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
[See post to watch Flash video]
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!
[See post to watch Flash video]

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.

Liu Feng Ning – Eight Years Old – So many of the situations we run into here just don’t make sense to us but we are always happy to be able to help the little ones that seem to be the results or ‘victims’ of these stange arrangements..

Liu Feng Ning came to us with a father who is deceased and a mother with major mental problems. The only other living family is an elderly grandmother, (see top photo and below) who is disabled and after our investigation into the facts, we determined she is truly not able to care for Feng Ning and of course this situation will worsen as the grandmother gets older.

Due to the fact that all his relatives are either physically or mentally disabled, Fing Ning’s village leader (above, shown signing the custodial agreements with the Home of Hope) is his legal guardian so he is the one who signs all the agreements with the Home of Hope giving the Home of Hope custodial rights and responsibilities for the care of Feng Ning. This is the procedure we follow with each of the Home of Hope children.

The village leader explained to us that the marriage between Feng Ning’s parents was arranged by their respective familie’s despite the mother having developed mental problems from high fevers brough on by Encephalitis at an early age and the father having Spinal Meningitis. Less than a year after Feng Ning’s birth the father passed away leaving the baby to be cared for by the members of the village.
As the little guy got older, fewer people agreed to care for him so the village turned to the Home of Hope to see if we would take him in and raise him. We willingly agreed to do so! We know, very soon that his looks of bewilderment and concern will turn into smiles! Already the other children of the Home of Hope have taken him ‘under wing’ and are showing him the ropes and letting him know he has a new family. Above left, Feng Ning is shown with Ron Zhou Zhi Jie.

As you can see, he is already enjoying the benefits of living at the Home of Hope…. He said, “This food is AWESOME!” We do believe this is the first time we have seen a child roll their eyes back in pure enjoyment of the food they were eating! If you would like to sponsor Liu Feng Ning, you can do so by clicking on our Sponsor a Child link, either here or the above selection menu.

Soon to Arrive

Summer Work

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!

……so it was with great delight we woke up a few mornings ago to find these little white things floating around in the air… and we knew that no one had shot up Mr. Wang’s chickens next door since guns aren’t allowed…. WOW… it was snowing!

It wasn’t long until the noises of children (and grown ups) at play could be heard all around the Home of Hope!

Very Quickly the fun began! Above is David Zhang Hai Tao (Also show directly below) showing the little ones how to make snow angels.
David is one of the Home of Hope Alumni and after graduating from college went to work full time as translator and assistant to Ben and Michelle Godard at our Ping Yu Home of Hope facility. He is wonderful with the children, great to have around and always a real friend!

David has spent quite a bit of time here in GongYi this last two months because after Nathan has his heart situation and while in the hospital for the AngioPlasty, (two stints) David came to stay with him. In Chinese hospitals someone from the family must stay with the patient 24 hours a day. After Nathan was released David went back to PingYu but a short time later it was Chinese New Years so he came “back home”.

Everyone really got into the swing of things and even though it was really, really cold (look at Gail‘s face) everyone had a great time… by the way… our great blizzard???? Two inches!

Above are Shirley, Mosie and Gail. Pretty soon the younger children started coming out and getting into the Blizzard of 2011- (Did I say we only had two inches? )
On the right, fixing to jump into the “let’s get cold and wet” with the other children are, Caleb, Dawn, Grace (in back), Jacob, Rachel and Beau with Jenny standing in the back as well. Jenny was helping with the younger children since several of the staff were still on their Chinese New Years vacation break.

Beau is the little guy who came to us with no ears. He can hear however, he just doesn’t have ear openings and he has little ‘nubs’ of ears. We are looking into some type of hearing aid until they are able to correct this problem by surgery when he is a little older.

Check Out Our Shoes
Sometimes we don’t want to see some of this. There isn’t one pair of winter boots in the lot… and they all have them… Wow… there is even on pair of lined, Croc house shoes… Oh well… still remember when we were kids and at times wonder how we made it at all!

