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January 2007    Dear Friends

Greetings from across the world and Happy New Year.  We trust the New Year has started well for you.  It has been exactly one month since we wrote to wish you all a Merry Christmas and it seems as though time has flown so fast here.  Beijing has now changed from being green, warm and smoky to brown, cold and more smoky!!  The winter has well and truly arrived and with it comes this wind that seems to penetrate any amount of clothing I put on.  Beijing is in a state of constant change at the moment.  The Olympics has brought great expansion in the City and has now even started to work its way all the way out here in Shunyi!  New roads, new buildings, new houses and yet so much still remains the same for many people on the ground.

Snow!!   Last year we had two light dustings of snow.  This year so far we have had  one night of several inches and boy did we take advantage of it.  It so happened that Becky and I were given the use of a friend’s house for two nights over Christmas and it was on the 1st night that it snowed.  We had a wonderful time in the snow and all of the Chinese people who saw us throwing snowballs, building snow men and sledding, all thought we were crazy.   Unfortunately Beijing is lacking in hills so a bit of sloping concrete did the job nicely instead!

Christmas

Having never seen Christmas morning in with children ourselves this was by far the highlight of the month.  All of the children gathered in the dining hall to receive gifts.  Many members of the churches in Beijing had donated gifts to the children and Becky made sure that all of the children both in HFH and the Village Outreach Project had some gifts to open.  We all had such fun giving the presents to the kids and Bill and I took more photographs than we had all year as our wives helped distribute the gifts. 

The atmosphere was truly beautiful.  So many smiles, laughs and of course the terrified screams from those that found the whole thing just too much!!!  Personally I found it a very moving morning.  I hope for many of these children here at HFH that this Christmas, 2007, will see them celebrating Christmas with their new families. Two of our children (Dang Guo Kun and Fu Xiao Xiong) have already joined their families over the last two weeks and this year should see at least 10 more children experience the miracle of adoption. China has so many children that currently do not have parents to care for them, many of them also have medical conditions that require intervention in order for them not only to have a chance of a new family, but also a future at all. 

I could share so much about my thoughts about the children of China and the needs that they have.  But I want instead to show you some of the pictures that Hope saw on Christmas Day.  These children represent the millions in China who still need someone to reach out loving arms to them.  Aren’t they just beautiful!

Of course Christmas was also an exciting time for Becky and I because of the way so many of you found ways to get gifts and cards to us.  We managed to buy a real tree here in Beijing and so had our first Christmas away from the UK with our very first real tree!!  We cannot express enough of our thanks for these gifts as they lifted our spirits at a time when we were finding it tough.  We also have to say that those of you who sent clothes and extra THANKYOU!!  Becky says I look half decent again having some new things to wear.  Chinese people are just not the same size as us westerners!!!
 

The Car

God was very faithful in bringing a buyer forward who agreed to pay a very reasonable sum for our car.  We must thank one of the HFH Drivers Xiao Li who helped arrange the whole thing for us, he really was a star.   We are currently without transport, but looking to buy another vehicle as soon as we are able.  For those of you who have been to HFH you can imagine the difficulty of not having a car out here, we really are in the middle of corn fields. Thank you so very much for those of you who have contributed to the fund for another vehicle, we are getting closer to being able to buy one and look forward to letting you know when we do.  Please continue to pray that doors may be opened in this area.

What does 2007 hold for Lee and Becky?

Since joining the staff team at Hope Foster Home in September of 2005 we have enjoyed so much the work we have been able to do with these children.  When we came here Hope Foster Home had room for 26 children in house, had about 12 in Foster Care and had not long opened the Palliative Unit in Jiao Zuo with 10 babies.  Since then Hope Foster Home has added the West Wing, extended the Foster Program, opened a new 45 bed unit in Luoyang, supports 9 children in a pre and post op care room and has seen the Lewis Family and Gould family join the staff team.   This means that from 48 children in 2005 there are now over a 100 children in Hope’s care and with the expansion has come an even greater need for medical staff.  We had planned to stay 3 years at Hope, but with the changing needs of Hope Foster Home and new medical staff coming in we now know that we will only be staying 2 years. 

So what does this mean for us? 

We have prayed and studied very carefully and diligently together and both of us feel that our work with orphans is not being brought to an end here in China.  At the moment we are currently meeting with other orphan ministries to investigate the possibility of joining a new team at the end of this summer.  Please pray with us as we ask for God’s guidance and leadership as we discern where he would like us to be working as our time at HFH draws to a close.  The experience we have received working here at Hope has opened our eyes to the many ways that we might be able to support the people of China care for orphans and we are indebted to Robin and Joyce for preparing us the way they have.

Because we now know we are moving on this year we felt it important we plan appropriately for this and so with Robin and Joyce’s blessing Lee has taken more time to study Mandarin, both spoken and written.  In doing this we hope this will further prepare us for our work outside of Hope and give us the means to work more closely with Chinese people.  Becky continues to work in her full time capacity at HFH as Pre-School Teacher and Sponsorship Coordinator.

Our move from Hope of course means that we may have to make some big changes. We will need to find a new place to live and make alternate arrangements for our visas but we ask you to pray with us as we discern where God is leading us through all this.  We will of course keep you all informed as we gain a clearer view of where we will be after this summer. 

The support that you give us through your emails, letters, and gifts (and of course now skype calls!) remains the reason we are able to continue working in China and we want to thank you so much.

We also love the feedback we get every month when we send these updates out.  Thank you so much for your encouragement. 

God Bless from Beijing

Lee and Becky

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P.S. Thanks to the hard work of James, Lee’s brother, we now have our own website! This is another way to stay connected to our family and friends and means we can share more photos, news etc. If you would like to visit you can go to www.leeandbeckyplummer.co.uk. We will still be sending out these regular updates via email to keep you all up to date.

Regards

Lee Plummer

Cell: 13691500763