Dear Family, friends and
supporters,
Happy New Year to you all,
we hope our Greetings come to you following a happy Christmas time and a
refreshment before the new year began.
We have now been living in
China for over 4 months and it seems to have gone so quickly. Much has been
happening over the last month so we hope you will enjoy our mail.
THANK YOU
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For an amazing Christmas
time back in the UK. It was wonderful to see so many of you. Thank you
also for your understanding if we did not get to see you. 12 days was just
not long enough to get round everybody.
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To Aldridge Parish Church
and Holy Trinity for the way you welcomed us back. A special thank you to
Matt Wallace for taking the time to find out what Happy Christmas and New
Year was in Chinese. This really touched us. Also to Pop-in, what a lovely
surprise your Christmas card was to us, thank you for taking the time to all
sign it, what a treat.
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For the cards that people
sent to us for Christmas here in China. Many of them arrived before we came
home and adorned our bedroom for sometime. It is these kinds of actions
that make us feel very much loved and supported by you. Thanks to Auntie
Iris who collected all the family cards from around the UK and posted them
out to us. This was awesome.
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For your generosity.
Before we came home I asked God if he would provide some English money for
us so we did not have to re-exchange our Yuan. I asked him for 180GBP. We
received 3 donations for our personal support while we were at home. We are
so very grateful that people give to us in this way in response to God’s
calling. But I would like to highlight a young man who is a member of AYF.
He left church on Christmas Eve only to return to give us some money. He
gave us his Tithe. I was so very moved that he would do this at a time when
we all feel the draw on our purse strings. God obviously spoke to him but
he had the courage to respond to God and the money that he gave us meant we
received exactly 180GBP to the penny while we were at home. I hope this
little story blesses you as much as it blessed us.
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For your hospitality – we
loved every minute of every conversation, minced pie and cup of coffee.
Thank you. Thanks too for our Mom in Aldridge who looked after us so well.
James and Justine thank you for giving us so much of your time even though
you have a wedding to plan. God Bless you.
What’s
been happening?
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One of the fun things about
China is that things just happen! Literally no warning, they just do. When
we returned to Beijing, bearing in mind we only left for 12 days, we would
take a drive to find buildings that once stood had disappeared over night. It
is an amazing place here. If the government wants something done, it just
happens.
Take for example the main
road to HFH. We have a lovely bridge with two dragons off to the side.
Without warning, one day we had concrete blocks put onto the bridge to stop
big lorries. Now this would be fine if there was a sign to tell the lorries
they could no longer use it. But there is not. So what you end up with is
lots of lorries trying to get through and then getting stuck.
What however is
even more amusing is that the drivers of the big trucks remain resolute that
they will get through. So they begin smashing up and trying to drag these
pillars out of the way.
Over the last week we have watched on a daily basis
where the concrete pillars would be. Would they be on their sides? Dragged
off to the side? In half?!!!
Here is a pic of one such lorry driver and his
mate on their way to join two other fellas smashing up the road block. You
just have to love this country!!
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Kindergarten
This area is a constant
source of amusement to all of us here at HFH. Robin, Joyce, myself and the
supervisors often pass the window to marvel either at the noise or the mess.
Becky just seems to be excelling herself in this role as Kindergarten
Teacher. As she walks the corridor you can hear her name being shouted by the
kids who want her to see everything that they are doing. You hear them saying
very clearly, in English - Teacher! Teacher! Teacher BACCY!! They
have yet to master the E!!
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I will let her tell you what
else has been going in but here is one picture that tells a thousand words.
Guo Fu (Zachary) in action
Becky here –
the picture of Guo Fu above shows what happens when you let an excitable
little boy loose with paint. What it doesn’t show is that seconds later he
decided to cover his whole face with paint and we were still trying to get
paint out of his eyebrows by the end of the class! I have to admit that
Kindergarten has got a little harder since returning.
Qun Qun has now been
adopted and has left us, and I have a new student that Lee will tell you about
in a minute. The change in students has also meant a change in dynamics, and I
now have 3 students who are incredibly spirited and strong willed (I certainly
admire people who work with large groups of small children). Despite this the
children are making good progress, particularly with their English as they all
enjoy mimicking the words and have started to say them unprompted.
One little boy,
Parker, actually has quite a problem communicating as he was diagnosed last
year as being severely deaf. He now has hearing aids fitted and can listen but
cannot speak and uses incoherent noises to communicate. Thanks to an extremely
helpful friend in the UK, we will be starting this month to put a programme
together to help him with his speech.
