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Dear Friends and Family,
We can say "Hurray!" for week 2 - not that it's over (hah!), but very successful and fun! We had another amazing group of 16 beautiful children. Everyone connected well with their kids and played hard. Our goodbye party, complete with a beautiful cake for eating (not throwing, a typical Chinese tradition) was filled with many heart-felt words of love, affection, and disappointment at having to leave. Here a a couple of quotes from the kids to their foreign volunteers:
"When you said, 'I love you' to me, although I didn't have enough courage to speak out, I did say it in my heart."
"Hello, beautiful like flowers, my sister. This week is the happiest time in my life."
"Every day you take me to eat ice cream. That's a happy memory in my life. Every day in the camp, I was so happy."
The kids definitely say it the very best!
Blessings,
The Hedden family
This week the Yantai camp went from a preschool to a high school! While we still had a couple of younger kids, the majority were teenagers! We were also once again blessed with an abundance of boys, which made things more complicated for our female volunteers and translators. But they stepped up and loved their boys like the sons, nephews, or in some cases bigger brothers they might have been.
We had one minor visit to the hospital, but thankfully it turned out to be a precautionary step rather than a necessary one. A young boy who had a small lump on his cheek that was at first feared to be mumps turned out to have a single cavity! He was able to return the same day with a smile and a clean bill of health for the week.
Since we had so many larger boys pool time was a much more active endeavor than the previous week, and the small ball games and swimming lessons were overtaken by water fights, splash wars and a game of keep-away that eventually devolved into a full contact game of “tackle the guy with the ball!” Speaking of water-based events, we were able to get our waterpark up and running and it was a big hit. A giant waterslide led to flips, slips, jumps, push wars, water hose battles ad a few accidental trips downward. The kids had good times pushing their buddies down the slides, and the buddies had fun chasing their kids back up to ride again.
Unfortunately the trip to the amusement park was cancelled for logistical reasons, but it was replaced with a new game for the camp, a scavenger hunt through the dorms that turned out to be really popular with the kids and the adults.
Staff members on different floors were holding candy and glowsticks, and three rice crispy treats for three lucky and quick scavenger hunters. Despite having so many big kids at the camp, it turned out to be the youngest team that was fastest as Carm, Spring, Casey and their two buddies Ya Ya, who is eight and Bai Bai who is six gathered up all six items and returned to win the prize: sodas for their next two meals.
A big event for the camp this week was the beach. We tried out a different one and found not only a better spot for swimming, but also a place to take rides on jet skis and power boats! Most of the kids had never been to the ocean and now we didn’t just get them into the sea, we took them speed along on top of it! A big highlight for everyone was a powerboat tour along the coast of Yantai that included views of cliffsides, cliff top temples and lots of dips and turns along the way.
There were the usual moments of tears and close calls, but also lots of joys and excitement as the kids just got to be kids. We learned a lot from hearing the stories of the children, and were astounded by the strength and optimism they showed even in the face of such hardships as they have all faced. We learned through life charts that some of the children had lost parents, others had been abandoned, but all came to us with open hearts and left with smiling faces.
Camp Stories:
Bai Bai was the youngest camper this week at about 5 years old, and despite being the smallest and youngest by leaps and bounds, she was also the most sassy. Her favorite word was “boo,” which means No. All week Carm and her translator have been telling Bai Bai “Wo Ai Ni” with little response. On the last night of camp Carm went in to say goodnight and gave Bai Bai a hug and said “Wo AI Ni.” Bai Bai looked up nonchalantly and replied simply “I know!” and smiled.
This week at camp there was a conference so our breakfasts were delivered to our rooms by staff members. The breakfasts consisted of meat buns, sweet pies and eggs that needed to be boiled in teapots. Suzanne did not know the eggs were raw when she went to have breakfast in her boys room. Lu Kai, the older boy, tried to warn her by saying “Sheng Da” which means “raw.” Suzanne thought he said eggs and cracked them open since she thought they were already hardboiled. She and her boys got a big shock and a good laugh when raw yolk splashed out of the eggs she had smashed together.
