There is an old song that would play in our living room growing up. It was a Steve Green song (no, not ‘Let the Little Children Come’). It must have been one of my dad’s favorite CDs judging by the amount of times I heard the song. The song culminated with Steve launching into the songs final, very loud, declartion,
“We have seen God’s glory, Jesus Christ”.

That was our China trip.

We saw Jesus in preparation. The church was unbelievable in prayer, support, and checking in on us as we went to Shepherd’s Field Orphanage near Beijing, China. People donated over $30,000, and we were completely covered in our trip with an extensive surplus that we were able to give directly to the orphanage.

We saw Jesus in travel. Thankfully, while we lost a lot of sleep, we didn’t lose any baggage, people or too many tempers. All of our flights went well and we had the chance to have some great conversations and watch Russian movies.

We saw Jesus in the orphanage. Being there with 80 special needs children, we saw amazing examples of love, patience and beauty in the kids, their teachers and nannies. We saw faith in action, as the leaders of the orphanage rely on prayer and God’s church for 100% of the funding for the needs of the kids. We all come back with many stories of precious little ones and how they impacted each of our lives. Upon returning we learned that 4 of the children were named after people on our team.

We are still seeing Jesus in our continuing connection. We have 4 young adults going to the orphanage in the next few months. Two of them are going to set-up a multi-thousand dollar network in order to make communication fluid and bring them up to speed technologically. We have 2 more of them going - Lord willing - in May. They will be working on videos, websites, graphics and social media in order to keep people connected all over the world.
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Here are some thoughts on the trip from members of the team.

-Nneka Arinze
I struggled in China with feeling like the only one who didn’t want to pack a little child in my suitcase and bring them home with me. I realize now that I don’t have to do that to deliver the message. I don’t have to have been adopted, or a teacher or a mother. I just have to be willing to do what it takes to make sure they know. I need to see through the eyes of God and know when “it is not good”. Almost two decades ago three people were moved by the fact that it was NOT ok for children to be abandoned for physical or mental imperfections; that it was not ok for these children to grow up in facilities that were not equipped to care for them; and it was not ok for these children to spend their adulthood in a place described as “worse than prison”. I may not be called to move to a different country, but I’m definitely called to support that work and tell people about it so that for as many children as possible, as that puzzle begins to take shape, the picture they see is one of hope, love and promise for the future.
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-April Barkowsky
What I took away from China was a new understanding of how much of an intentional God we serve. Between hearing the amazing stories of God’s provision in establishing the orphanage and seeing the end result, which was the faces of children who are loved and taken care of, I was left feeling so overwhelmed and blessed to see God’s hand at work. God wanted those kids to be taken care of.
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-Jess Clark
China, an amazing place that changed my life. In sweet moments I was able to see, and I mean really SEE God there. Through moments with the kids, the interactions with each other and to the kids and the people who worked and ministered there, I saw God lived. It was beautiful to see James 1:27 lived out and to be a part of that. I walked away blessed to know the kids and staff there!