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Each morning we now bring in
Ling Quan (Ling – Ch-u-ann - Andrea Ellen). She is one of the children in
the outreach foster program. She comes in every morning to Kindergarten; you
can see her just behind Guo Fu in the picture above. Each day since she
joined it has been the highlight of my day to go and get her from her foster
home in the village. It sounds such a small thing but when you see this
little girl beaming each day and all ready in her winter gear to come to
kindergarten it cannot help but make me smile. This morning she even gave me
a big kiss.
This is what greets me at 9:30am Mon – Fri
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Church continues to go
really well. We are members of an International Fellowship, Capital Community
Church. Becky and I have been made to feel very welcome and our new house
group leaders are being very supportive. Matt and Sharla Murray even invited
us round to watch the Manchester United v Manchester City game and then stay
over. Now I know that some of you will already be falling about laughing
knowing how much I miss my football but even though Utd lost 3-1 we had an
awesome time with their family and Matt and I drank the worst IPA I have ever
tasted just to try and get that footy atmosphere!! I was a bit more gutted
when we heard the Arsenal result!! 7-0
The
Extension
If you have not been on the
website you may not know that an American group called Love Without Boundaries
have sponsored the building of an extension to HFH. The building has gone up
very quickly and Becky and I have even had the chance to choose the paint
colour for our bedsit. Robin and Joyce have been so supportive of our
permanent residence and have involved us in choosing furniture and colours.
This will be wonderful to move into as it will give us a place for us to “go
home” to and a place where we can have a cuddle on the sofa. I think I am
most looking forward to not having to remember to put some clothes on before I
go to the bathroom, currently down the corridor!! This will also provide us
with a place to try and be more hospitable in a homely setting. We are very
excited about this move.
The main purpose of the
building though is to provide physical therapy for the children. Some of them
really do need regular help with movement. Joyce is hoping to have a medical
person come in to get this up and running. An office has been built and also
an apartment for a family should God be calling a family out here. The
provision is excellent and we are now waiting on God to provide the staff. I
said to Joyce and Robin the other day that it reminds of Kevin Costner in
“Field of Dreams” “if you build it they will come!” We are praying
so.
Well we leave it there for
now but we will be back into our routine of keeping you informed. Please keep
in touch and please feel as though you can email us, to see non-work names in
our inbox is always lovely.
Can we encourage you as well
to send us the odd bit of post as I do not think I can describe in words how
that feels when we see post with our name on it. You are all such a blessing
to us, and it is your love for these kids and this project that means that
this work can take place. We are just the hands, but we are all the workers.
Much Love and God Bless
Lee and Becky
-xx-
Hello everyone, Wow what a frantic time it has been over the last few
weeks. I am currently in Jiao Zuo, in Henan Province, which is where our
first two weeks in China were spent back in September. Becky is still in
Beijing chasing the “rugrats” as they are named, in the kindergarten.
So what have we been up to? Well I think the big thing has to have been
our trip to Hong Kong. 4 children went to Hong Kong to meet with Dr John
Ngan and his team at Matilda Hospital. John Ngan is a urologist specialist
who is an accomplished surgeon in the US. However he returned to Hong Kong
after many years abroad and found himself wondering why? His skills are not
put to the test there as much as they could have been abroad and he has been
searching as to what God was doing in his life. However that was not for
too long as God began showing John the need to help children in China with
bladder problems. And guess who got to meet him? Joyce and Robin!! So
the four of us plus Mr Han, Jiao Zuo orphanage’s assistant Director, took 4
children to Hong Kong.
These four children stayed 3 nights in Matilda Hospital and were cared for
by the hospital staff and volunteers from a local charity.
So while this was going on Becky and I had the opportunity to go and see
some of the sites of Hong Kong. We likened it most to our trip to New York,
a very different feel to the open spaces of Beijing and Bei Wu. Matilda
Hospital itself is set almost at the top of Victoria Peak and the room
(rather huge apartment) had a magnificent view across Hong Kong and Kowloon.
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This was a really nice time for us to spend together as currently we
are in separate locations and will have been so for almost two
weeks. One of the big things about Hong Kong was all the Christmas
decorations. We have really missed the build up to Christmas this
year, although it is now appearing bit by bit. Hong Kong was full
of amazing trees, whole high rise buildings with Santa in lights on
them and Christmas music playing in the shops. We did lots of
shopping and one of our highlights was spending an hour in a
Christian book shop listening to cd’s of the latest worship albums.
