10China Children Village Short Term Mission Team
Dear Prayer Partners,
Thanks you so much for partnering with Susan, Eric and I. By joining us through prayer and financial support, you were in fact part of the team ministering to the children in the Children Villages. During our two weeks stay in China, we witnessed the needs and the mighty works God in redeeming His people to Himself.

The main goal of this trip was to reach out to two orphanages (also called Children Village (CV)) that are founded and run by CCHC. We spent a week in each village. The first was in San Ming, Fujian providence and we were joined by a group of four from LA. In S.M we had the privilege of working with teenagers and soon realized that they are harder to work with than we expected. For starter, they’ve matured into the age when they have a good grasp that they are orphans. Though they didn’t express it openly to us, we could see that they know the meaning of being orphans and the implications in future live. On top of that these teens have to face rebellious nature of teen; disciplines (chores, curfew, limited TV time, etc), and this strange unconditional love they are receiving from the CV. Put these ingredients together and you have some confused teens. As a result, they often complaint about rules and reluctant to participate in group activities. But to the credit of our leader, the time spent in swimming, long small group time and cooking together really helped open doors to deeper conversation, which led to in depth understanding. Here are some examples:
Lily: During one of our small group hours, which is usually ice cream or soda after dinner, we somehow started a conversation on politics. One thing led to another and we ended up talking about his view on education. Lily is very passionate about teaching. She’s never revealed that before when we previously asked them about their life dreams. Since this small group, she’s much more open to talk about other things as well and we were able to encourage her to persuade her dream of becoming a teacher.

Peter: We realized that Peter had special needs from the beginning but we are so thankful that the kids don’t look down at him. Thanks to the good work of the CV. He was harder to get to because he often says random thing and had harder time understanding us. As God would have it, that couldn’t stop the building of relationship. Peter eventually grow close to Eric. It was as though Eric became a real “ger哥” (brother in Chinese) to him. You should have seen how Peter talked and interacted with Eric. It brought smiles to our faces. We don’t have video of it so I guess you will have to go see it yourselves.
Overall our time in SM was challenging but fruitful. In some sense the second village was like dessert after the main course. Since the CV in Minyang (MY), Sichuan just opened in Jan 2011, most of the kids just arrived and they are young – from kindergartners to fifth graders. It felt like a dessert when they ran toward the van to welcome us once we arrived. They were ready for us. Our ministries in MY were teaching English, games and activities.

The younger kids in MY doesn’t have the same frustration as the teens in SM. They were always ready and intrigued by games and activities. However, obviously we couldn’t get into a deep conversation with them. But opportunities to see and meet the needs were still there. For instance, it was during these group time that we met Adam who’s courageous yet often disregard others, Vicky who’s vocal yet doesn’t use it to encourage others. Another that really stood out to us was Paul. Paul is tallest amongst the kids and often carried a big smile. It was during English class when we found out that Paul had problem with speech. He mumbled phrases in English and Chinese. At first we thought there was something wrong with his tongue but was relieved to find out otherwise. Paul needed speech therapy help. It was great that his classmate were friendly and gracious toward his needs. We wanted to help him as much as we can too. So we told Paul to seek the teacher out after class to practice pronunciation. And he did. The time spent with Paul was encouraging. His problem was correctable by practice and his was patient in trying; not giving up when things became repetitive. We were excited with his effort but what happened afterward was even more rewarding. During one of the group games, Paul’s team was not optimistic at all. They declared defeat once team was formed and point to the smallest among them as the scapegoat. As we walked to the courtyard to play, Paul graped the teacher’s hand and said softly “哥玩游戏不放弃” which means “ we don’t won’t give up.” Since then we use the same phrase to encourage Paul to keep toughing out his speech practice.

During our stay in SM and MY, we had other chances to love, encourage and give hope to the children. You might wonder if we had any chance to share the Gospel. The fact is we didn’t because there’s a law that prevent us from sharing Gospel to minor under 18. Our hope is that when they reach 18, we will share with them. At the same time we are confident that the work of the CV will help them towards salvation because though they don’t know God, they’ve heard and experience His love and kindness through His servants in CV and missionaries. When one day they hear the Gospel, I hope they will point to CV and even us and say “Yes, I can understand that God exists and loves me because I have been loved by Christians.”

And lets continue to pray for China, that it would open its door to the Good News. Stephen who’s a long term missionary in SM once shared with us that the hope is one day we will be singing worship songs in the CV and the skit would be one how Great He is and what He’s done in our lives, adults and children alike. Oh how we long to share the goodness of the Lord with them. But at this time of waiting, let’s turn longing into prayers to the Lord who’s mighty to save.
Some more prayer requests for CVs
1. Pray for more Christian Co-workers, especially men. There’s a need for male role models.
2. Pray for the principals Dorcas, Joyce, and the CV, that they would have good relationship with the government official.
3. Pray for the kids, that they would not give up hope, that they would be see that God wonderfully and fearfully made them, that God has
4. Pray for their financial support. It’s not cheap to maintain all the daily needs. May the Lord provide to them.
Thank you once again for your partnership.
Susan, Eric, Tony