A Interesting Treat!

"I'll do it if you do it" thats what my dad said to mike about eating the scorpion...and they ate it and thought it was really good. It looked so nasty!

Annalee with Stephen Curtis Chapman at Hope Foster Home just out side of Beijing. Annalee is holding one of the orphan's which just had the casting tape put on for his club feet. It was an amazing sight to see how this simple process corrects this abnormality which is common for these babies. Through the generosity of so many of you we were able to bring over a two year supply of the tape which will treat hundreds of this orphans.

A picture of our team in front of Hope Foster Home after spending the days playing with the Orphans. In the picture with us are Steven and his wife Mary Beth who have been big supporters of this orphanage for many years. It was incredible that they happen to be there when we were. We spent the day with them sharing and loving on the kids. They were so appreciative of the casting tape and said to tell Orlando "Thank you and God Bless!!" It was a great way to spend our last day in China God is doing great work here.
Annalee mastered the art of eating Chinese noodles with chop sticks, this is not easy but she is now a pro. By the way this is a typical lunch in Xi'an where we stayed this meal was about 75 cents including the orange drink.
Annalee dancing with one of the campers at our party to celebrate the last evening together.
This was so hard to say goodbye to the kids Friday morning as we bonding with them like they were our own family.
Jeff Knipe having a traditional Chinese dinner at camp YUMMY! By the way it is considered bad manners to not eat the head!
The girls loved Annalee's long hair and combing and fixing it up. It was precious to watch!
Annalee, our translator and Kao Kao leaving the museum which was a fun field trip

Kao Kao, God's young servant!

A field trip to the museum. Annalee met a panda eating some bamboo.

This was Wednesday's night program where Annalee awarded Kao Kao with the Servant Leadership award for her servant's heart. We found out that Kao Kao is a Christian. She takes care of a little 6 year old, Wei Wei who is totally blind and lives at the same orphanage. Kao Kao takes on the role of caring, feeding and holding him. She is blind in one eye and will eventually lose sight in the other. It has a true blessing to love on her this week!

Kao Kao and a friend listening to Christian music on dad's ipod. They loved it.

This is Kao Kao. Doesn't she have a pretty smile? She is holding Wei Wei who is 6 yrs.old but looks like he is 3. She is an amazing young girl!

God has been so present here with us. It has been an incredible week. We will have our last day of camp on Friday.

We had an amazing day with our orphan campers that started out at the clay pottery shop. The theme of the morning with the kids was that God is the potter and we are the clay and if we allow Him he will shape us into the person he wants us to be. We are each unique and have a special purposed for our lives regardless of what physical limitations we think we have or the world says we have. The kids had a blast as did we getting all messy but the message was strong and they loved the experience. We also found out that our orphan Kao Kao is a Christian and that the one eye that she has a little sight in is getting worse and will result in total blindness ultimately and the worse part is it could probably be partially if not completely corrected if she had the right high level medical attention that she would get in America. The top group picture is of the two care takers at the orphanage and three of the orphan girls that live together. There are a total of 15 kids ranging in age from 6 to 15 that live in one 12X12 room with very little air conditioning for the summer heat which can reach well over 100 degrees. They watch over each other in such a special way it is very emotional to watch them. Because the Chinese government put so little value on human life none of these kids are "registered with the government which basically means they do not exist and have no rights or records. They are totally dependent on the care basic care they receive at the orphanage and I can tell you it is not much.

Happy Campers at Bring Me Hope!

This is Annalee's assigned camper, Kao Kao(KK). She is a sweet 9 year old who is blind in one eye and has partial sight in the other. She and Annalee have gotten to know each other and become good friends.

We had a swim day today. It is very hot here so the campers loved the pool.

It is Tuesday night, and we have officially finished the first two days here at the camp. Our child's name is Kao Kao she is a great big ball of energy but we are both in love with her. She has a unique trait that separates her from the rest. We have noticed that she likes to take care of the younger kids like feeding them and making sure they are okay. The camp we are always doing stuff like pottery, eating, swimming...ect.

We Climbed the Great Wall!

This was an amazing experience to see a piece of this 2000 plus year old history. As you can tell by the pictures it was a very misty foggy day but it added to the mystic and wonder of it all.

