life possible but have also made it possible for each one of them to have the surgeries necessary to take care of the various reasons they were abandoned in the first place.

Watching them grow and sharing God’s love with them is another reason why we are so very appreciative for your helping to make all of this possible.

Thank You and Blessings!

P.S. – As a footnote, the weather bureau says that day after tomorrow the temperatures are suppose to drop over forty degrees. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Can I do this? – I can try! – Now what? – Don’t Roll, Don’t Roll! – I did it! Yeah!

Just assuming what might have been going through Rachel’s little mind as we took snapshots of her struggling to stand up astride the ball. She has come so far since that day she was abandoned and left to die with such a terrible cleft lip / palate condition.

Thank you so much for those of you who shared offerings of love to help with Rachel‘s expenses. We so appreciate your willingness to sacrifice and to partner with us as we work to bring light, hope and hapiness to these children (and staff) who would otherwise never have had the opportunity to even know about such things.

We had a couple of birthdays since our last update and thought to share them with you. On the left above is Abby Joy – Miao Yin who was abandoned at a Buddhist convent up in the Gongyi mountains and the nuns there were too old to care for her so they called us. What a delightful child.

On the right above is Rose Xiong Ai. When we look at Rose we always feel there is a special connection between her and Bob Sayre (the administrator of our XuZhou Home of Hope) in that Rose was “distressed” at our gate at just several hours old the same day that Bob Sayre showed up to visit us.

We knew that he already had a desire to serve in China but seeing a tiny baby traumatized like that, first hand, simply affects a person beyond belief. Just to look at that tiny body laying there and realizing she is a real person… a real life and she (or he) has just been thrown away to real uncertainty simply because of a minor physical problem (in both these cases it was a cleft lip/palate condition) and realize, now you are part of the ‘saving’ of this helpless baby… knowing that you are part of not only giving this newborn ‘life’ but also taking him/her out of the clutches of death and giving them a great chance at a future with Hope, Truth and Love included! It goes without saying that Bob was greatly impacted by this experience and he is still serving in China today!

In keeping with the same topic about the babies in stress, the picture above was also taken at Rose’s birthday.
You can see Ben Godard (Ben and Michelle with their three small boys are here training to be the administrators for Home of Hope Number 3 when it opens later this year.) leaning over and helping Rose. You can also see his son Tyler’s face just below Ben’s nose.

Other than Ben and Tyler, all the other faces you see in this picture are those newborns who came to us without hope of a future or even remaining alive. Through the efforts of the Home of Hope and your sacrificial generosity in helping us remain a source of life to these children, they are thriving, growing strong in body, character and spirit. Actually the children you see here are representative of only a fourth of our baby population.

GRADUATION

Lest people forget, we also have children who have been with us since February 2000. These children do grow up and as they do we are deeply involved in helping them make life long decisions about their future.

At the left is Hank Cao Hai Kui who was in our first group of twelve children to come to the Home of Hope in 2000. We will be having other children graduate during the next twelve months but Hank is our first!

Hank’s graduation on June 10th became a milestone at the Home of Hope! After 9 ½ years of caring and teaching – crying and laughing – Home of Hope saw it’s first child graduate from college.

Hank joined the Home of Hope in February of 2000. As is the case with most children in his situation, he had many issues, fears and pre-set notions about his future. All negative!

We so clearly remember the look of disbelief and doubt when we told him we wanted him to graduate from college so he needed to pay attention to his studies and focus on getting good grades. Even at his young age, he knew this kind of thing just did not happen to someone from his status in society. But it did happen and now he is starting to study for the English TOFEL test which he must pass in order to continue with his goal of graduating from a seminary in Portland, Oregon. Successful completion of the TOFEL is a requirement for foreign students by both the US Department of Immigration and the college in Portland.

It was a proud day for us and a very happy day for Hank.

During the next six months as he is studying for his TOFEL exam he will also be working at the Home of Hope helping with English translations and teaching the younger children. Please remember Hank as he sets out on his life’s adventures and seeks for the best in his life!

