…we fly to China!!! I thought I’d give our China trip update, I mentioned it in the Spring and since then we’ve been meeting with a team of about 17 people from various churches in the area to plan and prepare for our 2 week stay in Beijing this November. We are so excited about this trip and one of our main goals is to make connections to bring teams back from our own church on a regular basis. Our main focus will be the Philip Haydon Foundation orphanage , check their website out to see more on them. PHF cares for special needs children with anything from cleft lip and palette to heart problems, deformities, etc. They have doctors, surgeons, special needs teachers, and many other volunteers working to care for these abandoned children. They are growing up with hope and a future because of the love they are given at PHF. We will be helping the staff in whatever way needed, in caring for the kids, in helping the Chinese nannies learn to therapeutically play with the kids, and encouraging and refresh the staff in whatever way we can. We will be bringing 17 extra suitcases full of supplies for the kids and staff- medicine, bibs, etc.

One of the sweet little girls at the Philip Haydon Foundation Orphanage.

We will also be working with a couple who does homeless work, English teaching in a local university, and a few other things around the city. There is also the possibility of taking a 10 hour bus ride to a government orphanage as well. We are so looking forward to going back to this country that both Andrew and I were privileged to be in about 7 years ago. We were just dating then… but we both knew we’d be back there someday and that day is coming soon! We’ll post more updates as they come in the weeks to come leading up to our trip.