It was just great.
During our stay we were looked after so well by the Hospital people
and had some of the most beautiful meals with them. We tried deep
fried Eel, Dim Sum and best of all Jelly Fish. The way I would
describe my feelings on eating Jelly Fish is this. I don’t like
them when they are in the sea as they sting and don’t look
pleasant so I steer clear. I will apply the same principle in
future when I see it on a plate!!! |
So we saw as much as we could before the interesting challenge arrived! Bex
and I were presented with the 4 children in our apartment for one night. I
have to say it was supposed to be two nights so we got lucky. Having not
had children ourselves, nor looked after one for more than a few hours, it
was to say the least a challenge to have 2 babies and 2 toddlers all of a
sudden thrust upon us. Becky was a natural she adapted brilliantly and just
seemed to know exactly what to do and say, it took me about a day to get
over the shock!!
But we did it and at times really enjoyed it. One of the funny parts of
doing it was that the children’s physio came to visit them in our apartment
and when we got chatting discovered we were all at Chester College together
at the same time. What a small world it is!!!
The kids did so well and there is a lot of hope for the future of Wen Ling
and Wen Dong as to how they will be able to manage the problems that they
have as they get older.
Our last night in Hong Kong was very special as the Hospital were doing a
Christmas fundraiser event to raise money for them to be able to do more
surgeries like the four they had just done for Hope Foster Home. It was so
nice to be able to see Hong Kong in lights below, Christmas cheer and music
and mulled wine and then the Children got to meet Santa.
I will remember this time in Hong Kong for many things but I think that
moment with Santa really got me reflecting on our time there. And though I
found it tough it was the moments like this with Santa that really were
special. For me the last moment that evening was very humbling, listening
to an orchestra play “White Christmas,” led by two of the surgeons that have
operated on HFH children on their violins. Wen Dong fell asleep very
peacefully during this song and I was very humbled to have a perspective
that could see what these amazing Doctors are doing alongside a young man
whose future has hopefully been changed because of their heart for Christ.
It was a teary moment I confess but wow to see Wen Dong and those two
surgeons in that setting was quite moving.
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I hope you have enjoyed hearing what we have been up to over the
last 4 months (can you believe it has gone that quick), Jiao Zuo is
never dull but I will leave it here for now. We will be back in the
UK this coming Thursday and thank you all for your amazing support
for us, the prayers, words of encouragement, the post, the emails
and your gifts to keep us. Thank you soooo much, we are humbled by
the way you show your love for us and for the Lord and the work that
God is doing over here. Remember this is your work, it is you that
is making it happen, we are just the hands.
God bless and a very Merry Christmas
Love Lee and Becky
-xx-
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Dear Friends,
Again we
apologise that it has been some time since we have been in touch. Thank you
to those people who contacted us to say “we’re worried we haven’t heard from
you!” There has been much going on this month and time seems to go so fast.
We’ll try and fill you in as much as we can.
Thank you also to those of you who have emailed telling us you
miss our updates this has been a real encouragement too us.
By the time
you read this we will probably be on our way to Hong Kong We fly at 10am
(2am your time) on 2nd December. There are 4 babies that need to
be taken for urodynamic analysis – for the lay person (like us!) that means
they have problems controlling their bladder, and they will be examined to
see what the next step is for each of them. Robin, Joyce and the two of us
are flying there with the babies, leaving Tina at home to look after things.
We are looking forward to the 5 day trip although are a little apprehensive
about having a baby to look after on a plane. We have an outline of what
will be happening and it is all very well organised. Once there the hospital
staff will look after the babies and we may get a chance to see some of the
sights of Hong Kong, and even have an opportunity to do a bit of Christmas
shopping!
On our return
we will have one day in which we will recover and go out for dinner to say
goodbye to Tina who is returning home to the States permanently, after
working here for 2 ½ years. Then Lee is off to Jiao Zuo on 9th
December for 10 days whilst I
stay at the home to continue the Kindergarten and get ready for returning to
the UK for Christmas. Please pray for us as we are apart during this time.
Although working together can have its strains we know we will miss each
other!