Thank You for visiting our web site. We hope you enjoyed your visit and we will be updating again soon!

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.

This is our second year to have our Home of Hope Summer Camp which is when we bring all the Home of Hope children (from both XuZhou and GongYi) and many of the employees together for one week of fun activities, corporate teaching on character and social graces.

After last years Summer Camp we realized that our older children had different needs than our younger children so were faced with the dilemma of what to do to satisfy everyone, across the board.

We decided to use the college age children… both those currently attending college and those just graduated from High School and headed to college this fall… as Summer Camp councilors and leaders. Of course this means their part of the Summer Camp will be “all work” and “no play” which according to myth makes “Johnny a dull boy”!

Ben and Michelle Godard came up with a great plan! We decided that the week before the Summer Camp was to begin we would take the college age children to Green Dragon Mountain for a three day retreat… camping, playing, studying, eating and enjoying the out of doors together.

The following are several groupings of snapshots taken during those three days…

Green Dragon Mountain Scenery

Green Dragon Mountain is about twenty five miles from the Gongyi Home of Hope. It is a beautiful place and actually is a reserve for a famous Buddhist Temple. The area is a paradise of huge mountains, deep valleys and many lakes and brooks that wind their way through the valleys. It is always an enjoyable and relaxing trip to go there and escape the teeming population and noise one finds in most places in China.

We thought we would include a few snapshots of the scenery at Green Dragon Mountain… although pictures cannot do it justice!

Water Fun

Green Dragon Mountain has a main “Brook”, “Creek” or “Small River” whichever you elect to use running through it’s entirety. There are a series of small dams that have been installed over the years so this has developed into accessible flowing water along with quite a few nice lakes to swim in.

As is the case most of the time with children and young people… they can’t wait to get into the water on a hot summer day!

Get on your mark! Get set! Go!

Julie on the left….. Sam on the right

David on the left…. Holly, Esther, David and Julie

Esther on the left…. Holly on the right….

Julie on the left…. David on the right….

Above six pictures: David and his Olympic Style Diving!

Jim on the left…. Paul on the right….

Joey on the left…. David on the right….

Logan on the left…. Holly on the right….

Tall Pictures

Every time we have activities, our pictures are taken by different people to get a varied perspective of the activities. Invariably, we get pictures that are good but are taken with the camera turned sideways. This process does offer a different view of things but these type pictures don’t lend themselves to an easy fit on our web site… We thought it would be interesting to show some of these this time around… Here they are!

Esther in front of the entrance to Green Dragon Mountain – Jim “Wall Sitting”

David – A Tarzan “wanna be”?

Holly on the left – David on the right!

Logan on the left – Esther on the right

Logan – Always pretty with her smile and dimples

More of David – One of the last of the Mohicans?

Holly bringing up the rear of the hike? – Logan, Julie, Holly and Esther

Other Activities

All of us with Ben and Michelle and their three boys

We had daily devotionals together…. each day a different child led the discussion (Above)

There were also daily character building classes (Above)

Then we had our general “Goof Off” times (Below)

…. we had our individual times to show off or simply reflect on past, present and future (below)

and we had the good times with just all of us being together (below)

And of course the food! Oh my… The food! THE FOOOOOOD!

The children stayed in a very small, family owned “Inn” way up in the mountains. Actually with the children and Ben and Michelle and their three boys there was no “Room in the Inn” for any other people.

As is typical in China, the family showed their stuff when it came to meal times. There was always a super array of dishes spiced with all the Chinese spices and herbs… just simply Yummy! And very inexpensive as well.

The pictures above show our first meal with the family. Left is the dishes they served (this was lunch) and on the right are one bunch of full young people… ready for the afternoon.

Again… dishes for another meal (above). Needless to say, no one went hungry!

