On my last night in Xiamen we took a ferry across a channel to a famous island called Gu Lang Yu and we went for a long walk. It was beautiful! The next morning we got up and met for breakfast and then did an overview of the orphanage and discussed what our priorities are for Xiamen over the next year.
Our first priority is to find families for the children there, and hopefully provide scholarships to families that may need financial assistance. Also, we will need to bring back a medical team, and we may need to help with the finances of getting them there. Our first trip back needs to probably happen in March, and I will need to return with 2-3 medical professionals that have experience with special needs kids, particularly down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and mental delay, and how to recognize and treat different special needs. We are hoping that they can share if a child has been correctly diagnosed and advice on their care. If you know anyone like this that would be willing to travel please let me know! Also, I have requested resumes off all the college kids. If you know of anyone that has businesses in China where these young people could apply for work possibly please also let me know. We also would like to raise funds for the 15 cerebral palsy chairs for the remote orphanage that we visited earlier this week. We also hope to have this medical team visit the remote orphanage as well to hopefully look over the children there. We are so excited to see what God will do over the next year through this partnership with the Xiamen orphanage.
After our overview, I headed out to the airport to catch a flight down to Hong Kong. My flight was delayed almost three hours. While I was waiting at the gate I struck up a conversation with two men sitting next to me from London. I turns out they are the owner of a nursery furniture business and one of their offices in Xiamen. They wanted to hear about why I was here. I brought up my phone and excitedly shared with them stories and pictures of my trip. They said they greatly admire what we are doing here. They said they have wanted to give products to a charity and they would like to help us in the orphanages in this area. They said they will be in touch. Wow! I am so excited about this new connection here. The more I have been in China, the more I have seen God at work, it is so evident that God loves orphans. It is so neat to feel him at work here. After an overnight layover in Hong Kong, I headed home to Oregon. This has been a remarkable trip and I am so happy to be home now! Thank you for following my journey and for your prayers and encouragement along the way!
Here are some pictures of the China team on the ferry over to Gu Lang Yu, and here I am with Jack and Rocky’s wives who joined us in Xiamen. This is also a picture of the island of Gu Lang Yu across from Xiamen. I was happy to see my girls in Oregon too after being gone 10 days, and here they are in the gifts I brought them home from China! 🙂
