{doing what & where?}

i go to china expecting my flexibility and patience to be refined, as those who have spent time there know that things don't always go as planned.  with that said, below is what i think i'll be up to while i'm there.  

i'll be based in wenshan, which is a city located in yunnan province.  i'll be working with my good friend pam and her nonprofit organization, hope harvest international (hhi).  while hhi cares for the marginalized in impoverished areas of china in multiple ways, one avenue for this is a center where children with disabilities receive various therapy and special education services.  i anticipate providing physical therapy to these children, educating/training her staff, consulting on various future projects, etc.  i'm really looking forward to serving alongside pam and her team, while also getting to know the families whose lives have been deeply impacted (many eternally) by hhi's commitment to model christ and his love.

once a month, i'll be traveling to guangxi province for ~10 days.  there i'll be working on behalf of nightlight christian adoptions at their 1:1 partnership--the beiliu orphanage.  i'll be providing physical therapy and general developmental activities to the children, educating and training the orphanage nannies (if/as needed), and hopefully spending a lot of time simply loving everyone there.  there are also hopes for me to assess the status of the 6 new babies, improve the nutritional status of most all of the children with a feeding program, help determine which children may need more medical attention, and identify any additional, at-large needs of the orphanage.  

in beiliu, i will be solely working with chinese nationals (no other expats/foreigners), only one staff member speaks english (fairly well), and there are no fellow believers (that i'm aware of).  my time in beiliu will have very different challenges than what i'll face in wenshan, but god has clearly orchestrated the details for me to be at this orphanage; i can only expect that he'll continue to do immeasurably more than i could ask or imagine during my time there.  (not to mention, he must think i'm due for a significant faith building exercise.)

information forthcoming for those who'd like to support me and the work i'll be involved with; 
please stay tuned!


Hope Harvest International 
www.facebook.com/HopeHarvestIntl/info

Nightlight Christian Adoptions (formerly A Helping Hand Adoption Agency)
www.nightlight.org