News from the home
Kindergarten
continues to go well. The kids are really starting to pick up some English
and I had a
surprise when Ji Bei counted to five in English all by herself, completely
unprompted. One of our friends suggested that
I write down when things happen in
Kindergarten that make me
smile or touch me
in some way so be warned –
I have plenty of stories to tell you
when I see you!
It is incredible to see the development of the kids and how quickly they
learn. It’s hard to keep up with them at times. Having no children
ourselves, we are discovering so many things through getting to know the
kids here.
We have seen
many new babies arrive this month, which is surprising as there never seems
to be any spare beds but they’ve all squeezed in somewhere! One of the
arrivals was Fu You Peng (James) who you may remember arrived at the PCU
when we were there in September. He was brought to Hope Foster Home in the
hope that something could be done about his cleft lip. However, since being
here his health has deteriorated and there seems
to be some underlying problems that need investigating, including the
possibility that he may be brain damaged. He has had to go into hospital as
he was having trouble keeping any food down, as well as suffering from
respiratory problems due to bronchitis. As you can tell, overall he is not a
well boy but there is such a spirit here of fighting for each little life
that we come into contact with and everything possible is being done to
nurse him back to health. He is in isolation at the Home now and has 24 hour
care. Please remember him in your prayers.
Please also
pray for Alice –Fu Zheng. She is only 1 month old and has had two surgeries
to correct a problem with her bowel. She is in hospital at the moment in
intensive care and is very weak. If she can survive, then she has a good
chance of recovering but it is touch and go with her.
We have also
had to say goodbye to one of the children this month, but for very good
reasons. Cyndee (Fu Ya Jing) came to the home not long after it had opened
because she had minor congenital heart disease and was a poor feeder. She is
now an extremely lively two year old who has been adopted by a lady called
Linda, from Arizona. We have known for a few weeks that she would be
collected soon and on Monday Linda arrived to take her. It was an incredibly
mixed day. Understandably, her nannies were very upset to see her leave, as
we all were, but what an immense joy to see that this little girl now has a
family that she can call her own, and a 6 year old
sister, also adopted from China, waiting to meet her in
Arizona. Although she didn’t really understand what was happening she became
very distressed when it was time for her to leave, trying to cling to her
nanny rather than
go with this lady who was a complete stranger to her. Someone likened
the experience to being kidnapped, and for her it must feel a bit like that,
so please pray for her as she settles into her new life. She and Linda will
be in China for the next week as the necessary paperwork is completed but
once they return to the US we should hear news of how she is doing. She was
one of my
kindergarten children and things are certainly very different without her
energy and infectious giggling.
Lee
- For me this month has seen a mixture of volunteers come and go and several
maintenance jobs need addressing. I am amazed at the amount of little jobs
that crop up in HFH and empathise with our school caretakers for the amount
of work that must come their way. It has been lot of fun going and buying
taps, communicating to workers in very broken Chinese, with the few words I
know, to Xiao June our supervisor who then puts it into proper Chinese to
tell the workmen. Interestingly enough all my products have come from
B&Q!!! They even give me 5% discount. For those of you who knew my
bargaining antics in the UK this will come as no surprise.
One major
thing that happened was the refurbishment of a local house in the village.
This has been a very exciting project that saw a 28 year old homeless man
and his 1 year old cerebral palsy son come from Beijing Railway station to
live here in a house rented by HFH. We did it up real nice and have placed
him into our foster program providing the child with all its needs. I have
found this such a rewarding experience in terms of seeing what sort of
things are possible. I have enclosed a photo of him in his new place. I
should point out however that we have now not seen our new resident for 5
days. I am hoping for a good reason but one cannot wonder where this young
man is and what the future holds for him. The main thing is he has seen the
heart of God at work whatever happens.
On a lighter
note, since being here we seem to have been witness to several plagues of
insects. First there were the affectionately named “stink bugs” which were
about the size of a 10 pence piece, buzzed around the room at head height,
got EVERYWHERE and smelt really disgusting if they were squished so you
couldn’t even kill them! Next came the ladybirds, equal in number but rather
tamer, although a lot more active than the ones we get at home. Now we are
in the middle of fly season which a) seems strange as it is so cold and b)
is the most annoying plague so far! There is a quote that says “if you think
you are too small to make a difference, try spending a night with a mosquito
in your bed”. That is also true for spending a night with a fly in your room
that only appears when you put your head on the pillow and disappears
without trace when the light goes on!
