Packing to leave on May 5

The last two weeks have been very busy getting everything in shape to leave home for two weeks. It's the end of the month for orphan reports to be caught up from Chinese workers so the workload for Paige and me have been very heavy. Ron's work never ends and he never seems to catch up. I do feel at times that my desk is in pretty good shape but every good secretary knows there are plenty of things to do during a slow time.

Our bags are 3/4 packed to leave early Tuesday morning for the airport. We will take Delta non-stop to Shanghai (about 15 hours in flight). We will have one night at a hotel in Shanghai before flying to Changde. This is the city where the August cleft palate medical mission will take place. Judy Yang, our employee from the U.S., is in China and will meet us in Changde to finalize the plans with the hospital for the medical mission. From there, our trip has been scheduled by Judy, but I'm not sure which stop is next. It will be a full two weeks of traveling and meetings with various hospital and governmental officials. We have at least five or six major stops before we arrive back in Shanghai to return to Atlanta.

We plan to go to Zigong where the first of three Jackson Family Foundation orphanages is under construction. It is very difficult to get there no matter how you travel, whether by plane or train. Ron will review the construction plans and go over every detail with the construction superintendent to be sure they know what we want.

Our cameras seem to disappear or someone is always using them. I bought one for myself this time because workers do not always take the pictures I would like to have. I'm reluctant to ask them to keep taking pictures when they are busy talking with Ron. This time, I will be taking pictures and I hope to post some each night to this blog.

Ron plans well and is a very time-oriented person. I'm sure we will be able to accomplish all of the things he has planned. Ordinarily, this many things would take about a month but we will cram them into two weeks so we can get back home. We will not have any spare time. We hope to be ready to leave China on May 19, the Lord willing.

Please remember us in your prayers.

Life back to normal but future plans unfold

Ron and I were sick for over a month as we arrived home with colds. Head colds moved to chest congestion and infected ears. Ron went to an ENT only last week to get his ears cleaned and a spray to clear out the congested ear passages. We were tired when we left China, then having the cold in addition to jet lag was just about too much for old bodies like ours.

We came home to a load of mail, e-mails and things to do. Once we began to feel a little better, we were back into the full workload.

Since we returned home, a burn patient has lived with us. Wushuang is 11 years old and arrived in the U.S. last year to have extensive surgeries. She has been released by Shriners Childrens Hospital and will return home April 2, 2009. The other burn patient has also returned to China.

We have five approved heart surgeries by U.S. hospitals. Plans are underway to get their VISAs, flight arrangements, etc. finalized to bring them here for surgery.

David and Ya Ning continue to have good attendance with the church group. They found a cheaper place to rent for the Sunday meeting. It will also be more convenient for the members. The government approved the new location and loosened some of the restrictions as well. Ron keeps in touch by e-mail and chat line with some of the young members we grew to love so much while we were there.

Things are improving at all of the orphanages. We have a new director at Wesley's House and he is doing a great job. His wife will be with him after their child is born in Shanghai. Peter, the former director, wanted to assume a less demanding position because he did not feel qualified to run an orphanage by himself. He is getting along very well with the new director. The children have had many visitors and outings since we were there.

Repairs and landscaping is taking place at Mama Jo's House. Like our own homes, unless regular maintenance is done, things get run-down. I also saw some pictures with newly painted walls at Neil Taylor Christian Care Center in Rongshui. Can you imagine your house with 100 children running around? Can't you imagine how the walls would look after a year or two?

More children have come to live at all of the orphanages. We are not completely to full capacity but some of the facilities are getting close to having every bed filled. The children are in the spring semester of school. School will not end until June for most of the children. Some children will go visit relatives during the summer break. They always look forward to this return to see relatives, but I dread it because I know some will not return to the orphanages. They decide they like the freedom of having no rules at home or relatives decide they miss the children too much to let them go back. The children are happier and have a much better life at the orphanages, but sometimes relatives are not considering the child's future. The children are too young to realize the golden opportunity for a better education at the care centers.

Ron and I will return to China May 5 - May 20 but we will not visit the orphanages on this trip. My former boss has agreed for his foundation (Jackson Family Foundation) to build two additional orphanages between now and 2011. We will meet with governments in various provinces to locate good sites for these orphanages. We hope to visit the construction site of the Zigong orphanage (also financed by the Jackson Family Foundation).

Ron will finalize arrangements with the hospital in Chengde for the cleft palate/lip medical mission that will be conducted there in August, 2009.

This picture is with Super, a nice young man we met in December. I cooked Chinese food for him and his friend one night. They ate like it was good.

