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| Newsletter Fall 2006 Articles in This Newsletter:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Since taking over in March of 2005, the new LSV team has seen one miracle after another that would impact the future of LSV. Decisions were made based not only on the welfare of the children but also on the possibilities for the future. In this newsletter, you'll read about some of the changes made that could bring LSV into a new era of operation to serve the handicapped orphans of China . Change in Location After operating in the City of Nanning, Guangxi, for more than six years, LSV has moved to a small town called Nankang (population 60,000) in a district of the City of Beihai, Guangxi. If you have read our notice on the website, you would already become aware of the reasoning for such a move. The move is also in line with the Government's directive to move many of the welfare operations to more rural areas. In February, our LSV children left their home of six years after visiting the new land in Beihai. Due to the capacity of the temporary accommodations, only 16 younger children were relocated to the intermediate location. Others were placed in welfare centers and foster homes, awaiting the building of the new village in Beihai. The City of Nankang graciously allowed us to house the 16 children and our staff free of charge in a newly built welfare center, across from the construction site for the LSV new home. Our former landlord, the Coal Mining School , also forgave our penalty of not fulfilling the ten year contract. They even gave us back all the deposit, to the amount of 20,000 Rmb. This is unheard of, and we are very grateful for their decision to help us in our move. Change in Philosophy Like many orphanages in China , LSV has been using the institutional model. Children lived in dormitories with two sets of house parents who live on site three and a half days per week. For two sets of part-time parents to look after the needs of over sixty children, many of our children were not receiving the attention they needed. While talking to the Civil Affairs officials, I asked them about the ultimate plan for the handicapped orphans. After mentioning food, lodging, clothing and education, they mentioned care or love. As I pressed on in my inquiry, they realized that what all of them do not have are fathers and mothers. Orphans do not have parents, they are abandoned children! The idea of a household model was met with much support and encouragement. In the new LSV, a set of parents will be taking care of 6 to 8 children in a home setting. These children will have something that the rest of the children in China do not have: siblings! Would that compensate for their hurts of being abandoned due to their disabilities? I think so. Many of our LSV children will grow up with parents and siblings, as a part of a normal family. This is their ultimate need. Change in Scope of Service The old LSV was a children's village; there was little provision for the children when they grow up one day. As close to half of the children are over the age of 17 now, we are facing another challenge of integrating them into mainstream society. We are pleased to inform you that a few of our grown children have since found jobs and are self supporting. They still love to come back for a visit once in a while. As over one-third of the Unemployed persons in the Province of Guangxi are handicapped persons, finding a job is by no means easy. We need to assist our grown children, not only to receive occupational training, but also to have places of employment. In our future village, there is a factory in the drawing. This factory will not only be able to employ our own children but also the handicapped persons of the community. When LSV eventually moves into the new facilities, it will not be an isolated entity as in the past. What LSV has to offer can also impact the community. The town schools are asking us to assist them in English teaching programs and our teachers and children are now teaching an English class for the children every Saturday in April. Some parents with handicapped children have already brought their lovely children to our temporary place and asked for help. We hope that with our presence, the schools would be more open to accept handicapped children. Change in Staffing Last March when we took over the management of LSV, there were 33 staff person serving 63 children. The ratio was one adult to two children. It is a very good ratio except that only about ten of the adults had any direct input into the lives of the children. There was no one whom the children could call “father” or “mother”. Even if a child had gone through years in LSV, he still remains an orphan. Some changes need to be made as we look forward to a new era for LSV. All new workers, whether local or foreign, must be ready to father or mother the children. They will not be just performing a job but taking care of these precious children and have direct input into their lives. In the next two years, ten to twelve sets of parents will be recruited; each set of parents will be taking on the care of six to eight children in a family situation. Some single workers will also be invited into these families to serve as uncles or aunties. They will be a part of a parenting team. Each child can identify who their parents are and they are no longer orphans, but are part of a family. Each adult worker can have their own job during the day, just like those in a normal family. Of course, there will also be other support staffs but some of the support