As time went by the planning just seemed to come together without a whole lot of problems and it finally came down to their asking, “what can we do for you while we are there?”

For some time we had been wanted to build small ‘gazebo’ type shelters at each one of our outside tables to protect the children from the rain in any season and the scorching sun in the summer. They do like to sit at the tables and do their home work or read or play ‘table games’ with each other, but at times the weather is just too prohibitive.

This wonderful group from the New Hope Leeward, a church family in Hawaii not only agreed to come and build the gazebos for us but to fund the work as well. They also wanted to do something to help out at our XuZhou facility, which they did and I am sure Bob will write about their visit very soon.

The group arrived and they hit the ground running! Amazing. The very next morning construction started. They only had a few days and the plans were for five of the gazebos so there was a lot of work to do.

In the pictures above, not only were they doing the work but they were also taking the time to show the Home of Hope children how to do some of the work themselves!

It wasn’t long until saws were being heard, hammers were banging and there was a lot of chatter as the visitors and the children worked and got to know each other at the same time.

Above left in the red shorts is Tim and above right in the blue “T” shirt is Henry.

Little Moses got into the act, helping carry lumber (above left) while Mark Gallagher (the group leader) showed his prowess at driving nails! (above right)

The children were introduced to the Hula Hoop (above left, Joseph is trying his hand or should that be “hips”) and there were many different hand crafts taught and shared with all the various age groups.

The New Hope Leeward group was in turn introduced to Chinese BaoZi and the various art work by some of our really talented children. Above left Liu Qiu Xian, one of our cooks is preparing the BaoZi and on the right Esther is showing some of her paintings.

Above left Jenny is posing with her new found friend from Hawaii and on the right a spontaneous “goofy group” shot and they even got Ye Ye in the picture, head covered lei and all!

Rena and Jenny sqeezing into the picture with one of the group and on the right, Ye Ye is lending a hand with the gazebo building!

They did so much we can’t crowd it all in here… they sang, (in the picture above, some of those who sang, pose in front of one of the almost completed gazebos) they danced, they taught Hawaiian dancing, they passed chocolate covered Macadamia nuts around (it seemed like all the time) but most of all they brought a tremendous amount of love to share with the children and the children responded in kind!

All in all the visit by the New Hope Leeward group was an awesome and inspirational time of sharing ideas, cultures, a lot of love and spiritual growth by all. We all hope they come back soon!

Some more snapshots of the New Hope Leeward visit. It was estimated that during their visit, with all their cameras and our Home of Hope in-house cameras that more than 20,000 snapshots were made.Even so, none of them could show the exciting time enjoyed by all!

Aloha and God Bless

Since our last web site update we have had several birthdays. Clockwise starting top left we have Henry He Long Qiang with roomates Hank (on the left) and Jerry; Julie Zhang Yan Yan (now nineteen and entering college this year); Seth Yang Xiao Ke; Michael Yang Wen Bo; Lydia Kang Lin Lin in the center with roomates (left to right) Rena, Heidi, Linda and Gail; Tim Tian Zheng Tu; Logan Zhang Xin Zhuan (also nineteen) and in the center of the group is a picture taken at Paul Yao You Bin’s birthday (Paul is on the left) shown with Nathan and Jim Yang Jin Duo. Nathan is telling Paul that Paul is now taller than Nathan is. How well we remember the first day we ever saw Paul. He barely came above Nathan’s waist back then! My how time flies!

Summer Work – For Pay!

Some of the older children, Sam, Hank, Julie, Holly and Tim asked Yie Yie (Nathan) if they could find a job during the summer this year. They said they were old enough now and really wanted to earn some money during the summer.
We try to paint the interior of the dorm building and the other buildings if possible each summer as by the end of winter the walls are showing the effects of having fifty plus children living there.

We told the children they could work right here if they wanted to, painting the inside of the buildings and they all jumped at the chance! It is almost finished as of this writing and it looks really good!

On the left is Julie Zhang Yan Yan. She is studying art in school so she was elected to do all the detail work. The taping of the windows and doors… door knobs… light switches and plugs then paint the places that took a lot of care so as not to get paint all over the adjacent items. She did a great job!

