Luoyang - Maria's Big House of Hope

By Zara ~ Wow, time can really slip away from you and before you know it you haven’t posted in a week! Our family has had so much fun with playing with the Martins and Renichs, helping with preschool, moving furniture to paint rooms, and getting to know everyone a little better! Maria's Big House of Hope reaches toward the heavens and inside is truly filled with angels caring for the young orphans.

It has been such a encouragement to be with the Martins, Renichs, and other workers here. One of my favorite times is when we are all in the fellowship room on Sunday morning. Foreign passport holders are allowed freedom of worship within certain guidelines. We cannot attend a Chinese church nor can citizens of this country attend our services. Everyone gathers in a big room and sings songs and have a little sermon. The singing is amazing and everyone participates whole-heartedly. You can truly feel God’s presence in the room as we lift our voices in worship to him. I have never experienced something so amazing except when we are in China without all the distractions, and in the same building with orphans that are fighting for their lives every day and without the experience of what it truly feels like to be in a forever family.

Zena, Zola and I have also been helping teach preschool every day. The preschool teacher is a sweet young lady named Miranda. I have really enjoyed helping her but also sitting on the couch while watching tv and eating fudge icing right off the spoon and laughing our heads off after a crazy busy day. In the afternoon we help the CP kids and even though most of them just stare into space, they still know what is going on. When we tickle them or when we do something they really like, they smile and those smiles are priceless. Blowing bubbles, touching toys with different textures, using markers to do art, and listening to music are some of their favorite activities in class. Their lack of words doesn’t mean they aren’t interacting and engaged.

Our family has also helped move thing out of room so they could paint the rooms. Dad, Mr. Nate and another volunteer, Reuben from India, have been busy preparing walls for painting and doing the painting. For months there was work done on this building to meet some new guidelines and now that it is finished, there is more work to be done to prepare rooms and shuffle around the use of some space.

There are two trees in the big meeting room that were painted on the wall many years ago by a volunteer group that came. Interestingly, the group was from Brentwood Academy which is half a mile from our home! Due to recent work in the building, some of the trees were missing where work was done and sections of ceiling repainted. Mr. Nate asked Zena to paint the tree sections missing and update the art as needed. She spent hours working on the trees and needed to paint over all the previous trees, leaves and flowers to match colors. She also added a few extra touches such as more grass at the base of the trees, rocks, lady bugs, butterflies and a "carving" on the tree. God has gifted her artistically and she did a great job with this project!