Funny and Memorable Moments at SFCV

As we walk into each house, we hear the children screaming out to the Aiyi (nannies) - “老外來了! 老外來了!" (The foreigners are here! The foreigners are here!)

Jacob Jai: 姐姐，你有沒有糖？ (Jia Jia, do you have any candies?)

Mary: 對不起, 我沒有糖. (Sorry, I don’t have any.)

Jacob Jai: 你手袋有沒有糖? (Do you have any candies in your bag?)

Mary: 沒有! (Nope!)

Jacob Jai: 你明天可以能帶糖來吗? (Can you bring some candies tomorrow?)

Mary: 可以! (ok!)

Jacob Jai: 你能給我兩個糖吗？ (Can you give me two pieces of candy?)

Mary: 為什麼兩個？ (Why two?)

Jacob Jai: 我早上吃一個, 下午吃另一個. (I’ll eat one in the morning then another one in the afternoon.)

* That Jacob Jai is one smart kid!

JACOB JAI

Henry: 你會唱abc歌吗？ (Do you know how to sing the “abc” song?)

Mary: ♫abcdefg, hijklmno, pqstuz, wxyz…♫

Henry: no no no! 你不會唱! (You don’t know how to sing it!)

Henry turns to Jose: 你會唱abc歌吗？ (Do you know how to sing the “abc” song?)

Jose: ♫abcdefg, hijklmno, pqstuz, wxyz…♫

Henry: no no no! 你不會唱! (You don’t know how to sing it!)

Henry goes back to Mary: 你會唱 “耶穌愛我”? (Do you know how to sing “Jesus loves me”?)

Mary: ♫Jesus loves me this I know…♫

Henry: 你不會唱! (You don’t know how to sing it!)

Henry runs back to Jose: 你會唱 “耶穌愛我”? (Do you know how to sing “Jesus loves me”?)

Jose: ♫Jesus loves me this I know…♫

Henry: no no no! 你不會唱! (You don’t know how to sing it!)

Henry goes back to Mary…he asked about another song… This went on for 30 minutes. 30 joyous minutes!

HENRY

The older children reading a Chinese poem about “winter (冬天)” while the rest of us desperately try to follow them.

Victoria

Saying good bye at New Day Creations was especially difficult for us. There, Jose and I fell in love with a little girl name Victoria.

We met her on our first day at New Day. While we were playing with the toddlers/pre-schoolers in the playroom, Victoria came out from nowhere and played with us. We noticed that she looked like Anita (our older daughter) and felt a special connection with her almost immediately. Victoria spoke English and was able to communicate with us at ease.

The next day, we played with her again in between our breaks from clinic. Her eyes would twinkle whenever we spoke with our broken Mandarin. She would smile and answer us back in Mandarin. The following morning, I was assigned to assist the teacher at the school and got to interact with her on a one to one basis. We must have read ten or more books together in English and Chinese but enjoyed every moment of it. We were both sad when it was time for lunch. Because of Elissa’s workshop, I got to cover the English teacher in the afternoon and taught Victoria and Claire – another 6 years little girl who was born with a deformity of the right lobe of her lung and a tracheoesophageal fistula. Claire could only say simple words but is a happy little girl. We had 2.5 hours together so we made every minute count. We reviewed the alphabet, numbers, shapes, colors, seasons, animals, weather, sung silly songs, read, drew, laughed and played. We had fifteen more minutes to go so Victoria decided to cook for me. She invited me to her little kitchen and cooked up a storm. She was such a big sister to Claire. As she was cooking, she was teaching her what to do and reminded her to only pretend to eat the play food. Victoria cooked me noodles (Lai-mien) and asked what level of spice I would prefer (la or ma la.) While she was cooking, she was singing this melody – “Skip, skip, skip to my Lou, Skip, skip, skip to my Lou, Skip, skip, skip to my Lou, Skip to my Lou, my darlin'…” After she was done cooking, she served the noodles in a fancy bowl and poured me some make-believe juice in a cup. She asked me if I liked her food and with tears in my eyes, I told her that it was the best food I ever tasted (I really meant it!) She smiled and gave me more noodles then refilled my juice.

Later that night, we asked a New Day staff about Victoria’s status and she told us that she has been matched with a family and would be leaving soon. Our hearts were broken but knowing that somewhere out there, there's a loving family waiting for Victoria gave us peace and comfort. We know that she’ll do well because she is such a beautiful bright little girl. We also learned that she was abandoned at age three at the local children's hospital in her home city in April of 2007. She arrived at the foster home in October of 2007, very weak from her serious congenital heart disease. Victoria had surgery for her heart condition in November of 2007 and the doctors installed a pacemaker, and now she has recuperated.

