Update Part 2: A New Day

The Lord will keep you from all harm--
    he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
    both now and forevermore.
Psalm 121:7-8

I never imagined leaving Eagles Wings, and I would be lying if I said it will be easy to leave the children that I have come to know and love so well. However, it is time to look to the future, and it is clear that our future is still here in China. As I have spoken with several different orphan care programs over the last few months I have again been touched by the number of needs and inspired by the many wonderful and dedicated people who are following their vision of service Many of these programs focus on babies, and the need for medical care and early nurturing never lessens, but for the children who grow up and are not adopted the opportunities are few and the risks are many. It is this vastly underserved population that has captured my heart. I believe I am called to provide opportunities for older orphans to attain the education, life skills and vocational skills needed to become independent and productive young adults. Over the next year I will be working to identify options, solutions and most importantly develop relationships and network with others who have the same vision.

So What’s Next?

I will finish my official role here at Eagles Wings on July 31. We have a very busy July planned with a training team, a group of volunteers and many of our children attending Bring me Hope Camp, so it will be a very busy month.

From August 1 through about mid-September my girls and I will continue to live in Jiaozuo along with my three foster children. Two of those children will be adopted in August and September, and I am happy that we are able to stay and keep them in a stable environment as they  prepare for this huge transition. 

After the children have gone to America, we will be packing up and moving to …..Beijing!  Or rather Qingyundian, a small rural village on the south side of Beijing where we will be working with New Day. New Day is a very exciting program which will offer us a community of like-minded volunteers to help mentor and challenge me while I also work to support their current orphan and outreach programs.

I hope by now you are catching the excitement and asking “how can I be involved?” 

First of all, I want to thank you for your encouragement and support. Every day that we are here is because of our friends around the world who believe in what we are doing.  I hope I can count on your continued support. We will continue to be self-supporting, and due to differences in the programs and proximity to Beijing, we will have greater financial needs than we do now. I have been so blessed to have several new supporters come on board even before I let our needs be known (I love it when that happens!) We still need to raise about $500 in additional support to meet our monthly expenses. Over the next month I will post here to let you know how you can help. In the meantime, please be aware that your donations to Eagles Wings will not flow through to our family.

So away we go...sooner than I had expected, but "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him" (2 Timothy 2:15)  I hope you will come along!