This post is about Jesus working through two people we have met while we’ve been here. The first one is Pam Williams of North Carolina, and the second one is Penny, a Chinese post-graduate student.
Pam is the founder, director and worker-bee of Swallow’s Nest Foster Care Home in Zhengzhou, Henan, China. She and her husband came to China in 2003 after raising three boys, retiring, and then getting trained to teach English. 4 months after their arrival, Pam reports that she her new life teaching English at a nursing college was sort of boring.
That all changed when her students found a baby only hours old in a box outside the building she taught in. The tiny baby was still covered with blood, and her intestines were mostly outside her body, but she was alive. Pam and her husband took the baby to the hospital in spite of their lack of funds to pay for any surgeries. Miraculously, the hospital did the surgery needed to fix her body. The Williams were able to bring her home during her recovery. They chose to keep this little girl, and have adopted her as their own. Their adoption was actually finalized just this month.
End of story?
No. That is where the story really begins. Pam’s experience with this child brought them personal understanding of the problem of abandoned babies in China. When we first learned that children were regularly abandoned here, we were shocked that a parent could do such a thing. It seems so cold-hearted and selfish. We have learned, however, that many children are abandoned by their parents in an incredible act of selfless love to save the life of a suffering child. It is almost certain, for example, that the birth-parents of the William’s little girl had no money to pay for the surgery she required to survive. As an abandoned baby, the state takes over the care of the child, and that child will receive the medical attention he or she needs.
Unfortunately, a baby who is very sick, or pre-mature, or recovering from surgery often does not fare well in an orphanage setting. Time and again the Williams have been asked to bring a sick child into their home to care for them so they can be returned to the orphanage healthy and active. What began with one little girl is now three homes for “tiny babies,” “babies,” and “toddlers.”
You can read about their story here: http://www.swallowsnestzz.org/latestnews.html
We first met Pam at the Henan Province Adoption Yahoo Group. She is an active participant, and answers a lot of questions adoptive families have. She helped us figure out how to use the train to get to Anyang from Zhengzhou, for example. Her website posts some medicines they are always in need of, so we brought them a bag of goods.
Pam brought us to the toddler home first. It is a small apartment (everyone here lives in a small apartment). There were about 8 kids there and two women caring for them. The kids were very hungry for affection and clamored all over us, vying for attention and the right to sit on our laps. Sam Sam got a little worried when he saw two girls on Papa’s lap. He made sure he got to sit there too. It was gratifying to see him so possessive of his dad.
Amongst the kids there was a girl with a shortened left leg and a foot growing out where her knee should be. She is quite an active crawler. There was a sweet 6 year old girl who looks no older than three and can not talk. There was a 2 year old who was just learning to roll over. Another one had downs. They average a two-year stay at the home.
At the tiny babies’ home, there are 8 babies. Pam herself sleeps there 4 nights per week because it hard to hire a Chinese caretaker who will work the night shift. Carina held this baby who appears to be a newborn. She is not a newborn. She had just turned one. Another baby is hooked up to a breathing machine. Others are sleeping or sitting in their boppy chairs.
We were deeply impacted by the children, and by the love and
care they are receiving. All of this merciful work is being done as purely volunteer effort on the part of the Williams, and by donations to cover the rents, medicines, and equipment. Amazingly, the Williams continue to teach English after all these years because it is the only way they can keep their visa. Pam was so kind to spend 40 minutes in a taxi to come to our hotel and pick us up. Then another 40 minutes back to her home with us. She even planned to take us to a restaurant for dinner, but we did not want to rob any more of her precious time, so she found us a taxi to take us home.
The Williams are not involved with the adoption process officially. They are not even allowed to communicate directly with families who are assigned to any kids they have in their care. They pray over each one that a family for them would be found. In the meantime, the kids are loved, held, nurtured and getting ready to join their forever family.
Now, onto our second encounter with Jesus here in China. Penny. We met her yesterday here in Guangzhou. The area we are now staying in is economically supported by tourism. It is mostly hotels, restaurants, and shops. It is called Shamian Island, and 100 years ago was the only place a foreigner could stay. We met Penny while we were exploring the island, and she offered to join us and point out some lower priced restaurants.
As it turns out, Penny knows Jesus! She became a Christian at a house church a few years ago, and now attends a student ministry in Guangzhou, where she is doing post-graduate work.
She reported that initially her life did not change much until she moved to Guangzhou. She had read a verse about how Jesus will return as a thief in the night. This did not make sense to her that the Lord of the Universe would return in such a way. Then she was twice affected by a robbery of some kind, and a third time her luggage was mistaken for someone else’s. Through these experiences she understood that the verse meant we must be ready for His coming. She knew the Lord was speaking to her through these experiences, and she repented deeply and began to truly live out her faith with new-found understanding. The mistaken luggage held items which were very important to her, and she prayed it would be returned. It was returned the same day.
She said her mother did not readily accept her faith, but later her mother did become a Christian when a friend invited her to church. Her father is not yet a believer, nor are her siblings. (Penny is older, and was born prior to when the one-child limitation law established.) It was fun to learn a bit about the church here in China from her. Her initial intent was to evangelize us, but instead we became friends.
Next post will be about Shamian Island and Guangzhou. We are now off to a tour of Guangzhou with two other adoptive families who are with our agency.
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