After craft time on Tuesday Bethany was walking with her buddy Donna and also with her younger sister, Riley. Donna was holding both of their hands and looked at them happily and said “You are my best friends.”
Patti is on her first trip to China and has never spoken Chinese, and her buddy Boi doesn’t speak any English. Patti was teaching Bo to play “go fish” and in the middle of the game he stopped her and taught her Chinese sign language for 1-10. Patti than taught him English sign Language for K, Q, and J ( King, Queen and Jack) and using sign language they were able to communicate and play together.
This week volunteer Vicky was assigned two boys of sixteen as her buddies and a translator who was so small the two boys considered her a little sister, even though she was six years older than they were! On the last day of camp as the boys were loading into the bus to go home Vicky signed “Wo AI Ni” to them, and was shocked and elated when both of the boys, who had been somewhat distant during the week, signed it back to her.
We were blessed to have 24 orphans and 12 volunteers take part in our first week of camp.
Our volunteers and staff teams are made up of people from Australia, Ireland, England, America, and China. We've had continuing jokes about not being able to understand each other, especially the Americans with the Aussie lingo. ;) But in all seriously (which is a rare thing of us,) we have loved our joined unity over our common goal of helping the children.
We had two groups of precious orphans with us this past week, most of which were energetic boys. They had a blast visiting Ocean World, running through the Xian fountain show, and swimming, of course.
One 15-year-old boy named Loren made an impression on us all; he has CP, though that sure doesn't inhibit his joy. He was constantly laughing at his silly 70-year-old English volunteer who sported goofy hats every morning.
Alan and Loren were quite a sight walking around the city of Xian together; with huge smiles on their faces, they would greet every (and I mean every) passerby with a big wave and a loud "NI HAO!" which means HELLO! They continued greeting people until they broke into a smile and give a little wave. The pair brought so much happiness to literally hundreds of city folk in Xian this week, but also to the rest of our camp and also to each other.
Memories and laughter characterize our week, and we are really grateful to the Lord for His provision and care to us.
With love,
The Xi'an Team
Dear Friends and Family,
We are off to an amazing start! It was an awesome, fun-filled, life-changing, blessing beyond words time. The children are always quiet when they first arrive, but in a matter of hours are laughing, playing, and enjoying being loved. When it was time to go, every single child, translator, and volunteer, was crying. We always go away each week blessed by what we (our WHOLE FAMILY) have experienced and witnessed, and wishing we had a huge house with lots of rooms.
Eight-year-old Annie was the one who captured us the most this week. She sobbed when she told her volunteer about her mom dying. And she later asked her volunteer if she could kiss her on the cheek. Another highlight was when 3 of the little boys walked into the water park. First their eyes bugged out, they threw their arms into the air, and then they screamed in excitement! What a thrill to witness this.
Next week we will double our numbers and our blessings. We have an amazing group all around - all so willing to love and be loved. We wish you all were here!
Love from China!
The Heddens
Our first week of camp is nearly over and yet the adventures are just beginning! Our children arrived and we were surprised to find that they were almost all toddlers or pre-school age. We were expecting a few kids around five and ranging up to twelve, but the oldest we got was about nine and we had more than a couple under four years old! The kids were mostly excited to jump into the activities of camp, and even the most reluctant children were excited when it came to pool time.
On the second day we had two boys who needed medical attention for pre-existing conditions.
Fu Ai Jhong, who is about 5 years old and called Eli by his American, Lydia, was suffering from eye inflammation that at first everyone thought was pinkeye. Teresa took him to the hospital to be treated and they found the eye was inflamed because Eli’s eyelid is inverted and his eyelashes grow upward into his eye, causing scratches that will eventually blind the boy. He will need surgery to correct the eylids, but in the meantime the doctors taped the eyelid down so that the eyelashes would no longer bother his eye. Eli was undaunted by his time in the hospital. He was so excited with the makeshift eye patch that the doctors have him that he dragged Lydia around by the hand so he could show everyone the tape holding down his eyelid.
