Wow….

Our hearts are overflowing with gratitude for the response we have realized from our appeal for funds for a new van.

To date we have received $6,400.00 toward the needed $17,500.00 and it goes without saying we are so much more confident at this point that the funds will come in soon making it possible for us to purchase the much needed replacement van.

We are aware that donating to a van is not a “life saving” or “life changing” thing to do… However, the van is part of the development of these children’s lives in that it is used 100% for their benefit…. taking them to school, taking them to the doctor… buying clothes and groceries…. so all in all, a contribution to the van is in fact part of contributing to the ‘life changing” work being done by the Home of Hope.

A huge “Thank You” to all of you who have donated to this worthy cause and a big “Won’t you please help….” to all our other friends and supporters.

In other news….

Holly Hou San Juan, left just today for two years in Switzerland. Holly is our oldest girl at the Home of Hope. She came to the Home of Hope in February 2000 when we first opened.

Holly is the recipient of major scholarship funding for one of the better universities in Switzerland and is majoring in Advanced Hotel Management.

We will sure miss her around here. She is always “Big Sister” to the younger girls and helpful daughter to us older ones! We wish Holly the very best and we hope the two years goes by quickly so she can return to us here.

This is another prime example of the results of what the Home of Hope is doing in the lives of needy children here in China….. and YOU… our friends and supporters are ALL participants in sowing seeds of hope and a future into these awesome lives.

Chairty Xiong Hui‘s improvement just gets better and better.

Today when I went to see her she greeted me with a big kiss on the cheek and offered me a bite of the “slobbered on” cracker she was eating…. Of course I accepted… with great joy I must admit!

She will be going back to the hospital for some extensive testing after the China New Years is over… but our doctor expects great results from the tests! We are so happy and again wish to thank all our friends and supporters for your prayers on Charity‘s behalf!

Again, please remember us in your prayers and if you can manage to participate in the fund raising for the new van for the home of hope, we will be so grateful!

Thank You and Blessings!

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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Several of the children were starting to decorate our play room for Christmas so we were able to get them to send you all a Christmas Greeting! Some of them didn’t know the words so we told them to just “mouth” the words… check out little Jacob on the front left…. he is really mouthing the “O”s. Also, you may need to click the play arrow a couple of times to get the video to play. We aren’t sure why but this one acted a little strange from the beginning.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you all!

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.

These occurrences are always most rewarding and bring us to a place of immense gratitude to all of you who have made the work here in China, possible through your prayers and donations. At this special “Thanksgiving” time of the year, we are indeed full of gratitude for being allowed to work with these beautiful children of China… and for you, our support base and your standing with us in this awesome endeavor, helping make all of this possible.

With so many children… each of them having their own, special and individual story, it is impossible to share with you all the details that make up the life of any one of the Home of Hope children. Sadly, we are limited to a few photographs and descriptions of focused times, places and events… all of which are never enough to truly portray the awesome impact being made in the lives of these young ones on a day to day basis.

Autumn Xiong Duo…revisited….

There is no way one can possibly define the feelings generated by watching a little one as he or she grows up. The above nine snapshots are just a mere scratch on the surface of the day to day joy of watching a little one develop. From the time when Autumn arrived as an abandoned baby with a cleft lip, cleft palate condition until today, at nine years old, her being a vivacious and loving little girl….

Then there is little Mary. Came to us, abandoned with her little foot twisted more than 90 degrees to the right. The doctors said there was nothing that could be done for her, but you should see her now! Beautiful, energetic, quite a little leader and she walks fine…. all the massaging and prayer over time made her foot so straight if a person didn’t know, they couldn’t tell which one ever had the problem.

Multiply so many scenarios just like these two by forty, fifty and at times sixty children and you can just imagine how much joy there truly is at the Home of Hope.

So again, we extend a huge Thank You for your participation in this awesome journey of love and excitement as we continue working with the children of the Home of Hope!

One special note: We have installed several Network Security Cameras around the Home of Hope and at time you can ‘almost’ be at the Home of Hope via modern technology.

We are still working on the bugs, getting the system to work properly but you can already view some of the areas of the orphanage. Look at the menu list on the upper left and click on “Live Streaming Video”.

Two main problems we are working on right now is the videos don’t show in Windows Internet Explorer which means to view the videos one will need to use Safari or Firefox. Also, we have not been able to work around the password requirement.

Blessings!

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.

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

Jacob was born January 1, 2007 and on the 4th of January, the Home of Hope staff under our direction and in keeping with the wishes of his unmarried mother, spirited him away from the hospital where he was born and brought him to the Home of Hope in the wee hours of the morning. He has been with us ever since.

Jacob has always been a picture of perfect health and remains that way today, four and a half years later. He is vivacious, mischevious and simply an all-round boy, getting into everything as all little boys are prone to do.

When he is outside playing and spies Nathan, he is the first one to yell “Ye Ye Hao” at the top of his lungs which is “Hi grandpa” and with little Beau and several of the others right on his heels, he runs to Nathan for a greeting and quite often a big hug. We are delighted that we were allowed to be instrumental in saving his life and giving him a home to grow up in.

Around the Home of Hope

SHOW US YOUR SHOES!

Four times each year, we buy the children shoes.

We just bought all the children their Summer shoes and the little ones wanted to show them off so they all laid down on the lawn and held them in the air for the world to see! The older kids were more reserved as you can see in the picture to the right.

Meantime, over in the Home of Hope kitchen, other kids were washing fresh vegetables, frying thinly sliced potatoes, and getting other fruites and goodies ready for the meal! Great anticipation!

Some of the identifiable goodies are tomatos, apples, appricots, bananas, bread, juices and not shown we also had Potato Chips, Pepsi and Sprite which have both become very popular in China over the last decade.
All in all, in was money well spent and we had a great time and especially Ye Ye… all he had to do was reach into his hip pocket!
After everyone was full, all the little ones vied for a chance to crawl up into Ye Ye’s lap. Of course he relished that and always loves it when the babies gather around! Each time it is something new and this time they all wanted to take a picture giving the “V” sign. We never fail to realize it won’t be long and the time for “crawling up in the lap” will be long gone! They grow so fast!

Left, Caleb is checking out what is left over, knowing that later in the evening, the left overs will be passed out as snacks which the children always enjoy! All in all it was a great BBQ and we were really proud of the “first time” accomplishment of the 2nd generation of children as they grow at the Home of Hope. Their older siblings who used to to all the work at occasions like this, would have really been proud of them, we are very sure!

More BBQ Snapshots!

APPRECIATION – Many of you have been following and also helping share the burden of our water problem. Just the other day we brought the water storage system and water pressure tank with pumps on line. Since then we have had a constant pressure regulated at between 65 and 70 psi which is just great! Now everyone can have showers every day! Thank You so much for your willingness to help! A special note of thanks to the Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation as well, for their help in getting this new water system completed!

We hope you have enjoyed another small glimpse into life at the Home of Hope orphanage in GongYi, China. We covet your prayers and support as we continue to serve the children in rural China.

If you would like to help the children of the Home of Hope you can do so by going to our donations page. All contributions are both greatly needed and appreciated and of course are tax deductible!

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!