We hope to make a quick trip by Beijing to visit with David and Ya Ning and meet with the foundation that has formed a joint venture for us to do fund-raising through them in China. I hope we can get together for dinner with some of the young people we met.

These pictures are with a young couple that works for Price Waterhouse as auditors. We met Bert and Gloria and her parents for dinner right before we left China. Kee, the young man from Texas and David and Ya Ning were with us.

The location was The Place, which I talked about in a previous segment. Decorations from Christmas were still up. It was very cold that night. We had a wonderful meal together but it was a bitter-sweet moment since we were leaving soon for the U.S.

We would appreciate your prayers for our May trip, especially for our safety and success in accomplishing the things we need to complete.

Last days in Beijing before returning to the U.S.

Our last three days were very busy. David and Ya Ning arrived back from the U.S. and there were many things to review and bring them up-to-date. We had dinner one night with Bert and Gloria, a young Chinese couple that Ron and I had met when we first arrived in China. I wrote a segment about them when we had dinner with them at The Place. Gloria's parents were visiting for Chinese New Year holidays so they had dinner with us that night. Kee Willis, the university student from Texas, went with us. We got to eat some unusual and delicious dishes that night and it was another fun evening with Bert and Gloria.

On Friday morning, Ting Ting came to see us. Ting Ting, as many of you know, was the first heart patient we brought to the U.S. for surgery.



Ting Ting was so excited to see us. Her boyfriend had worked the night shift and came on the train with her as soon as he finished his shift, so he was very tired. We went to lunch at a nearby restaurant and then put him on the subway to go back to the train station to return home. A group of Ting Ting's friends have let her stay in their apartment the past month since the factory where she worked closed down. Ting Ting spent the night with us in the apartment on Friday night. We played Rummykubes Friday night and had a great time together. Saturday morning, Ron and I took her on the subway back to the train station for her to return to the city just south of Beijing. Ting Ting did not go to visit her aunt and uncle for the Chinese New Year holidays because she had lost her job and was probably short on funds. We gave her the balance of the funds we had collected for her. Ron also called Mark Zhu, the director of the John Connor Brown Christian Care Center to see if they needed someone to work as a dorm supervisor over the girls. He said he definitely could give Ting Ting a job because he had more new children arriving in a few days. Mark talked with Ting Ting on the phone and when she got off the phone she had a big smile on her face and she said, "VERY GOOD." We showed Ting Ting pictures of the orphanage and she was very excited about going there to work.

Saturday night we had our farewell dinner with some of the Chinese students. Most of the group were still out of town for the holidays, but a few of them were able to be with us. As always, it's difficult to leave people after you've grown to love them.



In this picture, Kee Willis, the university student, and Ting Ting were looking at pictures of Ting Ting on the computer when she was here for surgery.

Ting Ting returned to Beijing about noon on Sunday with her things. Ron and I left early Sunday morning for Shanghai to catch our Delta flight on home so we did not get to see her again. Ting Ting got there in time for Sunday services and later in the afternoon, Ya Ning took her to the train station. Mark Zhu met her at the train station in Nanning and drove her on to the orphanage on Tuesday.

We were happy to get pictures of Ting Ting with some of the children she helps care for at John Connor Brown Christian Care Center.


After we left for home, David helped Kee Willis get settled in his apartment near Beijing University. He will be an asset to David and Ya Ning for the semester he will be studying in China.

By the way, the fireworks went on every night and sometimes during the day for the full seven days of Chinese New Year. We were told that it's traditional for them to have fireworks for seven days to drive away evil spirits. We also learned that some restrictions had been lifted in Beijing this year so there was more than usual. New Year's Eve they went off all night and the on the nights to follow, they ended about midnight. The Chinese people loved them, but it was a little hard for Ron and me when we wanted to sleep and try to rest before our long trip home.

Ron and I are dealing with head colds and jet lag this week. It's bad enough to have either of these things, but overcoming both at the same time has been a little rough.

I will continue to post events about our work on this blog, so please check in from time-to-time to keep up with progress on the work in China.

Wow! What a New Year's Eve!

We wish all of our Chinese friends in China, the U.S. and Canada, a very HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

Today is New Year's Eve in China. Since only Archer and Wendy from our Chinese group were in town, we had our family meeting at our apartment early. They had a train to catch at noon to go visit Wendy's family for New Year's holidays.