On the right is our “Handy Man” Tim Tian Zheng Tu… actually that is just what we call him. He follows Nathan around anytime he is not in school and even though he is still in middle school he can weld, do plumbing, fix minor electrical problems and much more. Between Nathan and Hai Tao (our true maintenance man) Tim is learning all he can and says he wants to stay at the Home of Hope when he finished High School and be the General Maintenance man for all the different Home of Hope’s in China.

In the back ground is Sam who graduated from High School this year and is preparing to enter college in the fall.

We painted the downstairs (the boy’s section of the dorm) an eggshell white with a 1 1/2 meter high band in baby blue at the bottom.

Upstairs, which is the girl’s section and also the nursery area, we used the same egg shell white with a very, very light pink band on the bottom.

To the left is Hank Cao Hai Kui who also graduated from high school this year and he too is preparing to enter college this fall.

Both Hank and Sam speak excellent English and so it was very easy for Nathan to give them detailed instructions on how he wanted everything done!

We felt this to be a great thing. We would have had to pay a contractor to come in and do the work as we normally do every year but this year the children who are working on this project earn their own money, are learning about having a work ethic and are helping to improve their own home!

On the right is Hai Tao our general, all purpose, all around…. EVERYTHING! He is our driver, driving the children to the doctor and other places as necessary; driving the house mothers to take the babies to the hospital; going out and negotiating good prices and buying many of the necessary things to keep a place like the Home of Hope operating on a daily basis and when not doing that he teaches the boys and does general maintenance work…

The neatest thing about Hai Tao is just what you see! That perpetual smile! He has been with us for over four years now and we have to say we really can’t remember a single time when he was not smiling!

She and Hank are the two oldest at the Home of Hope. Holly is behind Hank one year in school and hopes to go to College when she finishes High School. She is a Junior this year.

She was not too happy in this picture because we called her down to her birthday party and she had just washed her hair. She is at that age now where they pay more attention to their appearance.

Nathan is helping her by cutting her cake for her.

Holly is a great person and when she has time really helps out around the Home of Hope with the young children. She is very mature, thoughtful and a very responsible person! We are quite proud of Holly.

In this picture Hank is joined by his dorm mates, (left to right) Henry, Seth, Joey, Jerry and David.

Hank will be graduating from High School this year and wants to go to College.

We are currently looking for people to help sponsor this effort as getting in college in China is not that easy and is often rather expensive. If you would like to help sponsor some of these children’s advanced education needs you can find out how to donate at our “donations” page.

Tony is always polite and thoughtful of others and does an excellent job in school.

Tony came to the Home of Hope in June of 2005 and so this was his first birthday party.

He was a little nervous since all the children give little speeches after all the other children sing happy birthday to them.

We thought Tony would ask to be excused from making his speech but he went right into it as if he had been doing this sort of thing all his life!

He really enjoyed his birthday party!

Evening came and the children literally filled our living room. No floor space was visible! Each one had brought little cards and cut outs to their Ye Ye and Nai Nai. The only one who did not bring us anything was Henry He Long Qiang.

We had gifts under the tree for each of them… (ear muffs for the boys and scarves for the girls). There were two television cameramen there also to film the event. One was from the local Gongyi Television Station and the other was from the Henan Provincial Television Station.

Holly played the piano for the group. (Nate has been giving her lessons for about six weeks now) Her recital was flawless! Ye Ye and Nai Nai played a piano duet and Ye Ye told the children a story about Christmas.

Suddenly Henry He Long Qiang walked through the maze of arms and legs to the tree and said, “I have a gift for Ye Ye and Nai Nai… this ended up being the most precious gift we have ever received!

We found Henry He Long Qiang in January 2000. He was dirty, unkempt and had a major double cleft lip and palate. He ran from us when we found him and would not talk. His eyes spoke his heart… full of scars from ridicule… from being thrown away by three different families and finally being thrown in the river to drown only to be rescued by an old lady who kept him alive. We knew we had to take him but the officials did not want us to. After several months of negotiating and standing firm we were finally allowed to bring him to the Home of Hope.