It has made me wonder though what on earth Pharaoh was
thinking when he would not let the Israelites go. 24 hours with a fly
plague and I’d have sent then packing!!!
The Life
Our car is
running well and is such a blessing to us as it allows us the freedom to go
out when we need to without using other HFH transport
that can be made available for others. However one of the
downfalls of driving in this country is that you see so many bad accidents.
This is not meant to concern people as Lee is a very good driver, but there
are many careless people who end up dead or injured. Lee especially has been
witness to a number of bodies lying in the road,
which at first did not affect him, but more recently has
weighed heavier on his mind.
Robin and Joyce were witness to a terrible crash only the
other day in which two drivers lost their lives. Pray for safety for all
those at HFH who drive, Robin, Tina, Lee, Zhao and Xiao Li.
We have been
taking the opportunity to explore Beijing at the weekends and are finding
that we really love the city. It is not as claustrophobic as some of the
other large cities we have been to but there is such diversity. We have been
going to the Sanlitun area, a place known for it’s restaurants and bars as
we felt we’d like to go out for a drink. After coming across a place called
“The Den”, rather like a British pub, our next stop was my
idea of heaven! As we walked we came to a place called “The
Bookworm”, a bar that serves the usual kinds of drinks and also has a good
range of snacks. The special feature though is that every available wall
space is packed with English books! There were a number of people sitting
around reading and enjoying a beverage and we wiled away a couple of hours
in there. It was so relaxing and a great treat to be able to look at the
books. We know that this might not sound too appealing to some but when all
you see is Chinese characters everywhere; it’s nice to see something you
actually understand! They also sell books so we were each able to come away
with something too.
Church
We are
finding ourselves becoming more involved in the church despite our initial
thoughts that we would take our time in seeing what God wanted us to be a
part of. We guess he had other plans! Lee has led worship a number of times
now and I have
joined in as a singer in the worship team. We have found being
involved in this ministry together very rewarding and a new step for us. Lee
has been asked to take a more active role in the co-ordination and leading
of the worship. I have
been asked to consider joining the church ministry team as missions
co-ordinator – deciding where the money given by the church for missions
should be directed (I have
promised not to send it all to HFH!). I am a little nervous
(as always!) of taking up this role but both of these roles will start in
the new year.
We have had
the opportunity to begin making friends and have been invited out for dinner
a few times which is very important to us. We have even been to the home of
another British couple which was wonderful as we often feel outnumbered. Not
in a bad way but the cultural differences between American and English are
very evident, which has been a nice surprise, for example in one buffet we
went to we did not recognise a single dish!! Lee’s highlight has even
included a chance
to play football on the playstation! People are making us feel very welcome
and we pray that these relationships continue to deepen.
We cannot
believe that it is only 3 weeks until we return to the UK. Which means –
yep, afraid so – it’s only 3 ½ weeks until Christmas! It has been strange to
not experience the usual hype of Christmas here It has made us even more
excited about coming home. Things have just started to appear as the holiday
season gets in swing but we haven’t had to put up with the stuff appearing
in the shops in mid September. There are now a lot of stalls on the markets
that sell decorations but it would be interesting to hear the Chinese view
of what Christmas is about. The trees, decorations etc. are a sporadic sight
and we wonder if maybe they are only there for the benefit of the foreigners
it would be spectacular if some more people discovered the true meaning
behind it all this year.
Prayers
Thanks that
through everything the work of God is evident in the running of the home and
in our own lives on a day to day basis.
Our travel
over the next few weeks – to Hong Kong and Jiao Zuo and the UK.
For the
babies that we are taking with us – Tiffany, Aidan, Jamie and Josie. Pray
that the tests they undergo will give us positive news and show that there
are treatments available for them.
The children
mentioned above – James, Alice and Cyndee
We will send
another message before we leave for the UK so until then we hope that
preparations for Christmas go well for you.
As always if
you have a friend who would like to go on our update list please do say so
or print of news for people without email to read. We do have a postal
service if someone would like to go on this.
Thank you to
all of you who send us parcels we have been humbled by the number of you
that send us such kind things, like chocs, sweets, magazines and cuttings
from the paper as well as your letters. We value them so much. Here in
mid afternoon the postman paps his horn and we await to see if there is a
click of flip flops coming up the stairs that could mean we have a parcel.
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We
finish with two scenes from life here in China for you to see.
God
Bless and see you soon
Love
Lee and Becky
-xx-
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