The major treat of the trip was the Marshmallows…. (Next six pictures Below) Ben and Michelle Godard had some friends and family send over several bags of Marshmallows especially for this retreat. Nathan and Shannon have given the children “Hot Dog” cook outs before but never Marshmallows so this was a new and exciting experience for the kids.

We hope you have enjoyed spending three days with us at our retreat to the Green Dragon Mountains. There are a lot of pictures with this page but we wanted everyone to get to see our “senior” children as they won’t be with us too much longer as they go to university and graduate, go into the work place, marry and start families of their own.

This year, all of these children will be in university and we could sure use the help for their education costs. We have seven kids in their second or third year and four more starting their freshman year this Fall.

We must pay their tuition and education through the Home of Hope funding with no help from the government. We really need your help as this year we are looking at a university cost total of 100,000.00 RMB (about $15,000.00 US). These figures do not take into account our other educational expenses for our grade school, middle school and high school students.

If you wish to help you can do so by going to our “Donations” page. Thank You!

Thank you for visiting us. Be sure to watch for our “Summer Camp” posting early next week.

Today is August 20th and it is the first day of the Home of Hope Kindergarten.

Above and seated, left to right are Ruthie, Rose, Isaac, Gracie, Autumn and Mosie. Behind them are the teachers, Cui Xiao Jie, Michelle Godard and Zhao Cai Xia. Michelle will teach the children English and the two certified Chinese teachers will teach the children all the other subjects.

For a very long time we have wanted to have a school associated with the Home of Hope. Several years ago we attempted to open an English school but due to licensing requirements we had to take on a Chinese partner to satisfy the government regulations and it just didn’t work out.

Now we have the Home of Hope Kindergarten. It is small. For now it is just for our own children. This year we will have seven full time students and four part time students. We use the term “part time” because the part time students are still very young so they only join in for the singing, dancing and exercise classes.

The full time students are:

Issac Ma Shi Hao left and Autumn Xiong Duo right

Ruthie Xiong Shan left and Moses Xiong En (Mosie) right

Gracie Xiong Ya left and Jackson Godard right

Rose Xiong Ai left and Caleb Xiong Qiang (part time) right

Abby Joy Xiong Miao Yin (part time) left and Eli Godard (part time) right

Mary Xiong Xiao (part time)

Just a couple of days ago our kindergarten furniture was delivered. New “little ones” sized chairs, tables, book cases, file racks and miscellaneous items for the day to day activities of the kindergarten. The older boys of the Home of Hope helped to assemble the furniture.
There is a fresh excitement in the air as the older children realize that all of these babies were abandoned and taken in when they were new born and now they are starting kindergarten in our own Home of Hope Kindergarten. So Cool!

Additional snapshots of the new Home of Hope Kindergarten. A lot of interesting things happened today.. the first day… and there will be many more! We will update this page as often as we can! Wont you come visit us sometime? That would be very, very nice!
So come on over!

The last of our seven university aged children have now gone off to school.

Our pictures of their leaving are somewhat limited because when most of them actually left for college we were in Beijing getting Aaron Xiong Wei set up for his club foot treatment. But we still wanted to share our feelings with you at this time.

The feelings are one of loneliness with a little sadness combined with a sense of great pride at how things have turned out over the years.

The first one to leave was Esther Kang Wen Jun. As you can see from the small inset in the picture on the left there has been major changes in this young lady’s life since she first came to the Home of Hope in 2000 as a little girl!

As she was loading her things in the van and getting ready for the final farewell until at least Christmas or New Years, we could not help but allow our minds wonder back over the last eight years and the fast forward to the present with so many memories of things that have happened and watching her grow during this time.

Esther is attending Mei Yu YuYan Xue Yuan in Beijing. Her major interest is in art but she won’t be getting into that for at least until the second semester.

Esther spent this summer working in the Home of Hope office where she was responsible for doing the data input into our accounting systems. (We use the plural because we have to have two accounting reports.. one for the Chinese government and one for the US Government. She did an excellent job and we are really proud of her!

