A Hansel and Gretel Journey through China

Myth and folklore often have roots in truth.

The story of Hansel and Gretel reflects a truth that I saw illustrated on our recent journey across China.

Germany, circa 1840,  famine grips the land, and Hansel and Gretel's stepmother determines to take the children deep into the woods and abandon them there so she and her husband will not starve to death. The brother and sister overhear the stepmother's plan. As they are led through the woods, Hansel leaves a trail of bread crumbs to mark the trail and lead them home. Hansel assures Gretel that God will not forsake them.

Eventually, they discover a cottage made of gingerbread, cakes, and candy, owned by a wicked and cannibalistic witch who uses the candy to lure children in and eat them.The witch tries to fatten up and cook Hansel and Gretel, but some quick thinking on Gretel's part lands the witch in the oven. The tables are turned! The wicked witch is dead, The children discover  precious jewels in the house. They return safely home with the treasure for a happy reunion with their father and with the knowledge that their wicked stepmother is also dead.

Gruesome story with a victorious ending and a kernel of truth.

China, circa 2015, spiritual famine grips the land. Many people, lost in a  dark forest of atheism and humanism, search for the way home to a Father who loves them. But the wicked one is prowling the forest, seeking whom he may devour, luring them with sweet promises.The forest looms, fearsome and foreboding. An oven awaits those who take shelter in the way of evil. "Home" with their Heavenly Father means a rich inheritance of spiritual blessings and a final victory. This is TRUTH.

And so, we played Hansel and Gretel this summer, dropping bits and pieces of the "bread of life," from east to west in China, leaving a trail to lead the lost "home" to their loving Father. Far and wide, we scattered the "bread of life," in the form of mp3 audio devices called "Pathlighters" and "Wildlife Storytellers," from the East China Sea to the borders of Tibet.

Piper lives at the children's home. His "daddy"
there reports that he listens to
one story every day.

The Pathlighters and Wildlife Storytellers were collected by

taxi, van, and bus drivers,

bus passengers,

teachers,

cooks,

college students,

twenty-somethings,

grandmas and grandpas,

employees of large companies,

street vendors, 

children.

An excellent family.

THESE ARE THE FACES OF BEAUTUFUL PEOPLE YOU HAVE IMPACTED, DEAR FRIENDS! ...

THEY FOUND THE "BREAD" THAT YOU  SENT TO LEAD THEM "HOME."

THANK YOU FOR GIVING. THANK YOU FOR SENDING.

Sweet fellow travelers and companions.

University students.

My former junior high school students ... all grown up as teachers, parents, and
company employees.

A local senior citizen get-together.

Children in our orphanage.

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty . . . whoever comes to me I will never drive away . . . For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." 

John 6:35-40 (NIV)

THANK YOU FOR SENDING BREAD TO LEAD THESE PRECIOUS ONES . . . HOME.

The Orphanage Reunion

Our "kids" during a visit in 2006. Simon/Ming is seated, second from right. Ben is in the first seat on the right. The orphanage director wanted uniforms, and our friends in the US provided the funds to have them made.

The metal entry door clangs shut. Children's artwork lines the walls of the hall. The ceilings vault over ten feet. Frequent mopping leaves water pooled on the concrete floors. The walls are two-toned, the bottom sporting an institutional green, topped with white. Void of furniture other than a long, low table and small chairs, the room echoes in the emptiness. Voices rise faintly from the television room and the upstairs bedrooms. Feet clatter, and twenty-four children appear, excited, laughing, gibbering away in Chinese with arms open to hug the arriving American grandmothers..

Once again the ninis (Chinese for grandmas) are back in Fuzhou, China, at the Living Hope Children's Home . . .  and a long way from Layton.

Beginning in 2004 the Living Hope children drew those grandmas back across the world for six or seven visits. Bearing suitcases filled with English lessons, games, prizes, stickers, skit props, and craft projects, the grandmas settled down to do what grandmas do . . . talk, sing, laugh, tell stories, take walks, and hug. On that first visit to Fuzhou, the children ranged in age from four to eleven.

Last month, the grandmas returned again, after a hiatus of several years, for a special reunion with the children who had run to meet  them so often, but the "little ones" weren't so little any more. Teens and young adults greeted the ninis, some with an outstretched hand, others with a hug.

Simon, seated second from the right in the photo above, returned to the orphanage too. He was one of only two or three children adopted out, due to unusual restrictions in Chinese law. Simon (Chinese name "Ming") had been adopted by an American family from the state of Washington. Jody Bowser, a pastor in WA, and his wife Karyn have three children of their own, but hearts big enough to include the adoption of two Chinese children.

Simon/Ming with his orphanage "parents," Robert and Deborah, and
with his adoptive parents, the Bowsers.

Simon graduated from high school in June. His senior project, a ping pong tournament called "Ming Pong," raised over $1000 to buy a ping pong table and other materials for his orphanage home in Fuzhou. So the Bowsers brought Ming and the rest of their family back to Living Hope Children's Home this summer to meet the "brothers and sisters" and "mommies and daddies" he had not seen since his adoption about eight years before..

 Articulate, charismatic, and energetic, Ming is an adoption success story. He has enrolled at Lancaster Bible College in Pennsylvania this September. An interesting twist that our Chinese grandson would eventually attend college in Pennsylvania. Ming's desire is to live a life of gratefulness, thanking and honoring God for His watch care and love through his growing-up years.

Ben, seated in the first chair on the right in the photo above, also came back for the reunion. Ben's crippled leg was just one of the obstacles he sought to overcome. He left the orphanage at eighteen and struck out on his own to experience the world and live the life he'd seen on television. Things did not go well, Ben said. Now, twenty-one years old, Ben admits that he learned hard lessons about choices and the world's empty promises. He grew up fast.

Ben with American nini, Marilyn Stracham.

Ben took a six hour bus trip to spend a single afternoon with his "brother" Ming, his orphanage siblings, and the American ninis. And he wanted to tell those grandmas something special . . .

"You gave me some of the best memories of my childhood," Ben faltered. "As a child, I didn't understand the level of your commitment. I thought you came from nearby. I'm older now, and I know that you came a great distance. It cost you a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of trouble."

Ben's hands and voice shook as he rose from his chair and invited the ninis into an adjoining, vacant room. Closing the door behind him, Ben lined the grandmas up, shifted his weight from his lame leg, and bowed deep and low to the older women. "I just want to say thank you. Thank you for your sacrifice for us. Thank you for the good memories." And he hugged each one.

No other reasons are needed to answer the question,

"Why do you go back to China?"

Becky, the tallest girl in the back row of the photo above,
works part time in a pharmacy and
 takes pharmacy courses at a technical school.

Amy, sixth from the right in the photo above,
spent the summer as a cashier in a local
supermarket.