Kee Willis, a young university student from Texas, has been staying with us this week. He went with us to a restaurant next door to our apartment for lunch. The menu had pictures but no English so selection was a bit of a guess. We had fried corn, which I've had somewhere before. It's battered and fried and sliced into pizza size wedges. Kee selected a pork and celery dish. Ron chose a green vegetable (they have many kinds of greens in China), some fried patties that ended up to be thin slices of beef that was battered and fried. Ron also ordered some finger shaped pastries that had a cream filling. This meal cost about $23 but we brought the left-overs home and there was plenty for our dinner tonight. It was not quite as good heated in the microwave, but still better than my cooking.

Since I have not been outside the apartment in three weeks, except to go to the family meeting last Sunday, I wanted to go shopping this afternoon. After some research on the computer, I located several shopping centers that might carry Northface jackets.

We got off the subway and went immediately into a huge shopping center underground. We literally walked from floor to floor in and around shops for the next three hours without locating any Northface jackets. We found everything else but looking for something specific was like looking for a needle in a hay stack. We went to two large department stores in the same area where they carry every brand of clothing imaginable (that is, except Northface jackets)! These were very expensive stores but were still crowded with shoppers. It seems that the economy has not hurt people in Beijing. They were out shopping in droves.

We checked out a large bookstore because I wanted to buy a book to read on the plane going home. I refused to buy any because the prices were almost twice as high as in the U.S. Ron said it's because books in English are exported and they have to pay duty on them.

Stores will be closed for the next couple of days because of the holidays, but we will try another area about middle of the week and see if we have any better luck finding specific things we were looking for today. We may have to go to the Silk Road Market, where we found the jackets last time. The Silk Road is an outside market with booths lined up down an alleyway. I was not certain they are open this week with the extremely cold weather and strong wind. It was still cold and windy today, although it has moderated a little since earlier in the week when it was 10 degrees F. and winds were from the North at 25-35 mph. Today, it was about 35 F. with winds 5-10 mph.

When we got off the subway, we stopped at a bakery that Ron has threatened to go in ever since we arrived in Beijing. We bought a loaf of bread for making toast and he selected some small tarts that had a custard filling. Kee and I made ourselves a cup of coffee and we enjoyed them as soon as we got home.

Once it got dark tonight, fireworks started. We have been standing at our bedroom windows looking out at fireworks for the past two hours. It is unbelievable but it's like a panoramic view of continuous fireworks. We are on the 12th floor overlooking a main street and the fireworks are being shot from the street below us and from rooftops of other buildings all around us. You can't get much closer than our window view because we could almost reach out and touch them. It is hard to do anything else when you can stand by the window and have them bursting at our window level right in front of our eyes. It's been non-stop all around us so anywhere you look, you see beautiful fireworks. It's been a fabulous sight. Ron said it makes our 4th of July celebrations look sick. These are not more beautiful. In fact, they may not be quiet as pretty, but the fact that they are so close to us and the explosions are continuous had made it spectacular. There are also just noisy firecrackers going off all the time. It is such a loud noise, it is setting off burglar alarms of parked cars all around us. They are setting fireworks off in the middle of our street right in front of Happy Inn International Hotel. Cars have to drive very cautiously in and around them in the street. They are braver than I would be to be out driving tonight. We don't know if the fireworks will continue on past midnight and beyond or not. They have not slowed down for the past three hours. This is probably going on all over the city and if you could only know how large Beijing is, you would realize that they have spent a very large amount of money for fireworks this evening. If they go all night, we will not get to sleep.

Tonight, Ron has received computer New Year cards, phone calls and text messages from nearly everyone in our Chinese group. People have been so accepting and appreciative of us making the trip to China for them. They can't believe someone our age can do so much traveling and continually work like we do, but they see our compassion for helping others and for saving souls.

Since I have no important news to report, I'll tell you a little about my cooking in China. We have no problem finding every kind of vegetable you can imagine (except yellow squash, maybe). The vegetables are fresher and larger than what we find in the U.S. Leaks are slender but about two feet tall. I've never seen them grow so tall. Celery is the same way. I have to cut the bunches in half to get them in the vegetable bin. Many kinds of fresh mushrooms are available in all markets. Ron said they grow more mushrooms in China than in any country of the world. We have gotten good fish, pork and chicken. The Japanese food market has every kind of seafood (fresh and frozen). Everything is displayed to look good and there is no odor whatsoever in the market. I don't know how they manage that with all of the fresh seafood. None of the food is as expensive as in the U.S. but we buy only a little at a time because we have a small refridgerator and we have to carry everything, including the water we drink.

I boil water to wash vegetable and cook with because the water from the faucet is probably not safe for drinking. We have not gotten sick the entire time we've been here so most restaurants are safe. We warned Kee not to eat food cooked and sold on the streets. Some of it looks and smells delicious but not safe (bacteria-wise) for Americans.