The next ones to leave were Julie, Holly, Hank and Sam.

Julie is in her second year at Shi Fan Zhuan Ye Xue Yuan in the Northern part of ZhengZhou. She is doing excellent and has turned into a fine young lady. Very dependable and considerate of all around her, beautiful and smart as well!

Julie was in the second group that came into the Home of Hope in July of 2000. She has always seemed very mature for her age and is always helping with the younger children!

She is majoring in commercial art and is truly talented! She picked the right major!

Hank is in his second year at the Cheng Gong Xue Yuan University right here in Gongyi.

This means he gets to come home on the weekends and we are very happy about that. Hank is a great young man and Ye Ye often uses him for translation work.

This summer Hank worked for the Home of Hope on monthly salary and did a great job! He was very excited about his summer job because he got to learn to new techniques, got to work with Ye Ye and earned money at the same time!

Sam also left when Hank and Julie left.

Sam is attending SIAS University in XinZheng. That is the same university that Nathan and Shannon worked at when they first came to China. It was while they were at SIAS University (Shannon teaching and Nathan working as Vice President) they were led to go into the orphanage work and started the Gongyi Home of Hope in February 2000.

Sam was in the second group that came to the Home of Hope in July of 2000. Actually, all these young people joined the Home of Hope in 2000. Some in February and some in July.

The next to leave was David Zhang Hai Tao.

David is attending the Zheng Zhou Jiao Tong Zhi Ye Ji Shu Xue Yuan University in ZhengZhou. David was also in the second group that came to the Home of Hope in July 2000 and we are so very proud of him.

David has shown a real genius for working with computers and he is pursuing that course in his college training!

We know he will do great!

The next to go was Logan.

Logan is attending Shang Qiu Zhi Ye Ji Shu Xue Yuan University in southern Henan, Province. Even Mike, the Home of Hope mascot and guard dog was sad to see her leave!

Logan has been a leader in the chldren’s group since she arrived at the Home of Hope in February 2000 (another one of the first children to join the Home of Hope) and we are very proud of her! She is majoring in art and has a real talent in the field.

As we stated earlier, our pictures of the seven college kids leaving for school is limited because we were in Beijing when most of them left.

You may also have noted that above we show four of the seven standing by the van getting ready to leave, one of them being Holly Hou San Juan, but we have said nothing about her.

Holly was a victim of a very common tragedy in China at this time of year.

She had an invitation to attend a certain university in ZhengZhou but very much like large hotels and motels, they over book. Holly did indeed leave when the others left but when she arrived the school told her there was no room for her and so she had to come back! My what terrible disappointment!

As soon as she got back we went to work finding her another university to go to that wasn’t full already! We were successful and she wasn’t to leave until the day after we returned from Beijing.

Late last night my preset alarm went off at midnight. I rolled out of bed, dressed and went down stairs to take Holly to the train station to catch a train to her new university. She was accepted by Shang Qiu Ke Ji Xue Yuan university, also in Southern Henan.

This was my first real hands on at telling one of these kids goodbye… combined with the late of night and my being tired from the trip to Beijing, it was almost more than we could bare to send this young lady off into the teeming world all by her self.

So many memories came flooding in! The first time we saw her standing outside her little house built back into the mountain side.. The years of cheerfulness she has brought into the Home of Hope. Actually, too many memories to tell, but it was one emotional goodbye.

It is very uncommon in China for people to hug each other good bye in the train station, but as I told her good bye she hugged me and asked me to say a prayer with her before I left!

Like Esther, Holly is some distance from us so won’t be able to visit as often as we would like. We will miss her and can’t wait until Christmas when she comes home for a few days!

As of now each of the children has called to say they are settled in and all is well with them.

We had to obligate ourselves financially this year to get all of these children in college. If you would like to help us settle the outstanding amounts due for these children’s 2007 – 08 school season and contribute to their continued education you can do so by going to our donations page.

Thank you!