Mission trip 2010 - part 5

Continuing on from last post, I wanted to share a couple more stories from my trip that stood out for me....

Basketball with Dang Zi Long

Another story relating to Zi Long. As I mentioned previously, he was very reserved, didnt like to involve himself with activities going on. But every so often I would grab one of the basketballs and bounce it to him and he would bounce it back. But unfortunately we would be interupted by one of the other children stealing the ball away and at this point ZiLong would lose interest. But I persisted with him, and I began trying to teach him how to bounce the ball, with little success. But we kept bouncing the ball to each other or when he lost interest, we would just take walks around the center. But I always kept trying to teach him how to bounce the ball.
But then one afternoon, I was sitting with one of the younger boys and I looked over to where Zi Long was, and he was moving towards one of the balls, he picked it up...and then started bouncing it just as I had been showing him. Over the next days I would see him do this more and more and it really brought joy to my heart to see him playing like this.


Smiling Grandma

There is an older lady that lives in the center. She is mentally disabled, but at the same time she is so incredibly happy. You only need to look at when we first arrive, each morning when we reach the center, as we enter the gates to where the children are, she makes such a loud and happy noise. She would come up to me and give me a hug. But this would not only go on first thing in the morning, all throughout the day, she would approach me and give me hugs or just show me a drawing (which was usually nothing more than a scribble) to me. But she always had such a great big smile! She also liked to lean against me. Sometimes I would sit next to her on a bench in the courtyard, and suddenly she would lean against me. She just loved affection, she just loved to have a hug. Things that we take for granted, but the people who live in the welfare center are so deprived of these simple things.


To be honest I could keep going on and on about stories and even small moments that made a big impact on me, but I should wrap it up there.

Overall, the chance to travel to Sanmenxia and serve in the Welfare Center is something that I will never forget. I keep repeating it, but I continually give praise to God for using me in that place and also placing me with a group of such amazing people who all had such beautiful hearts, full of love for children, all following Jesus. Given the opportunity I would definitely attend another trip!

I hope these posts have been slightly interesting and not put you all off reading my blog. If you have any questions or want me to share more about a particular topic, please send me a message and I will be happy to talk more.