functions could be met by parents working in the Village during the day. Some parents may even contribute their special professional training to the nearby communities as well. Change in Support-Raising In the past, LSV is almost solely supported through donations from overseas support. As we are building for the future, there is a possibility for LSV to be self-supporting. In the schematic drawings, you can find buildings for roadside businesses, a factory that can employ our grown children as well as the handicapped persons in the community, a school and training center that open to the outside. Some of them will be income generating for the support of LSV. It is our hope that, one day, LSV will be self-sufficient. As we are building for the future, we are also building a village of families who are self-supporting. The initial investment could be high, but the return would far exceed the initial costs. When fully completed, the new LSV will serve as a model for other agencies and welfare centers all over China . It is already the biggest welfare project in all of Guangxi Province , as we had learned from the media. We need your help in making this a reality. You Can Partner with Us: Soon, you can view the schematic drawings of the new LSV on our website. The first phase is estimated to cost $2.5 million US (with building cost at about 2,000 Rmb per square meter). Please partner with us in making a monetary contribution on the web or send it to any of our worldwide offices. We can relocate all our children to the new land once the first phase is completed. Just imagine their thrill to come back to a new home with a set of parents waiting for them there. Besides the hardware, we also need human resources. Ten sets of parents are not easy to find. The best parents are those who have finished raising their own children and are still young enough to take on another young family. A five to ten year commitment is required so that the family may experience some stability as the children are growing up. If you are parents in your forties or fifties, you can still come and raise a second family of abandoned, handicapped orphans in China . Would you consider this possibility? Although both requests seem difficult to achieve, our team at LSV has faith that it can be done. Your partnership is essential to propel LSV into the next era. Our children are waiting to go back to a home environment; the community of Nankang is also waiting for someone to serve their felt needs. One day, LSV can house over 200 orphans and become a blessing to the community. Ground Breaking Ceremony On the fourth day of March 2006 we held our official ground breaking ceremony on the newly acquired 80 acreage of land in Guangxi Beihai. To an audience of Chinese officials, members of the LSV board, all LSV staff as well as people caring for orphans from different parts of the world, we gave our testimonies for Living Stones Village entering into a new era of mission. After speeches given by Chinese officials and from the board, our kids, dressed in neat uniforms, gave praises to our Abba Father. Once abandoned by parents, they are now adopted by Abba Father. These are the English lyrics to the one of the songs they sang:
Their songs touched everyone as all are amazed by how their lives are being transformed. Parenting Symposium On the fifth day of March 2006 in Beihai, we had organized an in-house training workshop called 'Parenting Symposium' for all our staff. All our board members, local and overseas staff, as well as those who care for orphans attended the symposium. Our speakers gave wonderful presentations and below are extracts of their sharing. Who Needs to Learn?-- everyone needs to learn how to parent, whether to their own kids, or to their nieces, nephews, or the young ones in church. Though there is no perfect parent on earth, we need to strive for the best, and one of our goals is to correct every perversion of earthly parents. In so doing, we need to know the distinctive roles of Father and Mother. While a Father's job is to give instructions and identifications to a child, a Mother's job is to give a sense of security to a child, telling the child that he/she is one who is cherished. Love and Discipline-- with love as the foundation of discipline, the ultimate purpose is to help children to live out the distinctive purpose that Abba has in each one's life. We discipline because we must develop the ability of self-control. In guiding kids on this track, parents must demonstrate what 'self-control' is in his/her own life. Things that parents need to bear in mind include acting consistently, giving executable instructions instead of imposing restrictions, and giving encouragement whenever practicable. Our Kids' Needs-- Orphans have weak and fragile emotions. They lack a sense of security, teaching, and guidance as they grow up. Therefore a foster parent is there to help rebuild their self-esteem and self-confidence and ultimately see them become self-supporting and self-sufficient. Only under a family setting can all these be achieved. Under our restructured family model, all of our staff shall prepare to be parents to the children, giving them directions, instructions and guidance. Our ultimate goal is to see them walking on the right track and having a healthy body, soul and spirit with nothing lacking. Our Role-- One of the side effects of the birth control policy in China is that kids in China grow up without siblings. The role of LSV is to reinstate the function of family by giving kids both parents and siblings. With that in mind we restructured the new Village to be based on a family model, with one couple taking care of six to eight kids in a household. Kids will grow up with parents with siblings of their own. The word of truth will be the universal teaching manual for all of us in raising children. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A Trip to Beihai Last Wednesday was Qingming Jie, the time for sweeping the graves of those passed on. In this part of China , the countryside, firecrackers explode everywhere in an attempt to scare dead spirits away. Fatty pork is offered and people bow to honor and keep peace with dead descendants. And kids have the day off from school. We are Abba's children and we honor Him. So, we took the day to visit His beautiful seashore at Yintan ( Silver Beach ) Beihai. It's a 50 minute drive from our new LSV home. This was our first outing since relocating here in February. One little girl got very carsick on past rides. So, we blessed her with Abba's protection over her and the rest of the children. At the beach, people were few and the weather was perfect. One by one the kids ventured out, jumping on the waves and laughing. I held onto Noelle, as one of her legs is deformed from polio and is unstable. Michael ran his wheelchair into the water, getting wet along with the rest. The kids picked up seashells, examined crabs, and wrote in the sand. A small fish landed in Daniel's shirt and everyone began fishing…opening their T-shirts wide as the waves receded, hoping to find a shimmering minnow inside. After playing, everyone was hungry. There was a bag of 3 baozis (steamed buns), an apple, and a hardboiled egg apiece and everyone was happy. On the way back, all heads were drooping, sleeping peacefully. No one got car sick! Thank you Abba, maker of earth and sky and SEA. We honor and bow to you alone, for only you give life, peace, joy, and protection. Being Salt and Light Abba sent us to this place to be salt and light. I told this to our kids a couple of weeks ago, “You are the salt of this place. You show the way to real life, a life worth living.” Like when Caroline came around to all our dinner tables with hot sauce, offering it to each one with a smile. I told her, “Carolyn, your smile and love make this dinner the best. You are the salt… better than that… the hot sauce of LSV tonight!” “And you are lights too…” The other day everyone was getting on the bus at 6:30 am and it was dark. Everyone was getting an apple for the day, some eating it then and some putting it into their pockets for later. Florence came running up to me and said “Ge Laoshi (teacher Ge), here is one for you!” Her smile and words and actions were like a bright flashlight turning on. She was the light of the LSV world that morning. And 2 weeks ago, we taught our first English class at the primary school. Grace and I took 5 of our kids as assistants. At first they were nervous and hesitant, but Abba helped us. Standing next to us, in the front of the class, they led the class in repeating English words. During practice time, they spread out to help their classmates. We could see them shining, bright and warm lights spreading love around the classroom. As we got into the van to go home, Jubilee smiled brightly and said, “hen chenggong! (success!)”. I was scared at first, but then I wasn't!” Yes, Abba helped us and His loving light filled the classroom. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Name Change Notice The Board of Directors of LSV met on March 1-3 in Hong Kong and Beihai, China. One of the most important resolutions was to change the name of the present corporation from “Living Stones Children's Village (China) Limited” to “Living Stones Village Limited”. The Chinese name also is changed from 綠寶石兒童村(中國)有限公司 to 萬國活石村有限公司. The reason for such a change is threefold: firstly, it aims at correcting the inconsistency in the previous translation. “Green Gems” in Chinese is not a correct translation of “Living Stones”. Secondly, LSV is presently serving more than children. Many of the original children have grown into adults. More than one-third of them are over the age of 17 and are considered adults in China. Thirdly, the move to Beihai from Nanning also signals a change in the ministry philosophy of LSV, from an institutional model to a family model. It is more than a change in locality; it is also a change in the scope of service. In the future, LSV plans to bring in abandoned, handicapped orphans from age three and raise them all the way to adulthood. A change of name reflects a new beginning for LSV. Since the board meeting, the Hong Kong Government has approved the name change. The Hong Kong Company is in the process of rewriting the contract with the Chinese Civil Affairs Bureau to make the name change official in China before construction begins. Please be mindful of the new name in your next donation to LSV. Thank you! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Be Our Partners You can partner with us to restore hope for the handicapped orphans through the following:
Please contact us if you further inquires regarding partnering with us in LSV.
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Living Stones Village is a tax-exempt non-profit organization registered in the United States and Hong Kong. *" LSV Canada is a registered organization with tax exempt status PENDING in Canada". LSV entered an agency agreement with China Care Associates (CCA) that all donation receipts will be issued by CCA for tax deduction purpose in Canada. Any question about your donation, please contact us at info@livingstonesvillage.org © 2012 Living Stones Village. All Rights Reserved. |