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

Your email:

Jenny is the vivacious little three year old we found in our very first child search back in January 2000. (See our archive pages about the child searches at Child Search Archives “In Search of Orphans” and “How it All Began” )

When we found her she was living in a cave and when she saw us she ran out of the cave and jumped right into Nathan’s arms. There was not a dry eye in the place and she was the very first child to come into the Home of Hope.

When she had her first physical we were told she had a slightly erratic heart beat but it was no problem.

She has grown into quite a neat young lady and is still that same old vivacious and tiny thing she was back when we found her. Always with a ready smile, laugh and pure happiness all the time…. one could call her “bubbley” (if there is such a word..)

About three months back we found her crying in her room right after lunch. It was almost time for the children to go back to school. We asked her what was wrong and she said I can’t walk and I can’t move my right arm. (The picture at right was taken this past summer)

We rushed her to the hospital where she remained for about a month until we moved her to Zhengzhou for more advanced treatment. After visiting three hospitals and many series of specialists including CT scans and many other scans and tests it was determined she had a blood clot in her brain and also the stopped blood vessel was leaking.

She was initially placed on round the clock IVs with blood thinners and other medications, both Western and Chinese. The thinners were a concern in that they were worried about the blood seepage from the vessel they felt was leaking. Surgery was out of the question according to all the doctors.

We had staff with her 24 hours a day and we insisted that she exercise her arm and leg as much as possible but at first there was just no movement at all.

During all of this she stayed happy and even joked and laughed about her condition. Such a doll!

The doctors told us she had taken her medication as long as she could and they needed to change her to a different type. This was to be administered by single, daily injection, not an IV so we insisted they allow us bring her home and we would administer the injection every morning.

Everyday, we would give her the injection in the morning and then she would walk on the tread mill for one hour. Then she would go to our hot whirl pool bath and sit there for another hour and then she had to exercise her arm and leg with small weights. We also insisted that in the afternoon she did her studies.

Now Jenny is back in school. She has missed so much the teachers think she should be held back for one year and that is fine as we don’t wish her to be behind in her studies.

We believe that Jenny will find full recovery and even now as spring sets in it is a real joy to see her outside playing with the other children and walking around… though with a limp… she is still walking! And she is able to write now with her right hand!

Thanks to all of you who believed with us and prayed for Jenny’s full recovery! She seems to improve a little more every day.

We took Jenny, Sam, Julie, and three of the staff with us to also answer questions if the audience wanted to talk to them about their life and working at the orphanage. Jenny was sitting on the side watching the proceedings and when I was telling the audience about my family back home and about the passing of my father, she ran up and sat on my lap. It was quite an ice breaker to say the least. The audience broke into applause which I think shocked the host and hostess. However, even though Jenny is quite the “ham” she would not talk to the audience. I am sure she was completely overwhelmed by the thought of being on TV.

There were about 300 to 400 people in the studio audience and they consisted of people from all walks of life. University students, news reporters, government officials and professional people from various occupations.

It was quite an interesting program and needless to say it gave the Home of Hope substantial exposure throughout the country. It must have made quite an impact. The next day I left for Beijing for Isaac‘s surgery and no sooner had I arrived in Beijing I received a call from my assistant in Gongyi telling me the police were at the orphanage. They wanted to go through all the rooms in the orphanage and “have a look.” He was rather shaken I think but I told him to be cordial with the police and give them free access to everything we had there. They visited for several hours and then sent me word that if I ever needed their help to just call them.

This week we brought in little “Michael” Yang Wen Bo, a little two and a half year old. (We aren’t exactly sure of his age as we don’t have all his village records yet.)

When we first arrived at his house, the lady who has cared for him for the last couple of years carried him out to meet us. “Michael” Yang Wen Bo seemed a little bewildered, as I would expect him to be. There was a lot of curiosity at this strange looking person who had come to his house. He had never seen a foreigner before. Unlike in the United States where it is common to see people from all races and nationalities, it is a true rarity to see a foreigner except in the major cities in China.

After taking a few pictures and talking to the lady and some of the neighbors about the history of little “Michael” Yang Wen Bo, we loaded him in the car and began our hour and a half drive back to the Home of Hope. It isn’t the distance that makes it take so long but the conditions of the road in this particular mountain area. Narrow, unpaved roads with sheer drop offs on the edges in many places.. rather breathtaking at times and not always because of the beauty! <grin>

Normally we have some difficulty trying to pick a good English name to give the children. In this case it was not difficult at all. For some reason as soon as I started taking his pictures and talking to him and the neighbors I decided he had to be a “Michael”. He did not show as much timidity and bashfulness as most of these children do when they first see a foreigner. He sort of took to us all right away.

We found out that little “Michael’s” father was killed in a quarry accident a short time after he was born. Often when this kind of thing happens the widow finds herself in a very difficult situation and they will leave to find marriage elsewhere (usually just for survival) and generally simply tell their baby good bye for the last time. That is what happened to “Michael” Yang Wen Bo. The lady who has been caring for him is called an Aunt but that term has many meanings in China and it is really difficult to say if she is a blood relative or not.

After a long drive home we got “Michael” Wen Bo into a hot shower, some clean clothes and new tennis shoes. We showed him his new bed and introduced him to some of his dorm brothers. He seemed real curious about all of this but didn’t show any signs of fear or worry and was very obedient through the whole ordeal. He has had all his vaccinations and shots now and has started settling into his new life at the Home of Hope.

“Luke” and “Jenny” are both really happy to have a younger brother. Now they are not the “babies” any more — they can be the Boss sometimes!

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!