Dear Friends,

We have not been able to update for some time as we have been so busy here at HFH.  What a privilege it is to be here.

We have mainly been working with Shaun and Ruth over the last two weeks who are a couple from the New Zealand group who stayed on.  It has been great having them here and we have enjoyed building a friendship with them.  Shaun and I have enjoyed pool, sorting out the tool shed, watching football and even having the odd beer.  Ruth and Becky have also found they have a mutual appreciation of the Sound of Music! They have been very helpful here and are currently down in Suzhou in the south as Matthew (Gong Qing) is due to have surgery to have his myleomengicele (sack on his back) removed.

So what have we been up to?  Well Becky has been really busy in the Kindergarten and has taken to it like a duck to water.  The sounds coming out of the room are often squeals of fun and laughter as they play these amazing games she devises.  We have giant shapes on the floor at the moment as she is teaching them about these and it is great to pass by and see them having such a good time. She says that one of the worse things about teaching little children is that she goes round all day with “If you’re happy and you know it” running through her mind! She is really impressed with the kids who are starting to pick up some new English words, starting to call her “Laow-shir” (teacher) and generally showing interest in the things she plans. She could do with some tips on using finger paints with toddlers though. How do you avoid children slapping their hands in the paints, thus spraying themselves, the paper, the table and all those in the vicinity?!

 

We are glad to see the return of Christina, an intern who has worked at HFH for nearly 2 1/2 years, but who has been away in Australia, looking after a child who has just had surgery. She has been there for the majority of the time we have been here. She actually leaves to return to the US permanently mid December and so the next few weeks will be a hand over time as we take on most of the jobs that she has overseen. Please pray for her as she prepares to leave, and that it would be a smooth transition into our new roles.

 

Becky has also now taken over the sponsorship program for the children. I’ll hand her over to tell you a bit more about it.

Becky speaking now – The sponsorship of the babies and nannies here is one of the main ways that the home is funded. People from all around the world sponsor these children and it is the sponsors that have given the children the English names that we often use. It is my job to correspond with these sponsors and also keep them up to date with how the children are doing. This is the part I love the most as it gives me a great excuse to spend lots of time with the children, as I prepare a 3 monthly update on each of them. Please pray for me as I get used to this new role. There are also a few cuties that need sponsoring so let me know if you are interested!

 

The Big news is that we have brought a car. This has been an immense answer to prayer as we wanted a car but they turned out to be very expensive and the second hand car lots are worse than Trotters inc!!  Robin however spotted a little number for us and after a test drive we felt God was clearly guiding us as it was cheaper than we expected and means I have money left over to buy a guitar.  Picture of our new beast enclosed. As you can see it is a real beauty.  Also the money we had donated for the car, after tax has been recouped, comes to 40GBP short of the whole price of the car so this is amazing!!!

 

The life Being here is so very different to home.  There are so many things that you could never imagine seeing at home in the context that you get them here. For example, and this is just today!!   Travelling a long the road in your car to find the carriage blocked by a man with a wheel barrow and a shovel casually going along scooping up donkey poop.  All the cars just gently swerving around him, no horns just avoiding him. Going down a road to find it blocked by a log so that you don’t drive over all the corn in the road.  Do you turn around? No, you all get and move it and carry on your way.   Then there is the language barrier and the little slip ups you can have.  Driving along today I said something that meant the two ladies in the car had to be helped out of the vehicle they were laughing so hard.  Who knows what I said but all I did was repeat the name of the village and that was the end of that. And then there are the sadder parts of being here.  On my way back from the airport this morning there was a man lying in the bike lane. His bike was bent in half on top of him and he was lying in a bent heap clearly dead.

The road rules here are not adhered to as they perhaps should be and there are many accidents.  It is part and parcel of what makes up our cultural diversities.  He was left there whilst the police and onlookers kept their distance.  We are learning how the Chinese approach these issues but taking care of someone in such a situation brings far too many liabilities and possible cultural stigmas that the man was just left alone and may even have been if he were not dead 

Visits

Being in China has humbled us greatly.  Today I had the privilege of driving Becky and two of the supervisors on a visit to three family homes where HFH children are being fostered.  The driving itself was hilarious as the roads in this part of town were very bumpy and the streets between the houses very narrow.  It amazed us to walk into one house and find it was huge had central heating, a beautiful persimmon tree (which the lady picked fruit off for us) and two bedrooms and a lounge with full widescreen TV.  The baby was beautiful and she was weighed and measured and a few checks were done. 

