Joint Venture with Charity Foundation in Beijing

Since arriving in Beijing, Ron has been meeting with and checking out charity foundations to find one that will cooperate with us for fund-raising in China. In order to establish our own foundation in China that would allow us to collect funds here, the requirements would include having a lot of cash on hand in a bank account. Ron has narrowed down the search to China Association of Social Workers, a foundation that has a good reputation for honesty and are willing to form an agreement with us so we can use their name. They will require a small fee for use of their foundation. We will still have full use of the funds in whatever manner we desire, once the fee has been paid to them. Our attorney in Beijing is working on the contractual agreement between the Charity Foundation and Agape.

As you may recall from a previous segment, Toyota gave our orphanage at Wesley's House in Pingguo a truckload of shoes, clothing and books for our children. At the Toyota Christmas party dinner we attended, they gave large sums of money to two different groups helping poor children. It is companies like this that would be willing to donate to our work in China. We have contact with a businessman in Beijing who reports that many companies are willing to help serve the poor but they don't know which organizations they can trust. They don't take the time to research the various charities to see which ones are reputable so they don't give to any. We will have many people who will give leads for us.

In conjunction with this new approach to fund-raising, Ron has hired a 40-year old Chinese man named Leo in Wuhan to work full-time raising funds for Agape. Leo is a Christian. He has been working the last few months in Sichuan doing earthquake relief work. Ron will fly to Wuhan tomorrow to meet with Leo to give him the parameters of his job description and discuss how he is to go about doing the work.

For several years, Ron has been concerned about the future of China Mission. The work has a good foundation in China but without Ron doing fund-raising, the work would end quickly. Dr. Joshua, our PHd physician, is head of all operations in China and will assume complete oversight of the work in years to come.

At our age, we know our productive years are coming to a close. If God grants us a few more years of good health, we hope things are in place for the work to continue. We request your prayers for our work and for us.

I will continue to add to the blog after we go back to the U.S. for those who want to keep up with the progress of our work. I will not report as often as I have from China but when events happen, I will write up a segment. Check it from time-to-time if you are interested.