We found ourselves looking for a glimpse of Victoria whenever we visited the foster home. It made us really happy when we saw her. Each time, Victoria was an extremely busy big sister; she was comforting a crying child, telling the Aiyi to change someone’s pants, directing traffic or helping with household chores.

On our last day at New Day, I carried her in my arms and did not want to let go. When I kissed her goodbye, my heart skipped a beat. Knowing that I will probably never see her again made my heart ache. We could see the same sadness in her little eyes. When she asked when we would visit again, I did not know how to answer her. As we were leaving, a New Day staff gave us each calendar as a souvenir. On the front cover, there was a picture of Victoria. I held my tears but cried like a baby when we boarded the plane. I could not comprehend why I was experiencing such emotions. Why do I feel like I’ve left something valuable behind?

Victoria – You have captured our hearts. Our thoughts and prayers will always be with you. We pray that you will live a happy life and that our path will cross again one day. May God bless you and hold you close.

~Mary

Thank You!

Thank you all for being the force behind Team JAMES and for making this exploratory trip possible. Both SFCV and New Day Creations really appreciated your love and generous donations and contributions.

Special thanks ~
- Our brothers and sisters at Christian Testimony Church for their financial support.
- Sky Chen and the QCAC congregation; Lily Li, Marie Lum, Julie Wyatt, Angela Gong and their Families for the clothing drive - more than 250 pieces of clothing were donated to New Day Creations just in time for the New Year.
- Angela Wan & John Liu for the PS2 Unit and Chris Kwok for the PS2 games. The students at New Day will be enjoying this very much.
- Lynn Callahan, Dr. Mee Yee Yolanda Eng, Dr. Diane Hochlerin, Dr. Max Van Gilder and Diane Perez, CNP for the formula/medical supply drive.
- Our trainers - Jeff Jue (Physical Therapist), Xian Chang (Physical Therapist), Anita Lee (Special Education Teacher), Joe Yau (Physical Therapist Student), Julie Wyatt (Pediatric Nurse Practitioner), Mike & Kelly Cheng (Physicians Assistant) and Nina Jeng (Multimedia Producer) for prepping us for this trip.
- Susan Tseng – our team member for preparing and leading our daily devotions.
- Kathy Lee for managing our blog.
- Our families, friends and everyone for their continuous prayers! Surely, God was with us on this journey.

Slacking Off

Some Work, Some Cough

Today was both a productive and unproductive day for Team JAMES. Jose and Angela each saw a handful of patients in the morning for eye and speech therapy assessments; Mary and Elissa spent the morning at the Foster Home. Susan’s scratchy throat turned into a cough and couldn’t risk infecting the kids at the Healing Home (poor Catherine has no one to read to her!...). In the afternoon Mary taught English to two older girls at the Foster Home and Susan continue to be sick. Elissa did another stress management workshop for the staff (different people than yesterday). Jose and Angela saw a few more patients including from the families that foster kids in the neighboring village. Elissa and Angela took a walk to the village to buy snacks, fun items, and breakfast for tomorrow since the team will do a “make-up” trip to the Great Wall. This may be a bit of a health challenge… We’ll probably be doing the lazy tourist version that has a lift to close to the top and then a toboggan ride to come down. It will be a 2 hour ride each way from New Day…! After dinner, Team JAMES played some games with the English school students for their Game Night, a bout of Uno. Remember that old camp game?

Susan

A New Day

Monday, January 11, 2010

After our morning orientation, Angela’s entourage (New Day staff) put her to work immediately while the rest of us toured New Day Creations’ facilities. We were so amazed at their Arts and Crafts Factory and got to witness the production process. Susan also got a private tour of the Healing Home. In the afternoon, Mary, Jose and Elissa got to interact with the children in the nursery and the playroom where M&J found two little girls that looked like Anita and Kathy (tears, tears…) For dinner, Team JAMES felt extremely bold and walked 2.0 miles to/from a local restaurant in the dark (no street lights.) The roads were un-plowed with a mixture of ice making our trip a challenging experience. It was a good thing Angela had a small flash light otherwise we would be lost. In the evening, we hung out with the Chinese Students (high school level and up) and conversed in English.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Team JAMES swung into action and carried out their assignments. Jose saw his eye patients while Mary assisted. Angela saw her speech patients while her entourage took careful notes. Elissa conducted a Stress Management workshop for the nannies/staff and played with the children. Susan worked with Catherine, a nine year old little girl who will soon have heart surgery at the Healing Home. Team JAMES ate at a nearby restaurant for dinner. It was totally rustic but it only costed us $3 USD per person. What a bargain! Hopefully, we won’t be sick afterward.

