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

“June” truly did manage to get some of the birthday cake in her mouth. But as is traditionally custom here in China some of the cake has to be put on your friend’s and relative’s face. A birthday party is to be a time of fun and happiness and a minor cake fight is all part of the fun. On occasion they even catch “Yie Yie” (Grandpa Nathan) and get some cake smeared on his face as well.

“Rena” decided to hide behind a flower or planter to eat her piece of Birthday Cake. I don’t think it did much good because I seem to remember a short time after I took this picture she came up to me and showed me her face covered with pink, yellow and blue icing. It is amazing to see how these children have grown in stature and character during the time they have been here. “Rena” and her brother “Bryan” are a joy to have around with their mischievous yet tender hearted personalities. Always good for a laugh yet always ready to lend a helping hand when needed.

On the left, “Joey”, “Gail“, “Heidi” and “Rena” all wait for big brother “Seth” to give them their piece of his birthday cake. You can almost see in Joey’s eyes that he is planning on the exact spot where his piece of cake is going to land on “Seth”! Of course you have the two little ladies “Gail” and “Heidi” who simply won’t do those kind of things. That just isn’t lady like! But most of the children with a small exception of a few, do get into the “cake mess” as I call it.

“Luke” and “Michael” sure don’t have any problems with eating all of their cake. Both of them wanted second helpings so they weren’t about to waste their cake by putting it on another person’s face… Michael seems to be saying “It tastes just fine on my own face.. and that’s where I want all of it!” They are both in kindergarten now and doing very well in their preschool courses.