JiangJin

We arrived safely from Shanghai to Chongqing and then took an interesting bus ride to JiangJin. The view from our room is beautiful we have a view of the mountains and the river; however, the sounds are interesting…taxi’s beeping their horns to a roaster who crows starting at 4.30 in the morning.

This morning was our first day to go to the orphanage. We took a ferry across the river to the orphanage. When we first arrived we looked across the courtyard to see several of the children from the special needs floor waving and shouting out to us. After seeing this we went to the baby room and within 15 minutes of being there everyone had found a baby/toddler to hold and love on. Each child was eager for us to play and interact with him or her and it was easy for us to fall in love.
Our assessments began in the baby room with one to two year olds who couldn’t sit yet. After leaving the baby room our next stop was the special needs area with children ranging in age from 18 months to 23 years old. We were amazed at how many children have a diagnosis of down syndrome or dystonic cerebral palsy. Our day consisted of evaluations, some splinting and casting as well teaching the current China team.

We saw today how God uses each of us in his plan and has each of us in a certain place at a certain time for a reason. A 15 year old girl with dystonia is being used by God to be a “mother” to the younger children by helping them with dressing and developmental activities.

After a full day at the orphanage we ate dinner at a restaurant by the river where we sampled several typical Chinese dishes. We realized why the Chinese people are so thin…it takes a lot of time and effort to eat with chopsticks. Once we finished dinner we walked through the town square where there was everything from a market selling food and clothes to Chinese ladies dancing (Todd decided to join in with them and gave everyone a good laugh). We took a rick-a-shaw (see photo) from the town square back to our hotel.

Prayer Requests: energy, health and safety, relationships with the children and orphanage workers, servant’s heart for each of us