Highlights - the testimonies that were shared to us by some of the New Day foreign staff have been incredible. They are testimonies of ordinary people having a heart for China/orphans dropping everything and relocating here to serve. It is truly an inspiration to us all. Praise the LORD!

Shepherd’s Field Farewell Prayer Walk, January 9, 2010

Today was the last day Team JAMES stayed at Shepherd’s Field before moving on to New Day Creations for the second half of its China mission. After breakfast everyone headed out to each of the houses to spend time with the kids for one last visit. The Samaritan House (clinic house) was visited where the most fragile kids reside upstairs; but as well some toddlers who have been treated have flourished and remain (i.e., Ginger, Adrian, Zephaniah, Grace, Tristan, Luke, etc.). The team also visited each of the Houses of Peace, Zachary, Love, and of course, Blessing. Jose & Mary had one last (for now) temporary pow wow with Malachi and caught some awesome video of him being crazy silly cute.

After an early lunch the team spent some chat time with Clay and Jewel one last time in the Outreach House (aka cafeteria). Then before the team was set to be picked up by the van from New Day, the team did a prayer walk around the whole campus, praying in front of each house, then the site of the not yet built vocational center building, and the other common use houses like the workmen’s shed, banner factory, school, guest house and administration building. Stevie (a girl!) the Shepherd’s Field dog followed the team throughout the entire walk.

The shuttle trip to New Day didn’t take as long as was expected. The New Day compound is near a local village town, truly local… The team got a brief tour of the guest house section from a New Day worker named Caroline and left for a walk in the town to find batteries for Jose. Towards the middle of the village center was a supermarket that was reasonably modern and seemed to have just about anything that you could need. The size C batteries that Jose needed were found. Elissa found herself a whole new bag of rolled tissue (she plows through them to get through the day), a pair of comfortable slippers; and the team also got some fresh out of the oven red date pastry cake from the bakery section. Seems red dates are one of Jose’s favorites. The day was nicely wrapped up with the most homemade meal that the team has yet eaten in China. It was delicious! We were initially amazed and skeptical that they made 6 dishes in addition to the rice and some Chinese pancake, but perhaps unsurprisingly finished the whole meal! You’ll possibly note all of the fattened waistlines when we return home.

Susan

Speech

I spent the majority of Tuesday (1/5) and Wednesday (1/6) with Laura, the speech therapist, and served as a consultant and trainer of sorts. Laura is native Chinese and received 2 years of training from an American speech-language pathologist who volunteered at SFCV. Laura has here for about 3 years now. She and I hit it off great. During those two days I barely spent time with any of the children and the rest of the team.

I caught a cold sometime between Wednesday and Thursday =(. I stayed in Thursday morning and slept off the cold. After I woke up, I typed a summary of the training I had with Laura. I ventured out in the afternoon to look for Laura but she wasn't around. Instead, I ended up spending time with Annie, an occupational therapist (OT) from the Philippines, who has been at SFCV for the past six months. She, her son, a physical therapist and her daughter, an OT, have spent the past few years in China working with orphans through various non-government organizations. Her story is quite inspiring and challenges me to examine whether I can be like her: to follow her calling, to live a life completely different from the comfortable one I have and to depend solely on Him.

It's amazing how God orchestrates the timing of events. It is in retrospect that I appreciate His perfect plans and the preparation He took to bring me to serve at SFCV. The past sixteen months of speaking Chinese daily at my job have decreased my fear of speaking Mandarin. The past four and a half years of working as a speech therapist built up my knowledge base and my clinical skills to better serve the children. Supervising a student intern this past summer prepared me to serve as a supervisor/trainer to Laura.
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The children bring tremendous joy to all of us. Every evening at our team de-briefings, we talk about the children and the cute things they did. Since I have not spent much time with the children, I listen to the others share. As they spend time with the children, the children's personalities, peer relationships, and relationships with the a-yis are more apparent. The children are well-loved and cared for by the a-yis. We see such happiness and joy in the faces of the children. Those some have an overt physical disability, all the children are treated equally and there is total and unconditional acceptance of the child.
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Here's a picture of Philip from 5 years ago, when he was still at the other orphanage. He looks a bit older, but still with the same great smile.

