Blog Entry #1

Team JAMES has expanded to include any of the original members' return missions trip to SFCV.

This time, a team of nine of us from four+ different churches got together in heart and mind, although with varying arriving and departing schedules, just so we can visit the kids at Shepherd's Field Children's Village.

The first group of five arrived at SFCV in the wee hours of Saturday morning (around 2 AM, due to plane delay), and came upon an infant swaddled nicely in a colorful blanket (too hot for such a hot summer night, I thought), at the gate! Our drivers were very disturbed by this sight and quickly called upon the gate guard to take this abandoned baby inside...

The team of fiver: Alan, Amelia, Elissa, Matthew and Patricia got up on Saturday morning for our first group devotions, led by our Devotions Coordinator, Amelia, who set the tone of our morning devotional time together. We then went to two of the houses to meet the kids there.

We felt mixed to find out that after six months of bedrest following his major spinal surgery, Grady had gone back to a hospital in Beijing for rehab - disappointed that we won't get to see his smiley face everyday here, but happy that he is undergoing rehabilitation to help him walk. We noticed that a lot of the kids we had known from our (Alan and Elissa) last visit in May of 2011, were no longer here...the good reason is because a lot of them had gotten adopted (yay!), and there were a lot of younger and more "visibly ill" children who have taken their places.

It was quickly lunch time and we joined the older school-aged children in the Community Room for lunch.  

During the siesta, we hopped into cabs to go down to Walmart to get our personal needs for our upcoming stay, and we came back excited to visit the last two houses, as Alan and I can't wait to see our Noel in the House of Peace - our final stop for the afternoon, so we can spend the rest of our visit with her.

Just like our last visit, Noel cried for a good ten minutes when she saw us, although this time some of the tears appeared to be bitter tears...after all, she hadn't seen us since last May! Her friends in her house gave her candies to console her. She ended up with four candies, which turned into an ice breaker for us, as she allowed me to open the wrappers for us to feed her. Very quickly, her tears turned into peals of laughter and squealing as she played along with Alan the same games we played with her during our last visit ("1, 2, 3...where is 4?" - counting the remaining candies, the 4th one being in her mouth...and she'd respond by pointing to her mouth for the fourth candy).

Noel crying and being given candies

Noel having a great time with Alan

There are a lot of interns present at SFCV at this time, and one of the interns commented earlier, "I've never seen Noel cry," and later, "Noel has never laughed this much." The whole house was filled with kids and lots of visitors' sounds, and especially Noel's laughter and the happy sounds she was making from playing with Alan.

We heard the wonderful news two Mondays ago that Noel had gotten matched by a family in the States! So one of our goals on this trip is to introduce to Noel the concept of "godparents." As the nannies referred to Alan and me as Noel's "daddy and mommy," I shared with them that we will be her godparents and will always be involved in her life as such.

Our teammates were able to get acclimated to the kids in the House of Peace and worn out by the heat in the house (no turning on of air conditioner this summer due to the exorbitant cost of keeping it on), jet-lag and being the human toys to these kids...

Patricia, almost 17, and the youngest team member, was bombarded by Grayson, who is the most active boy in the house. Who refused to let her go and rolled all over her, kicking and punching her (in the face!) during play. Matthew, who will turn 19 in a week, came to her rescue, and soon they were both fully occupied by Grayson. Moses, the 11-year-old deaf and mute boy, kept on pointing to pictures of his former friends, pointing to himself, and point to outside. Matthew surmised that Moses was trying to communicate that he was feeling sad that his friends have left him...Matthew heard a baby crying upstairs, and went up to console this baby, and that was where we found him when it was time to go, holding on to the baby's hands, soothing him/her and keeping the child company...

Matthew, Patricia with Grayson

Amelia, Matthew & Patricia playing with kids

Team James at play

Amelia spent most of her time playing and cradling Mia, a very stiff 6-year-old girl who has Cerebral Palsy, until she couldn't take the heat generated by the body warmth adding to the temperature of the house...she had to let go of Mia and regroup. She then played with other, more mobile kids...and ended up with another stiff boy, Teddy, who is a 5-year-old, also with Cerebral Palsy, using baby massage techniques Julie Wyatt, PNP, had taught us, to calm his incessant crying...

Amelia caring for Mia, who has CP

We then went out to dinner with Jamie, the Guest Relations/Volunteer Liaison, and Chrissy, another long term volunteer, and acquainted with one another over good and very cheap meal. The meal was gifted to us by Sean, from QCAC, who was very interested in joining us on the trip this year, which didn't work out for him this time around...thank you, Sean! As the meal turned into one eat-in meal and food enough for one plus more meals for the team!

After our Debriefing Meeting, we all returned to our rooms to catch some early snooze, in preparation for the next day's Sunday Worship Service and a day of touring in Beijing...

Elissa