The first thing we did was arrange for corrective surgery on his mouth and upper palate. Many of you contributed to the surgical and hospital costs and believe me it was a sacrifice well spent! When he came to the hospital, even the new clothes could not hide the look of despair in his face. He was confused and afraid and would not believe anything good was going to happen to him. And he refused to talk.

He would grunt approval or shake his head in the negative, but would say nothing. We felt that after the surgery he would gradually begin to talk and at the time didn’t realize how deep the emotional scars were and how much trouble we would have with him in school because of his refusal to verbally interact at all.
Henry slowly started to show some signs of responding to the love and attention he was receiving from us and the House Mothers.

The day before his surgery I was able to catch a good look at the change that was already taking place in his eyes. The day of the surgery and the few days right after it Shannie and I had a hard time sleeping. We wanted to be with him in the hospital. However he was sedated for several days and wouldn’t have known if we were there or not.

He lost quite a bit of weight on his 30 day diet of soup but soon he joined his brothers and sisters of the Home of Hope and began his new life. It wasn’t long until we began to hear from his school. He wouldn’t communicate with the teachers. He was fighting with the other children. The teachers believed he should be able to take the teasing and ridicule about his appearance… (the healing process from the surgery was slow.)

Nate had many long talks with Henry… trying to build his self image. There were hours spent one on one at the side of a small lake fishing and talking. Henry would talk to Nate and the other children in the HOH but would not enter in at school. He made many promises to Nate to do better. To be brave and talk. To understand that he was chosen, not forced on us. We wanted him because we love him and God loves him. Nothing seemed to help at school.

Finally the teacher and the Head Master of the school called us in and told us he could’t return. We were lost and didn’t know what to do. About the same time God sent us a new House Mother. She had graduated from Teacher’s school but could not find a job teaching. We put her to work with Henry and three other children who also had very poor educational backgrounds. After Nate spent several hours talking to the Head Master and telling him Henry’s entire story the Head Master finally agreed to allow Henry back in school in February, 2001 if Henry could show some improvement.

We instructed the new House Mother to concentrate on Henry’s speech. Nate gave him several tests in Chinese writing and Math and he is a smart little guy. The problem is acceptance by his peers and his refusal to talk.

Christmas Eve, 2000. The little get together at Ye Ye and Nai Nai’s was just about over. And here came Henry… he walked up to Nate and said, “I have a Christmas present for you!” In his little hand was a book. He stood in front of the Christmas tree… in front of the two Television cameramen.. in front of all the House Mothers.. in front of his peers… and opened the book and began to read! Then he sang a song! A beautiful song..

When we get tired and discouraged (as we do at times..) all we have to do is remind ourselves of Henry He Long Qiang. A life that was going nowhere.. a child scorned and unloved by anyone.. and seeing him standing there reading and singing was the greatest Christmas gift we could have received! A tremendous thanks to all of you who have contributed and sacrificed to make the Home of Hope what it is… a place of Hope for the hopeless! God Bless you and may your New Year be full of blessings and happiness! Nate, Shannie and the Home of Hope Children

Shannie writes: When we arrived at the hospital on Saturday afternoon, this tiny lady was there. She was wearing torn clothes, had cataracts in both eyes, no teeth, and her hair was in tangles. She was taking care of our Little Henry. We asked who she was and Mr. Li told us she was the woman who took Henry in up in the mountains. We had not seen this lady before, so we were very curious as to how she came to know our Henry.

She told us how she was the mother of the woman that came in and stayed with Henry for his first surgery. This explained some of it to us and made us feel a little more comfortable with her. Then she began to tell us a story that totally melted our hearts.

Henry had been passed from one family to the next from the time he was born. From his own paternal family to Uncles and Aunts, all the way through ten different families. The last family to have him decided they would do him a favor and save him from a life of shame. They decided that throwing him into the river was the best thing for everyone, so they did. Without another thought, they tossed this little boy into the river, turned and walked away.

Our little woman noticed many people walking past the river and looking, so she decided to take a look too. Half blind with the cataracts in her eyes, she made her way past all the people that stood and stared at this horrible creature. She waded into the water to see what it was that was causing so much fuss. When she saw little Henry, her heart broke. She pulled him out of the river, wrapped him up and took him to her home in the cave. It didn’t matter that he didn’t look pretty, he was a part of life itself and she knew he deserved a chance to live just like anyone else.