It's been a challenge to cook with so few kitchen items. I would have bought more, but we have traveled so often, we have had little time to eat here. I asked Ya Ning how she cooks with so few pans. I found out she doesn't cook much. They sleep late each morning, get showers and go eat an early lunch out. They bring the leftovers home for their dinner. It's just as cheap to do this as it is to cook in, but probably not as healthy. Ron thinks he has blown his healthy diet while in China. We have had so many government dinners and eating out during our many travels, so we try to cook here as much as we can. I have one wok, one two-quart boiler with cover, a tea pot, a chopping cleaver and chopsticks. And a microwave, which I would definitely be lost without. I bought a small fry pan so I can cook a few pieces of fish or use to toast bread for breakfast (Texas style toast, literally). I bought a small boiler for Ron to use to cook his oats. We have three cups, a few plates, a few bowls and that's it! It's been a challenge to say the least, but we have had some very good meals.

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.

Ron reached agreement with another heart hospital

On Ron's recent trip to Changde, he met with two hospitals. You can see the welcome banner they put up outside the hospital in the background. This is an excellent hospital and does both heart surgeries and cleft palate surgeries. It is the one that has a contract with Smile Train to do cleft palate surgeries but they said they did not do any for Smile Train this past year. Ron will find out if Smile Train will allow them to use this hospital this summer for the next medical mission. If not, there is another hospital that is available in Changde, but it's smaller and not as well equipped as this hospital.



Ron was invited to come check out these hospitals by Lilly, a nurse who worked about three years ago at our cleft palate medical mission. Her husband is a brain surgeon and they are wonderful people. They are on the right in the picture with their son to their left. Their son will go to the U.S. to study and become a doctor. The girl in the brown coat, seated next to Ron in the photograph, is also a nurse who worked at the last medical mission. She plans to go to the U.S. to study to be a RN. Lilly and her husband have formed this first congregation of the Lord's people that we know of in that city.




Ron worked out an arrangement with this hospital where they will do heart surgeries for us at a very reasonable cost. They said there are many poor children in this area with congential heart disease. Jackie, our worker in Xi'an over the medical program, will make a trip and check out potential children and schedule surgeries.

It was a very profitable trip. Not only do we save children's lives; we also develop goodwill with the government in another area of China that gives more credibility to our work. This has been the foundation of our goal all along - to serve mankind as Christ would have us do and prepare the field to spread the Gospel. More and more we see the trust developing as we serve the poor and orphaned children in China.

Two more weeks in China

David and Ya Ning are scheduled to arrive in Beijing January 28 or 29, depending on their flight from Shanghai. We have tickets to fly to Shanghai the morning of February 1. If seats are available on Delta, we will leave that afternoon for the U.S.

An e-mail from Dr. Joshua informed me that from looking at the pictures, Ha Ha's burn on his leg is first degree burns and will heal without leaving scars. Ha Ha's mother's leg is much worse and is probably a second degree burn. He told Jackie, one of our workers, what to do to care for them. Continue to pray for their wounds to heal without infection. Ha Ha's mother had put a hot water bottle in bed with them to keep them warm, but it burst because of the extremely hot water.

Our meeting with the Chinese was bitter sweet today. Some of the young people had already left the city to go home for Chinese New Year holidays. Others are leaving this week. Only one couple will be here next Sunday, but they will leave by train about noon that day. We will have an early Sunday morning service with them at our apartment before they leave. It was hard to tell these new friends goodbye. Jason was well enough from his surgery to attend today. He and his family will also leave this week to return to his home to visit family members.

Thursday and Friday were peak travel days. CCTV said 180,000 left on Thursday by train from just one of the stations. Although they added more trains, tickets are completely sold out for each train. With so many leaving the city, it seems the city would be empty, but I guess an equal amount of people arrive in Beijing to celebrate holidays here with families.

We will have a young man from the U.S. arriving on Tuesday to stay with us a few days. He is coming here to study at one of the universities. He has another place to stay with some other international students but can't get in the apartment for another week. We have an extra bedroom so the timing will work out fine for us to help him out. Christians should always help each other whenever there's an opportunity and we are happy to help Kee and give him a little of our experience about Beijing that might be helpful.

Travels are completed for us. For the two weeks remaining,, Ron will work on e-mails and we will do a little shopping. Today, the weather was very mild but another cold front is coming in on Wednesday.

We are grateful for those who have followed my blog and been interested in our trip. Please pray for the Langleys and us having safe return trips. I appreciate those who made comments on my blog, the many e-mails we recieved and we are especially grateful for your prayers