- Angela

20/20 (1.0)

On thursday, Jan. 7, the team separated and did different things. Mary and I went to the clinic to do some eye screenings. Having brought only the most basic equipment, we were limited in what we could do. I was only trying to discern which children needed further evaluation. As the day went along, I realized that none of the kids wore glasses. Having spent time in their homes and school and watching them interact and understand how they use their eyes, I understood why I got the results that I did on the eye tests. Most of the kids had very slight far-sightedness or near-sightedness; only a handful of children had moderate prescriptions that might need correction. However, because these children live in an isolated community with small classrooms and very little television time and no computer in the homes, most of their eyes were fine. They did just get some computers donated so it will be interesting to see whether there will be a shift to near-sightedness in the future. Aside from this, there were a few cases of eye muscle abnormalities related to the conditions the children had. Unfortunately, all those would require surgery in the future.

At first, I was uncertain about doing eye tests on children because in the states it takes a lot of effort to keep the attention of the children. Many throw tantrums while examining. Then, to add children that have disabilities would be even more difficult. Thank God that this was not the case. The children were incredibly cooperative and pleasant. One child with hydrocephalus and could hardly sit up because of the size of his head was my best patient. Not only did he sit thru the testing without fuzzing but he was so cute. When he saw the lights shining into his eye, he called them “tai yang deng” (sun light). The way these children behave speaks volumes on how well they are being raised despite their disabilities and history.

In the end, the children had a great time. They felt like it was a field trip even though it was in the same compound. When we went back to visit the children in the houses, they would recall how I shone lights into their eyes. Children without the stimulation of massive amounts of toys and games will appreciate the simplest of things and each other.

Jose

Heart Breaking Experience

While Jose and Mary were at the clinic providing vision checks on the children here, I went to the House of Peace for the first time. There, I interacted with a tiny little five year old, Fiona, who was clearly the “boss” of the house there, ordering children and visitors alike. She, along with Kathy, a six year old, and Moses, a tiny little boy who looked like he was four, were doing math. They were sharing an eraser between them and learning math at each of their skill level. Moses made frustrating sounds and was obsessively writing and erasing the same numbers (1 through 10) when his copying of the numbers weren’t perfect. Another visitor/intern, Kirsty, informed me that he was not autistic as I had thought. Rather, he was deaf and dwarf – he was actually nine years old. He signed the numbers 1 through 10 in Chinese and corrected my signing as I was signing American. He then brought over a cloth book and “copied/signed” the long nose of a huge rat in the book to show me. He went to Kirsty to show her his mimic of the “see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil” monkey statues at the foyer, and signed the same thing with me. After a while, Moses turned on a Mr. Bean cartoon DVD and lined up the stools for all of us to sit there and watch. He made sure we had paid full attention to the DVD as he mimicked Mr. Bean with every action and expression. I joined him in mimicking Mr. Bean and he seemed to really enjoy it. I came to understand later on that the Deaf school he went to in the community refused to place him at his comprehension level (that of a kindergartener), so he’s been staying at the school on the grounds, while not being able to communicate with others effectively. He blew me kisses to say goodbye as I left their house. I stayed in this house longer than expected, as I just wasn’t able to leave this interaction that I was really enjoying…

I then went to the House of Love. There, while I was playing with a cute little two year old Susan, dressed in Chinese traditional red vest, in came Noel Joy, coming home from school, using her hands to pull herself across the floor. I was forewarned of some kids who get around this way from the rest of the team, but hadn’t seen it until now. She has a beautiful face and she smiles easily and freely. Few minutes later, in came Joann, who had a pair of knit shoes on her hands as she dragged herself across the floor. About two minutes later, I see a small and thin little girl dragging herself spastically across the floor…as if she was having a seizure. Her name is Noel and she has Cerebral Palsy. These four little girls played Lego with me. Even though Noel only has one fairly functioning hand, she happily stacked up Lego with me, laughing as Henry came over to play with us, making us sing songs like, “ABC” and “Silent Night.” My heart broke and tears welled up to overflowing to see these little girls with such severe physical challenges laughing and fully enjoying themselves, while playing nicely with each other, sharing their Lego blocks perfectly well with one another. As I laughed with them and took out tissues to wipe away my tears and blow my nose, they all looked at me with concern, Noel Joy seemed especially concerned…
Dinner was being served, and I sat on the floor with Noel on top of me as one of the nannies fed her. She swallowed her congee in lightening speed, and an autistic boy who was at first anxious over my approach, came and sat on the floor next to us, with his back to us. He allowed me to hold him with my left arm while I held on to Noel with my right, and he let me hold and play with his hand…It was time for our team to go out for dinner and I very reluctantly left the house…