How dear this woman must be to our Father, and how touched were our hearts at this story and her courage. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow her all the days of her life.” Moses — how could he have any other name than Moses? Taken from the water by a woman who was not his own mother and given a new life. Thanks to your goodness and the love of our Father, he has been restored to a brand new creature. Serving Him is such a beautiful life and each one of you are sure to be greatly rewarded for your contribution to making this lovely child’s life a better one. I believe that one day, you will all know of this young man. This is just the beginning for him, I know it in my heart.

We want to give you a little insight to this last surgery. You too may feel the happiness that makes your hearts sing and your eyes overflow with tears from the river of joy. He had his second surgery on Saturday afternoon. We went to the hospital as we did before and stayed with him until they came to take him to surgery. It’s sort of funny, he was up and walking around, still in his street clothes and tennis shoes right up until the time when they came to get him. He walked up to the operating room and right in. Things are done so differently here than what we are used to. But our brave young man followed close behind, walking up the stair to his next operation.

He looked back at us a time or two and then disappeared around the corner. We left after they took him into surgery and went back over to see the children. Finally, at about 7:30 that evening, Mr Li called us at the Orphanage while we were having dinner with the children. He told us that Henry was out of surgery, still heavily sedated and sleeping well. He said “The surgery was a great success!” Little Henry was doing fine. Mr Li suggested we go on back to the house and rest since it was already so late. We could see Henry tomorrow.

We were overwhelmed when we walked in the door and saw him laying there sleeping. We were not even sure it was the same little boy to tell you the truth. Had it not been for the stitches in a perfect V-shape between his cute little nose and his perfect little lips. We would have thought it was another child all together. Not even we dared dream that he would look so lovely, but he does!

He is a gorgeous young man. He was in and out of sleep and even tried to smile up at us once or twice when his eyes would open and see us there with him. We were overjoyed. We wanted to jump up and down, to sing and rejoice, to laugh with great triumph for our little Henry. Coming home in the car, we would think about it and laughter would tickle the belly, climb up the throat and spill out of our mouths uncontrollably. It was so wonderful to see such a great miracle. Bless little Henry. His whole life is changed !!!

How can we express our gratitude to you for all that you have done for him? We just don’t know the words to tell you. If you could just see him, if you could touch him the way we can and know how awesome this miracle truly is to this boy. We can only say thank you.. with all our hearts, thank you. We look forward to sending pictures of Henry as he recovers and the success of this last operation becomes clearer and clearer for us to see.

He still has one more surgical procedure to get through, but that will be in about three more months. This will be to repair the tissues inside his nose, between his sinuses and palate. But for the time being, we are quite pleased at the progress he has made and know that this will have a great impact on his life.

Other news to tell you relates to us going back up into the mountains next weekend and seeking out 30 more children for the Orphanage. We have located a new site for housing which is right above the home they have set up for us. The building is new and in good condition. It will house about 50 children and 6 House Mothers nicely. What makes it even nicer is that we will be at the same place they are when we are in town and can spend more time with the children, This makes us very happy !!!!

They tell us they can have this facility ready by the second week of June and move the children in before August. We do not want to actually bring the children down before their schooling for this year is over with. That is why we must wait until August to bring them down. But, this weekend we will begin our search for new Orphans. Please pray for us and hold us up while we are in this phase of searching. We want total direction from our Father and trust that His perfect will shall be done for these precious children here. Thank you again for all that you do, from holding us up in prayer to your awesome contributions and your help in clothing and materials for the children. Every thing is a blessing and will bring great blessings in return we are sure.

As a foot note, I want to tell you of some side plans that we are trying to incorporate into our program here. People like this little woman that pulled our boy from the river are everywhere up in the mountain caves. This little lady is not the only one who has saved a child from death or near death from starvation. We would like to take these children back up into the mountains and deliver staples such as flour, sugar, salt, and rice to some of these people who have kept our Orphans until we could take them into our home. They deserve to be rewarded and I believe that our Father would reward them in such a like manner as to supply them with what they need most, food. Won’t you help us by praying for us and asking direction for us in our new idea?

