China

The Summer Olympic Games in 2008 opened up a new short term missions opportunity in Beijing. After we organized a team and made all arrangements to go, a decision by the Chinese government shut down the opportunity. Our team, still feeling led to go to China, ended up assisting a different organization that was being forced to scale back an orphans' summer camp outreach because of a shortage of help.

This small organization, called Bring Me Hope, provides summer camps for Chinese orphans. Some of these orphans are considered "unadoptable" and have special physical or mental needs. Most are perfectly healthy, abandoned by their parents in a country where families are limited to one child. These kids just loved to be "in a family," and that's exactly the way we did things.

While each of us is created with value, the reality these children have is that no one is coming for them. Bring Me Hope director David Bold explains that the purpose of these summer camps is simply to "pick them up and look at them in the eyes and tell them that they have value and they are loved."

One of the challenges faced when working in this country is the cautiousness of the government. There are rules to follow, and we as volunteers are watched closely. Even though we have the help of translators, some things still must be communicated entirely through actions.

One orphan writes: "The experience I got from this camp makes me feel the love of family. There are so many family groups here, which reminds me what love is. Tracy (translator) told me you got up very early every day and pray for us. You believe God will bless us. At first I don't believe it... Now I believe God exists."

Contact Paul and Christie for information about future teams to assist Bring Me Hope.