After this house we went to visit a potential Foster family.  The doorways to the houses are sometimes big iron gates so when the lady opened the front gate Becky and I struggled to keep ourselves from laughing.  Not out of rudeness but at the surreal site before us.  The front of the house was filled with 3 huge geese, 3 of the Biggest Bulls, 2 dogs, some chickens, and a donkey all tethered up munching away.  And then we stepped through the front door.  Just imagine that scene in England, it just wouldn’t happen!

The housing in the village is very different to the usual UK living. By our standards people would probably be seen to be living in poverty, but that is not the case at all. The main thing we’ve noticed is the lack of “stuff” that we seemed so good at filling our house with in Walsall. It seriously makes us consider the things we need and the things we just like to have gathered around us.

On Saturday we decided to take a day away to spend sometime outside of HFH.  We drove the new car into the outskirts of Beijing and then caught a cab.  We went with Ruth and Shaun and a great day exploring.  We went to the hutongs which are slowly disappearing in Beijing as the skyscrapers increase.  They are very tightly packed houses that are indicative of “old” Beijing.  We loved exploring the alleyways and seeing the vegetables hanging on the same lines as long johns.  We stopped off for hot pot for lunch which is a western Chinese dish that sees you dipping meats and veg into boiling water in the middle of your table.  It takes seconds to cook as it is cut so thin.  After lunch we took rickshaws through the streets to the drum tower.  This is where they beat enormous old drums in a tower (surprise surprise) but it takes your breath away the booming sound they make and you get a great view of the city from up there.

 We finished our day out with a lovely meal for the four of us in one of our current fav restaurants.  106Yuan for 4 of us (8GBP)!!

Church

Last week was lead by the ladies and worship in a few weeks is being lead by the men.  It was great to see a band comprising of 8 women of the church leading us in worship.  Church has been going really well and we had a post church lunch BBQ last week too.  Water Melon eating competitions, orange racing and melon pip spitting.  It was great!!  Church has been going well for us and we continue to enjoy being involved.  The set up here is very different as the children’s groups start early so an adult class can take place at the same time.  We have been following a DVD series which follows a group of Christians round some of the sights of the OT and then you get a history lesson followed by an application lesson.  It is really good, and after 1 hour of that it is time for church!!

When we were here in the summer last year, the lads from AYF and I went to a Men’s breakfast.  It was fantastic and partly inspired the guys to hold bible studies together when they returned home.  I had been looking forward to attending these each Monday.  They start at 6:30am and are 45mins drive away from HFH, but they are really worth it.  Sadly when I got here they had stopped them so I was thrilled to hear last Sunday that they would restart.  I went this week and it was awesome.  8 of us just chatting about what we thought would be good to have in these times and having some big laughs about the cultural divide between Brits and Yanks.  I even learnt the word Granola!  Just looked like Muesli to me!!!!  It tasted good.  Now we have a car I can get to things like this.

Football

I have done it.  It took 2 hours to get there but I have finally played a game of football!!!!!  AMEN.   It was right in the centre of Beijing at rush hour but I did it.  We played at the British Embassy on astro and the standard was very high.  I was very pleased to score.  It was interesting having been here for 2 months now how much I noticed the language and attitudes that I had almost forgotten existed in the big world.  It is easy getting used to not hearing swearing in earshot.  Or at least not in a language that you know is swearing.  It was a bit far though for a kick around and I would really like to play amongst Chinese people so please pray about this.  Alan and Gillian please get your prayer warrior breakfast people onto this one for me!!!

Prayers

Becky and Tina as they hold the fort here this weekend with lots of visitors and Joyce in Suzhou and Robin and I away playing paintball on the Great Wall!!

For Ruth and Shaun in Suzhou with baby Matthew
Continued opportunities for exercise, specifically football in the local area with Chinese people.

The Men’s breakfasts that they would grow in support and be a great blessing.

That Becky would also find an opportunity for support and relaxation.

So I hope you have enjoyed our update, we are trying as much as possible to keep you all informed.  We have sent out some newsletters to those people who are not on email so please contact Rachel Hooley on a.hooley@virgin.net if you know someone who would like this sending it to them. It is an overview of the recent months.

Thank you all so much for your prayer and thoughts and kind emails and gifts. We value them so much, please keep them all going.

Love to everyone

Lee and Becky

-xx-

PS You didn’t really think we’d brought that car did you!!!!!!!!  I said to God I would like something safe.  A 4x4 would be good but they are way out of our price range.  Guess what he provided - a 2.5 Jeep Cherokee.