Little Rosie
Another one of the little ones (she’s not so little now) abandoned at our gate in the middle of the night when she was a new born. She is a very, very intelligent little girl and all of her peers hold her as the ‘yard stick’ for success in school. They all try to beat her test scores, but never do! Rose was abandoned due to having a cleft lip – cleft palate condition and as you can see, it’s barely noticeable now. It’s so sad these little ones will never know their real Moms and Dads, being abandoned for such a simple reason that can easily be corrected by surgery. So… the Home of Hope does the very best we can to be that missing Mom and Dad to all these children.
Lydia, kneeling in the roses!Lilly, sitting in the roses!Shirley, semi sitting – kneeling in the roses! Now why is it, all summer long we can’t get these girls to do anything in the roses… No clipping the roses… No weeding the weeds… No turning the soil…. But let a little old snow come and they want to model in the rose garden!

Actually, the above three are in High School and they took over a lot of the chores during the Chinese New Years while the staff was on holiday. They ran the kitchen, Shirley was excellent with the little children and organizing much of what goes on behind the scenes at the Home of Hope and Lilly and Lydia were fantastic cooks!

In the picture to the left, starting at the back row (photo on the left) is David, Brian and Dennis. Middle row, left to right – Kelly, Shirley, Gail and Calvin. In the front are Joy, Autumn and Rose with Mosie left back, trying to get in the picture but a little late!

Kelly is a GongYi person who came to work for us years ago here in GongYi. Her English is excellent as are her administrative abilities so when we opened the XuZhou facility, Kelly went to work with Bob and Cindy Sayer and she has been there ever since. But her heart is always in GongYi of course. She comes to visit as often as she can.

There were so many things going on during this small bit of snow we received… In the picture to the right, Rose (facing) and Mosie (back to the camera) are playing “tug of war” with something to do with the snow while Calvin looks on. At one point there was this major snow fight going on with more than twenty of the children participating and it was quite an awesome thing to watch.

During the “Snow Battle” Calvin made up this one, huge snowball (maybe ten to twelve inches in diameter and nailed David with it. For a few seconds David’s entire head was white! Of course, Calvin took off and it was some time before he came back around… He knew what was in store!

Home of Hope Tree Huggers: Shirley, Joy, Gail, Rose, Autumn and Shirley again.

Of course the little ones really enjoyed the snow but they didn’t get in to all the rambunctious behavior the older children did. Pictured above are: Gracie, Caleb and Mary and below are: Jacob, Dawn and Rachel.

We hope you have enjoyed our little so-journ into our “snow storm day” in GongYi China. Of course the snow is all gone now and most of the children have started back to school now that the Chinese New Years is over and things are quite back to normal at the GongYi Home of Hope.

One thing is most evident as we are fortunate enough to be here and observe these children growing up and truly enjoying life… despite their so unfortunate circumstances, the children are really happy!

So for Lilly, Gail, Shirley and all the children and staff…. all of us at the Home of Hope, we wish you an awesome day and will see you soon with another report from the Home of Hope in GongYi, China.

Jacob (on the left) was left at our gate, January 4, 2007 which makes him about three and a half years old (best guess – he was a new born when found) and Beau (on the right) was left at our gate February 28 2006 (also a new-born) which makes him about four years and four months old (again, best guess!)

These two little guys are generally into everything together! If one is into ‘something’, then so is the other one. They do have their little disputes from time to time, but they are very rare.

The other evening we were sitting outside in the ‘approaching night’s’ cool after spending a hot day working on our new ‘shop’ teaching building. We were visiting with all the children, laughing and talking about just anything that came up when all of a sudden we spied little Beau pushing Jacob around in our Chinese style ‘wheel barrow’. They are both so short and tiny it just struck us funny so we started snapping pictures.

Beau pushed Jacob for awhile and then they would change places and Jacob would push Beau for awhile. Just unbelievably cute!

If you go back into our archives to the pages that talk about when these two came, you will remember that Jacob came with absolutely nothing wrong with his little body. He is still as healthy as a horse! Beau, on the other hand, was born without ears or any openings to his ear canal.