We appreciate all that you do, truly we do. May our Father bless you richly in your lives and keep His hand ever present in each of your lives. We look forward to seeing you this summer.

Postscript: It is so good to see Henry Moses living in the orphanage now with the other kids. He is still adapting and is still learning how to eat again. But all in all he is doing fine. We were able to take flour, rice, oil, sugar and salt up into the mountains to the old lady that pulled him from the river. She cried and cried and told us that only God could have done such a wonderful thing for Henry Moses… We will return to see her again soon.

Shannie writes:

We left on Friday afternoon this time. Nathan and I were both so very anxious to get up there and see our new Orphan, Henry. His real Chinese name is He Long Qiang, (huh long chang). You know, from our very first search our thoughts have been with him, but we could not have him due to his physical impairment. We knew as soon as he began to run from us so we would not see his face that God was going to change his life. No more will he have to hide that precious little face in shame.

We went straight to the hospital, no time wasted. Mr. Li was out in the parking lot waiting for us when we arrived. We went right up to the fourth floor where Henry was standing in the window watching us come up. What a precious little boy he is. I mean, he is so gentle natured and so sweet, shy as he can be.. but full of life, love and joy in his heart.

He was so excited. We kept asking them if he knew what was happening,they assured us that he knew and was so happy. Now, remember, this little boy is 10 years old, was thrown out by his father who didn’t want him anymore because he had another son who was perfectly fine. He has been laughed at, scorned, shamed and made fun of for as long as he can remember.

We talked with the doctors on staff and one of the surgeons, there would be a specialist coming in from Zhengzhou on Saturday and we would talk with him as well to find out more details. After spending some time with the people at the hospital and making sure Henry was settled in and comfortable, we headed over to see the Orphans at Home Of Hope. We took the two House Mothers with us since they were up taking care of Henry as well. It was good to see just about the whole crew of Government people that helped us in our search show up.

Saturday morning we awoke and headed over to the Orphanage to see all our children. We found them all nestled in front of the television set watching cartoons. Mr. Li had brought his VCD player and some cute cartoons so they were really engrossed in watching.

They all jumped up when we walked in the door, hugs and kisses all around.
We decided to take them away from their television and out to play. We walked with them over to the school play ground and played ball. Nate and the boys played and as seems to be par for normal, the girls carted me off to the other side of the play ground to show me their exercise routines and dances they were learning. I love being able to bond with these girls this way. I only wish the language barrier was not there. Some day I will learn this language, I hope.

We got back to the Orphanage and there was Nate and the boys wondering where we had gotten off to since we left before they did. (grin) We kept it our little secret and went on with our activities. We worked with them on their English names and alphabet for a while on the new chalk board we brought them and then washed up for lunch. I tell you what, I eat some of the yummiest food at the Orphanage.. these ladies can cook. Everyone keeps telling me that I like the ” common Chinese food “… I suppose they are right. I only know that I really do like what they feed us when we eat with the children. It may not look like much.. but it is filling and good !!!!

When we got ready to leave, we decided to ask if Holly and Logan would like to go with us to see Henry before his surgery. They jumped at the chance and ran to get their jackets. We all piled into the car and took off for the hospital.

Along the way, we remembered that Hank had a birthday coming up and it would be a good time to get him something while we had the girls with us to help. Logan is a real penny pincher…. she never wants us to spend money and watches every zhao we let go of. (A zhao is like one dime to a dollar.) She didn’t want us to spend any money on Hank and persisted in telling us it was not necessary to buy for him. Nate explained to her that we WANTED to get Hank something, we wanted to make this special for Hank and we wanted her and Holly to help us find something good for him. We ended up getting him a harmonica and a rubics cube. Logan thought it was too much anyway. (grin)

We took the girls by the Hotel to see our room and thought we might get some rest in. To our surprise, here came Hank walking in our Hotel room door. After Hank came Jenny and after Jenny came Aaron. Seems Aaron had taken off with Hank and Jenny and decided to hop a cab and come to the Hotel to see us. What got into him I will never know, I think he was missing his play station. (grin) He brought the kids to us and then went to his room. I do think Nate scolded him a little for running off with the kids and not telling anyone. The Mothers would be frantic !!!

