Even Better

The say everyday in China is an adventure, and some days are an even bigger adventure. Well, last Friday was one of those days that ended up being a bigger adventure. I group of 8 of me teammates and I loaded up in a taxi, that is more like a small van to go to a childrens home near Tanjian, which was about 2 hours away. It was a pretty smoggy day, but that is something we are used to, being in China. When we arrived at the orphanage we were greeted by a couple from Washington who is volunteering there for the year, possibly longer. They gave us a tour of the grounds and told us a little bit about their history. The home was started by a couple from America who met a young man named Phillip Hayden. Phillip had a heart for the orphans of China, and imparted his love of the children onto the couple. A few years later Phillip died, and they started an organization in his honor. What started out as one foster home quickly grew to three foster homes. Then because of issues with the builder of the homes they looked for a new property, which they found in a large piece of land in an industrial district. They bought the piece of land for 1 yuan because the owner believed in their purpose and have been building their village ever since. Shepard’s Village now has 5 houses for the children, a clinic, an office, a school, a factory where banners are made, a meeting building, and they are currently building a vocational building. After the your we were able to play with and love on the children, all of whom come from an orphanage with some sort of disability.

It was such a wonderful time! We split up so that we were able to visit as many children as possible. Many of the children were at school, but there were about 5 children when we went into one of the houses, so we each took one and started playing with them. The first little boy I had was Jacob. He is about 2 years old and is absolutely adorable. I tickled him, and we read together, and played, and most of all laughed. When I first tried to pick up one of the babies, because he was playing with his own toy, he wouldn’t let me and ran back into my lap. This broke my heart, but also made me smile, because for this one moment I could give all of my love to this precious little boy, who I was told many people have shown interest in adopting, but his orphanage is not getting his paperwork through. Later, he went downstairs with one of the nannies so I was able to hold a precious little girl who was probably around 6 months old. She had the biggest eyes that looked everywhere, and a beautiful smile. After about 20 minutes she fell asleep in my arms and I let her stay there, thinking to myself that the times she is able to sleep in someone’s arms may be very few and far between, and it was such a privilege for me to give this gift to her. Throughout the whole experience, Kristen was always in my mind, and I prayed that each and everyone of those children will find their forever home soon, and it will be as wonderful as hers.

We sadly left the children and met back up. By this time it had gotten really really foggy, so we headed in the van and said a prayer that we would make it back safely. We traveled for about 3 minutes before the driver stopped, and tried to talk to us. We called one of the Chinese staff, and through translation found out that we really should stay the night because we couldn’t see 2 feet in front of us. So, we headed back to the orphanage, where they had a guesthouse for volunteers and we were able to stay there. We got settled in and then walked down the block to eat. We ended up having a huge and delicious meal!

The next morning we got ready and left by 9:00. It was still a little foggy, but definitely drivable. However, when we got to the entrance ramp for the highway we were greeted by the red x’s and the barricades being down. We were not really sure what was happening, or when we would be able to get through, but this was the only way home. After about an hour we were all hungry so we talked to our driver and we went to a little town right off of the exit that one of the waiting truck drivers told him about. We bought pastries and juice from a tiny grocery store and I couldn’t help but laugh to myself as we ate them in the van as this was something I never pictured myself doing! We made our way back to the ramp, and got back in our place at the front of the line. And we proceeded to wait, and wait, and wait. We ended up waiting for 5 hours to get on the highway. In that time the fog had cleared, but was starting to come back in. We arrived back at campus almost 24 hours after we originally intended to tired and hungry, but fulfilled.

Overall, it was an amazing adventure that I am soooo glad I was able to be a part of. I not only got to know some of my teammates much better, I also made a small difference in some of my Fathers childrens lives. After the trip some of us were talking about how we are all really orphans until God adopts us into His family. This thought really resonated with me and makes it that much more important for me to be a light in this world, so more orphans, young and old will be adopted by our loving Father.