Over time we have discovered that he can hear and we are trying to find a Chinese doctor who will give him the surgery(s) necessary to correct his hearing and then plastic surgery to repair his ears.

These two are just absolutely fun to watch! Anytime!

Water Fun

Several years ago, the children and Ye Ye made a fish pond to add a nice touch to our landscape at the Home of Hope. It wasn’t long though, that we figured out the children could use that pond as a wading/swimming area in the summer.

We added a filter and chlorinator and now each summer they fend off the heat by spending time in the pond.

Today was no exception. It was hot and some of the children spent several hours in the water simply having summer fun.

Jumping off the bridge!

Let’s do it all together!

Water Fight!

Friends Bearing Gifts

A few months back (see previous post “Visitors from ShangHai”) two groups of High School students from Shanghai came to visit. What was unique about these young people is most of them are children of ‘Non-Chinese’ foreigners living or working in China.

We had a great visit and then they returned to ShangHai. As is the general rule, we didn’t expect to hear from them again, at least not for a long while.

Surprisingly, one of the students, a fifteen year old named Sophie was really touched by the children of the Home of Hope and set out to raise funds for the Home of Hope children and to collect clothes and toys from everyone she knew.

One day she called and said she and her family would like to visit on Saturday and on the Friday before we should be expecting a truck with several boxes. Goodness… in our wildest dreams we never thought it would be a truck with so many boxes!

True to her word, the next day Sophie arrived with her Mom and Dad, two cousins and here brother. This awesome family helped open the boxes and distribute the clothes and toys to all the children (we had a lot left to put in our storage room for future distribution), then they stayed for many hours playing with the children and spreading a lot of love all around! We were so impressed and the children were ecstatic and talked about their visit for days! Still talking about it, matter of fact.

Above is Sophie with her two cousins passing out individual bags of goodies she had put together for each one of the Home of Hope children! You can see all the boxes “yet to be opened” in the background.

There wasn’t a child left out! You see the tiny ones walking around with their new goodies in their little arms and the older children as well, holding tight onto their new treasures!

Above some of the children pose for a picture with Sophie and her family standing in the back and below we have Sophie with her family. Bruce and Autumn got into the picture. It seemed like Sophie’s dad and Bruce really hit it off and of course Autumn always makes friends with everyone!

From left to right are: Sophie’s cousin Janni, her brother Christopher, her Mom Dorthe and Dad Anders, Sophie and her other cousin Jan with Autumn and Bruce in front.

We were truly impressed with this family and totally moved by Sophie’s caring heart!

We hope you enjoyed this update. If you would like to help the Home of Hope children in any way, you can visit our Current Needs page.

You can also visit our Donation Page.

Thank You from all of us at the Home of Hope – With a grateful heart!

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!

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!

Ever since the Home of Hope Orphanage opened in February 2000, we have needed and have been looking for sponsors for our children.

A short time after we opened, Joe and Darlene (above with Lily in the center) began to sponsor Lily Zhang Lin Qing and have been doing so ever since.

Joe and Darlene have visited the Home of Hope several times over the years and stay in close contact with Lily (an early picture of Lily on the right) as she grows up and into a fine young lady.
Since Joe and Darlene have been here on several occasions to visit, the other children (not just Lily) feel like they know them and so when they do come the other children gather around them and talk and visit as if they were long lost friends. In the picture to the left, left to right are: Darlene, Lily, Joy, Joe, Adam, Gail, Lydia, Joseph and Jenny.

We are so grateful to Joe and Darlene and those like them who have taken on the “Joy” of being a sponsor for one of our ‘so’ deserving children. Thank you so much and we know as the children get older (as in Lily’s case) they too will begin to express their appreciation for what has been done.

More Visitors

On or about the 13th of October, it became somewhat common knowledge around the Gongyi Home of Hope that Bob and Cindy Sayre and their daughter Christi were going to visit.

Bob (to the right) and Cindy (below left) are the Administrators of our XuZhou Home of Hope and their daughter Christi is going to be teaching at one of the schools in XuZhou.
We had yet to put two and two together in the fact that October 17th was Shannie’s birthday. Bob and Cindy come to the ZhengZhou area on occasion as there is a periodic “Fellowship” in ZhengZhou with other foreigners of like belief. During these visits they always come the additional 40 Killometers to Gongyi to visit for a few hours or so. Sometimes they will stay overnight and they are always a joy to have!