So we piled them all in the car and took Jenny back to the Orphanage, Hank wanted to go with us to see Henry too. Nate, Holly, Logan, Hank and I went to the hospital and Henry was tickled to see us all walk in the door. We took some pictures with him and the children and with the him and the doctors, and with him and Nate and I. We just had a regular picture taking party. The nurse came in to give him a shot and told him to lay down and rest, but that didn’t last too long before he was sitting up and smiling away again.

Bless his heart. in spite of that harelip, he really does have a cute smile. His lip is a double split so he has little ” wings ” on both sides of his nose that curl up when he smiles. It’s quite a unique smile and I found myself attached to that smile and Henry in no time at all. He just smiles so sweet and reaches out in such a tender manner. He can touch you with his eyes when he really looks at you. I fought tears many times just seeing him smile up at me.

The special Surgeon from Zhengzhou came in and we went to a special office with Henry in hand to talk to him before he took him into for the operation. This was the first time he had even seen Henry. They had lengthy discussions with other doctors regarding the procedure but he had never looked at Henry prior to this moment. He was a very nice man and his demeanor was likable. He looked at Henry for about 2 minutes and said “No problem.” He then told us that he would not have to wait the 6 months to do the next surgery as they had thought. He would do the next surgery in about 10 days! So, Henry will just be getting over his first surgery when the second one will take place.

After we met with the surgeon, we all went back to the room and waited. I sat next to Henry on the bed and held his hand, patted his back, kissed his cheek and grew more and more attached to him in no time at all.

Soon enough, they came after him with a stretcher and wheeled him up to surgery. The tears could no longer stay within their boundaries and came washing over me as the doors closed on the elevator to take him away. All the crowd of Chinese people were amazed to see me crying over this child, but I could not help myself. How in the world I got so attached so fast and how something like this could hurt so deeply I will never know. You would have thought they were wheeling a child in that I had labored, nursed and raised for the last ten years.. not a child I hardly knew. Ah but God knows that child.. so my heart cried out for him none the less.

Logan, Holly and Hank were a bit antsy at this point so we all walked down to the bakery and got ice-cream to pass the time. It was a nice brisk walk and we drew lots of attention as we always do anytime we go out. (smile) We sat and ate our snacks and gave our two House-Mothers English names.

Mrs. Li is now “Jade” for her name means “beautiful jade,” and Mrs. Sun is now Maggie, for her name means “magnificent”. Well, it sounds like it, you know ? (grin) They liked them. it is always fun to give them new names, they get such a kick out of it and so do we.

We walked back to the hospital and were told that the surgery would last about 3 hours instead of the estimated hour and a half. They had to take in some more blood as well due to the extent of the surgery. Seems things were a little more complicated than what they had expected, but our Henry was doing fine and things were looking good.

We noticed the children were beginning to look a little worn around the edges. Then the nurse came in and told us that the children should probably not stay around. Henry would need lots of rest. So we decided to go ahead and take the kids home. They were used to naps in the afternoons and today had been somewhat of a strenuous day for them with all the excitement We took them home, stayed for a while and read, played a little and then took off for the hotel again. We were going to go back up the hospital, but we called and they said that Henry was still sleeping heavy and we should just come in the morning if we would like.

Nathan and I both had a hard night. I know Nate was up and down every 30 minutes of so, and I just laid there and prayed for as long as I can remember. I would fall asleep praying and wake up praying, fall back to sleep praying and wake up and pray again. It was what seemed like a long night for both of us so we got up early and got ready to go back up to the hospital. Nate woke up the boys and told them to meet us at the bakery for coffee and we took off.

We had our coffee and headed up to the hospital. When we arrived, Mr. Li and Jade and Maggie were all there watching over him. I tell you, these people are good, warm hearted people and they take excellent care of our children. Henry was sleeping soundly. He has tubes in his nose, tubes in his throat, and a lot of drainage. Bless his heart, he was so brave and so strong.