While I’ve not been to The House of Zachariah yet, I’m feeling reluctant to go to yet another house and have such a hard time leaving each house. I’m feeling attached to these kids and it’s so hard to leave them, although they don’t seem to be having a difficult time with the comings and goings on the visitors (total strangers visiting them for the very first time). They’d run up to any visitor and grab us to play with them. They seem to enjoy the moment they have with the visitors, and as the visitors leave, they happily wave “goodbye” and are able to go merrily on to their next activity. I haven’t quite figured out if this is a sign of “healthy living in the moment” or a sign of pseudo-attachment…In either case, I’m the one who is obviously having a difficult time leaving them and letting them go…sigh…

Signed, Elissa

Progress

On Tuesday, 1/5/10, we taught a primary class at the school. We decided to teach about winter in English and Chinese. Anyone of us could not have accomplished this task alone because of our limited capabilities in Chinese. Between the four (JAMS) of us, we were able to fulfill this task. The older children are a joy to work with, making our job so much easier. In the afternoon, we toured the clinic. We saw some of the frailest and most helpless children. It just breaks your heart! The doctors and staff are truly compassionate. They give them the best care possible under the circumstances. Later, Elissa arrived in the afternoon and completed our team.

On Wed, 1/6/10, the team separated to do different tasks. Jose & Mary visited two foster homes. Susan & Elissa spent time with an older orphan and Angela helped train the intern therapist in Speech Therapy.

Philip

We arrived safely in Beijing last night, 1/2. I AM jet-lagged. I woke up at
4:30am and was awake for an hour before I nodded off to sleep, only to
wake again to start the day. We woke to 2" of snow on the ground. It
continued snowing all through breakfast. Our plans to sightsee were
laid aside since the roads do not get plowed here. Instead we went to
visit the kids in each of their houses.

An amazing thing happened while I was in one of the houses.... I
recognized a boy from the orphanage that I had volunteered at 5 years
ago. It was totally unexpected. The moment I saw him, my heart
stopped. It was so great to see him but also really sad because he is
still 'in the system' and is not adopted. His name is Philip and he is 10 years old now. He has spinal bifida, does not have any use of his lower extremities and uses a wheelchair. However, given his physical limitation, he continues to be full of joy and is a delight to be
around. I love his sweet smile.

- Angela

Little Ducklings

We are experiencing bone chilling weather in Beijing. Monday's temperature was 9 Degree F but it felt like -10 degree F. We visited the Therapy House in the morning and assisted a few children with their exercises. Afterward, we visited a foster home and played with the children there. After lunch, we watched nannies bring their children to school trekking through mountains of snow. The children followed in a single line like little ducklings. We were surprised at how disciplined they are. Later on, Team JAMES joined the Kindergarten class as substitute teachers. We sang songs and tried our best to entertain them but it was the children who ended up amusing us with their charming personalities.

Sleepless in Tianjin

I could not sleep even though I was still exhausted from being jet-lagged. I am filled with emotions of sadness, excitement, and joy. My mind is filled with all the little faces that I've met yesterday. What a blessing it is to be able to witness God’s work. The children are definitely well-cared for here at Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village. His Love is apparent to us, their smiles tell the whole story. The children are certainly not fearful of strangers. Most of them come right up to you demanding love and affection. They were so excited to see us and we were equally excited to embrace them. As I held the little children in my arms, there were moments when I almost lost my composure. I was reminded of God’s Goodness in Romans 8:28 ---And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. Please pray for the children and the staff here. Pray that the staff will continue God’s work in caring and loving these children. Pray that the children will be united with their forever family soon.

Mary

Finally Here

Thank God we arrived in Hong Kong early for our connecting flight because our flight from HK to Beijing got cancelled. We were met by an airline agent and escorted thru the airport to the connecting flight in time to take it. We arrived in Beijing two hours earlier than anticipated so we were happy that we might get to settle in with more time. Unfortunately, two boxes that were part of the donations did not make it into our plane. After waiting a while and not seeing the boxes, we started thinking the worst. Eventually, we resigned to the fact that the boxes were not going to show up. Mary stood on the long line of lost luggage reporting. Eventually, with her broken Mandarin and Susan's help, we reported the loss. By the time Mary finished filling out the necessary forms, the agent told her that the luggage might be coming on a later flight ten minutes later. Sure enough, after two hours of waiting and reporting, the boxes arrived. PTL! We were very relieved and now we could continue on our journey. Shepherd's Fields coordinators came out and waited for us all that time at the airport and drove us back to our housing. The accommodations are comfortable and we can now rest after the long travel. More coming soon...