Now that Christi (to the right) is back in China she too comes to Gongyi on occasion and the children who are in her age range dearly love her visits.

Bob and Cindy along with their three children lived in Gongyi for over a year as they studied ‘life in China’ and learned about the operations and procedures of the Home of Hope prior to going to XuZhou as the administrators. During this time many of the Home of Hope children became close friends with Christi and her brothers so the children are always happy when they can visit.

Nai Nai’s Birthday

Jenny Yang Jing Feng with Nai Nai

It was on the 15th of October or there about when Hank, our oldest boy at the Home of Hope, came and asked for help in giving Nai Nai a surprise for her birthday.

He did not go into much detail except to tell me my part in this was to simply arrange to take her out to lunch on her birthday. Instead of taking her to a restaurant I should take her to the park at the Yellow River and look for the Home of Hope’s van. I agreed to do what I could. It was not difficult to keep the secret since there was little known about what was happening anyway.

Everything went according to plan. Shannie thought we were going out for a Birthday lunch and when we got to the area along the Yellow River there were balloons lining the area and we saw the two, hand-written posters (Left and Right) so it was obvious something was going on. There were no children visible as they were all hiding behind some large rocks the Chinese Corp of Engineers keep stacked along the river side to help with flood control. (If you can’t see the words, you can click on the posters to see an enlarged image.)

All of a sudden, all the children ‘popped up’ from where they were hiding and it was quite a surprise since all of the college students were away at their respective schools and were not expected back home until around Christmas time. They had all asked for leave and had come home during the previous night and stayed at our maintenance man and his wife’s home so we would not know they were back.

The high school and middle school students had taken off from school, so all of the children were there except the smaller children who were not included due to concerns it may be too cold for them at the river.

Rather quickly, realization set in that not only were all the children there but Hai Tao and his wife (the Home of Hope maintenance man who also has a small BBQ restaurant he and his wife operate together) were grilling, Hot Dogs, Goat Keebobs and Chicken Wings.

The food started to appear (above) and what a spread it was!

Not only did we have the grilled meat but we had Bananas, Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Boiled Tripe, Lettuce, Apples, Bread with Coke, Sprite and Juice to drink.

The most important thing though, was all the children being there together on this day of major surprises.

As the hugs and excitement of seeing each other again began to subside, it was finally time to eat and everyone gathered around and we had an awesome “Birthday Lunch” together.

During the course of the afternoon, Hank (who was given the responsibility of organizing the day since he has graduated from college and now works in the Home of Hope office) informed me I had one more thing to do.

Since all the children could not be at this event with the younger children staying home, they did not bring a birthday cake to the Yellow River but rather were going to have the cake and another short party at the Home of Hope after the children had all had their supper. I was to create some excuse and bring Shannon to the children’s dining hall after 7:00 PM.

There were many touching moments during the day but probably the most touching was when little Isaac Ma Shi Hao came up during the evening’s festivities (the two small inserts above in the red shirt hugging Shannie) and said he wanted to say something to “Nai Nai”. He proceeded to tell her how much he appreciated her and loved her and thanked her for being his Mom.

Isaac is seven years old and has been at the Home of Hope since birth.

Our children all get weekly allowances to teach them how to save and manage their money. The small ones get a small amount and as the children advance in school their allotted amount increases depending on which grade they are in.

They are taught to purchase their own minor school supplies and such and emphatically encouraged to save their money.

In this case, all the children pooled some of their saved allowances for Nai Nai’s party. We thought that was just so cool! We were very proud of our children for accomplishing this. There was not one penny paid from the Home of Hope for the entire celebration from picnic, BBQ and the evening cake and party.

All in all it was a really great day. A wonderful birthday for Shannon as she had never had a surprise birthday before in her life and the surprise and happiness can be shown on her face as she thanked all the children for this wonderful day!