Today Elissa and Alan remain the only contingent of Team AWAKE currently at Shepherd's Field. We're eagerly awaiting the arrival of Winsome and Katherine in about a week. And the days continue to go by quickly. Today we kept up what has become our routine: visiting classes in the morning and in the afternoon, spending one-on-one time with some of the kids, visiting the children at play in their houses, and making jaunts to the local Walmart to buy items that will be helpful in working and playing with the children.
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| Kennedy & Brent |
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| Cute Kids |
Tonight we took a group of the older kids out for dinner. Even when we (Elissa and Alan) walk along the local strip of shops in Tian Jin, just the two of us, we get plenty of stares. (Alan is pretty obviously not Chinese, and "lao huai"/foreigners are a curiosity here). So the six of us tonight, along with Stevie the dog who tags along everywhere we go, must have seemed like quite an interesting parade. The kids seem to thoroughly enjoy getting out, however, and call out and wave happily to the locals. It's humbling to discover that a single dinner out (which costs less than $30 US for a feast that more than feeds the whole table) is such a source of delight for these orphaned kids. They eat heartily, joke playfully, and toast one another with glasses of Coke, and make sure to say "thank you" quite a number of times. It's especially heartening to see the way they look out for and take care of one another. Grady, the oldest boy in Shepherd's Field, is especially mindful of the other children, an older brother who makes sure his younger "siblings" are well taken care of.
It's also good to see how Shepherd's Field impacts the local community, here. Chinese culture is not, to the best of our understanding, especially warm towards children with disabilities. But at dinner tonight it was clear that the owner of the restaurant, who has developed an ongoing friendly working relationship with SFCV, has real affection for the children; he interacts with them with a warm and easy rapport. We're pretty sure this man is not yet a believer--but the good that SFCV does is something he can share in, a sort of common ground that might lead to an encounter with the One who is the source of everything good.
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| Seth, Hayden, Alan, Joseph & Grady |
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| Stevie the dog and Hayden |
Well--it's almost time for bed and then, tomorrow--more adventures with the kids!
Blessings,
Alan
Today Elissa and Alan remain the only contingent of Team AWAKE currently at Shepherd's Field. We're eagerly awaiting the arrival of Winsome and Katherine in about a week. And the days continue to go by quickly. Today we kept up what has become our routine: visiting classes in the morning and in the afternoon, spending one-on-one time with some of the kids, visiting the children at play in their houses, and making jaunts to the local Walmart to buy items that will be helpful in working and playing with the children.
Really enjoying these updates! If you spend any time in Samaritan's House please give Luke a hug for me, and pictures would be awesome too! :)
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