Bethel Orphanage for the Blind

Yesterday we went to an private Christian orphanage for blind children called Bethel to play and get to know the kids. When we first walked in and said hi to some of the younger kids they all swarmed us and wanted us to play games with them on the carpet area. After we met in the kitchen area and met the rest of the kids as they were eating. It was so cool because we could talk to them and they could understand us and talk back to us in english. Then we took a tour of the classrooms that they learn everything an have therapy. Finally we went back down to the first place we met the little kids and heard them all sing christian songs, some in english and some in chinese. They sung loud and clear. This was an amazing experience i will never forget.

Touchdown in Beijing

We just traveled north east 1,000 miles to Beijing from Shanghai. Beijing airport is huge. The architecture and size of all airports and train stations in China are engineering marvels. We are excited about connecting with the Knipe's and Shepardson's at our hotel in Beijing. My dad and I have acclimated to the 12hour time difference. So when you are sleeping in the United States it is daytime in China.

Papa John's Chinese style

Typical way of transporting just about anything in China...on 3 wheels.

I was ready for some American food so we went to a full serve Papa Johns-no delivery service. This is dad standing with the waitress.

Dad, me and Pastor Abraham. He is the pastor of a home church in urban Shanghai. He is popular with youth and young professionals. His church had to stop adding people for fear of govt. should find out about them and shut it down. We gave him copies of Dr. Swanson's Vital Signs book. He was thrilled.

These are friends of John, our guide. They were thrilled to escort us thru the Expo as they do not see many Americans. The man, Yuri, gave me a special World Expo pin that are usually given to political figures from different countries. The World Expo has 600,000 people visit each day! The average wait is 2 hrs/pavillion. My dad isn't up for that!

World Expo -USA Pavillion

1st Day in Shanghai

Dad and I were picked up by "John" who was our guide from World Serve Ministries. He took us all around to different sites and out to lunch. John ordered fish for lunch and the server brought out the LIVE fish in a plastic bag for him to approve before they cooked it!! It came out head, tail, body and eye all cooked up for him.....Yuck.
We met with the head man of World Serve who has been in prison a number of times due to his Christian faith. He asked dad if we could join them tomorrow at bible study and maybe if dad could speak about his faith in the businesss world. We may do that.
John also took us to the World Expo....thousands and thousands of people....and lots to take in.
It was amazing!
The Knipes and rest of our crew fly in tomorrow!! We will be going to Beijing to visit some orphanages and bring supplies.
Camp Bring Me Hope starts Sunday!

Casting Tape!

The Knipes have the wonderful problem of an excess of casting tape and how to pack it. The kind the orphanages use for club foot. Here are many boxes of the tape just waiting to be packed and flown with the Knipes this week to meet us. Thank you again for the money donated to buy all this tape. It is very hard to find in China and expensive there too.
My dad and I arrived safely and are on an adventure tour in Shanghai today.

WE ARE PACKED!!!!!!!!!

This was no easy feat but we have managed to get everything packed for our trip. Through the generosity of your donations we raised $1,500 in cash plus many donated medical supplies. 100 percent of your donations were used to buy much needed medical tape for club foot which is a common defect in child birth there. The tape is virtually impossible for them to get in China and we are taking 40 boxes!!!! Also we are taking all types of children's medications. Finally we had enough money left over to sponsor a cleft palate surgery for one of the young girls we will get to visit while we are there. Your extreme generosity is so humbling to us; we consider it a blessing and a privilege to represent you all in delivering these much needed items on your behalf thank you and pray we don't have any problems getting this all through customs.

The Flight Path

Our flight to China takes us a total of just over 8000 miles. The flying time from Detroit to Shanghai is scheduled to be 14 hours and 45 minutes.

The countdown til Chinaa!!

This picture shows our countdown over the past 15 days as we have prepared for our July 5 departure. Each card represents a specific thing we pray about like the The Translators, The Orphans, The Medical supplies we are taking over just to name a few. Each day we joined together as a family to pray specifically for one.

Our Camp Home

"Bring Me Hope" is our camp home for the week. It is located outside of Xi'an about a two hour plane ride north and south of Beijing China. We will be living with the orphans at Bring Me Hope. You can find out more about BMH at www.bringmehope.org