They told us they had given him nothing for pain since the surgery.. can you imagine ? But, he was sleeping like a baby and when he woke up he didn’t seem too distressed. The only time I saw any sign of pain was when the nurse came in and put an IV in his arm. He winced but never even cried out. What a strong little man he is. His little sinuses were so swollen and he could not breathe through his nose, so he was having to breathe through his mouth and that was difficult for him.

I put my WWJD bracelet on his tiny little arm and Nate showed him that he had one just like it on his arm too. I think we actually saw a hint of a smile. We had gone by the store and picked him up a series of books and a small little GameBoy. He is going to be in the hospital for a long time and we wanted to take him something to help pass the time. We will see if we can find some better books around Xinzheng before we go back up there.

From Nathan, April 14, 2000

You know, as I stood there looking at little “Henry” He Long Qiang, waiting for the surgeon to come in and take him into the operating room I couldn’t help but feel a total sense of amazement.

There he was; small, frail – probably with never a “real” meal in his entire ten short years, laying in a hospital bed. There he was, looking up into Shannie’s eyes with such trust and desire to be loved. It was as though his eyes were speaking across the abyss of the language barrier and he was saying, “Be my protector, be my comfort, be my friend, be my family; I need you! Please?”

I think about that now. I think about how his grotesque appearance caused little children to run from him and older children to persecute and ridicule him.

I think about the first night he spent in the Home of Hope orphanage, the Thursday night before he was to be admitted into the hospital for the surgery, how out of eleven of the orphans – kids who had seen their parents die, kids who knew they had been thrown out, kids who had already been toughened by the cruelties of life — how out of eleven of them only three did not feel afraid of little Henry.

I shamefully thought back to the first time I saw Henry in the mountains of GongYi. His hair so matted it seemed to have never been washed. His face was very difficult to look at. I remembered how with the other kids, the dirt hadn’t mattered; how I had been able to hold each one of them and embrace them, but how strained I felt when it came to Henry. His dirty teeth protruded from his distorted mouth, and I felt like I really didn’t want to hold this little ugly human being – until he looked at me with those eyes that said, “Are you going to reject me too?”

I remember the shame I felt. I hadn’t been raised that way. I had been taught to care for and accept people. And on top of all of that, God, who could only look at my sinful nature as being the most grotesque and ugly thing He had ever seen, looked past all of that sin and reached out his hand in love and said, “All I want of you is for you to want a relationship with me!”

Now Shannie sat on the side of the hospital bed looking little Henry in the eyes, and his eyes were saying, “I want a relationship with you!” How could she or anyone refuse those appealing eyes? She couldn’t. No one could have. I can not help but draw a parallel with our relationship with God.

He looks at us through His eyes of righteousness; the Holy God who cannot coexist with sin – and when He sees our desire to reach out and choose to have a relationship with Him, he overlooks all the imperfections in our life and reaches out to us. Just like people have done to Henry He Long Qiang.

Sure, we have to go through surgery – just like Henry. He went through a very painful surgery, and there was no visible change. All the work was done on the inside! Sound familiar?

There will be a second surgery, and maybe more after that, and slowly his appearance will change to that of a normal little boy. One that people won’t run from anymore; one that kids won’t laugh at or tease or ridicule.

A little like us – God looks at us, takes our hand, and begins His surgery on us. Slowly, slowly… At first there is no visible change, but as each bit of deformity is cut away and mended by His Grace and Love, our vile and sinful appearance begins to change. And just like His Word says, when He looks at us, it is not our grotesqueness He sees – but the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As little Henry He Long Qiang awaits his next surgery I am ever grateful for the lessons we learn from these everyday experiences over here in China as we work with these orphans.

The love of God is not isolated to polished pulpits in comfortable sanctuaries. It can be found in dirty holes in mountainsides far, far away from what we commonly know as civilization. It can be found in the touch of a foreigner on the dirty and matted head of an elderly, homeless person who has not had a decent meal in many years. It can be found in the face of a new mother when a person passes and lays hands on her child and speaks a prayer for the baby that the mother doesn’t understand but knows is from the heart.

The love of God is so awesome and His Grace so never ending.

Thank you Lord, for Henry, and all of those like him.

Thank you Henry. Thanks for the lessons.

And thanks to all those folks back home who help in this great effort to reach the lost and dying.

Thank you!