Teresa also had to take Jing Chun to the hospital due to a severe cough. The doctors diagnosed him with a form of pneumonia and he would need daily I.V. treatments. During the treatments Jing Chun, who is also missing his right hand, bonded strongly with Teresa and took his treatments like a chamo, needles and all. During the group photo on Wednesday Teresa was showing him how to wave at the camera and Jing stopped her from waving and began to push some of her fingers out and others in. He showed her the sign for “I love you” in Chinese and began to tap each of her fingers and saying Wo Ai Ni, over and over. Wo AI Ni is Chinese for I love you.
Other stories from the first week of camp:
On a shopping trip to the local town Elizabeth bought her boys brand new shoes. An An was so excited by his shoes that he didn’t want to wear them, he held them out and showed them to people passing by while yelling “Xin de xie, xin de xie”…New shoes!
During most of the week Fu Xinhai has been closed off from his family group, partially because he is both deaf and mute. During dinner last night he surprised his translator, Michael, by sharing food not only with Michael but also another little boy at their table. After dinner was over Michael began to walk away, leaving some uneaten food on his plate. Fu collected the food from Michael’s plate into a bowl and followed Michael to make sure he finished his dinner.
Fu Au Chau is an autistic little boy who is very sensitive and was said to have a very difficult time connecting with anyone at his orphanage. At the beginning of the week his American volunteer Kim was having a hard time getting Chau to look at her or even acknowledge her presence even if she was right in front of him. Now at the end of the week Chau has come way out of his shell. He is affectionate and loving, always hugging and kissing Kim, calling her Momma and even telling her “Wo Ai Ni:”
During her first night with her baby Huan Huan Emma was woken up in the middle of the night because Huan Huan had fallen off the bed. The baby was getting close to crying when she saw that Emma had woken up. When Emma reached down to pick the baby up, the sadness left her face and Huan Huan smiled and reached up for Emma.
Lydia has had a very rough week with two little boys who were very energetic but nto very interested in connecting with her, they preferred just randomly picking buddies and randomly switching at any time. Last night, the last night before the kids return home, Lydia was putting her boys to sleep after spending some time coloring and watching them show off their artwork and she signed I love you to Eli, her deaf/mute boy and was amazed and excited when he smiled up at her and signed back I love you.
We had many firsts for the kids and also for BringMeHope. We took the kids swimming, which is always a highlight for them and for us and this year we even had an inflatable raft that they took rowing all throughout the swimming pool. We took them to a local amusement park and got to ride bumper cars, spinning dolphins and even a flying elephant ride. We even had a beach day full of sand and surf and all the crabs, clams and tiny little fish the kids could find. It is really amazing how much life there is in the beaches here!
Xi'an, Yantai, and Kunming teams have kicked off camp for the summer! There have already been many joys and memories, so please keep lifting us up! Check out our facebook for pictures!
Click on the link below to check out some of the amazing stories from our 2010 Night Walk. We had over 1,000 participants, which sponsored over 200 kids to come to camp this summer!!!
Thank you to all who joined us in body and spirit.
Click here for the Night Walk Recap
BMH’s 2010 staff just finished a wonderful week in Kunming, China. We were able to connect, plan, and really bond as a group before heading to our three separate camp locations for the summer. Now we are all awaiting the arrival of our first campers come Monday! Keep us in your prayers! We cannot wait to see what God has in store for this summer.
You don’t have to be a grown up with a job to raise money for the little orphans! Check out these girls in Daisy Girl Scout Troop 944 who raised $21.30 to bring kids to camp in China this summer!
They also colored pictures to brighten the children’s lives.
Thanks girls! You’re an inspiration! 
