Greetings from China! Let us introduce ourselves:
(Right to Left)
Brandon, Christina, Joseph, Joshua, Orlena (Mother), Stuart (Father), David, Jennifer, and Elizabeth
Back in 2013, after a season of prayer, Stuart was led to sell most of his belongings and lead his family from Canada to China. Around that time, Joseph Flemming, a good friend, decided to also come along.
Stuart was invited to teach at a public high school in Beijing and saw this as an opportunity to reach out to young impressionable minds. Amazingly, under approval by the principal, who is also the communist leader of the district we live in, Stuart has had a wide open door to teach the children all kinds of new concepts for them, like Christian holidays and culture, thought-provoking lessons on life's moral issues, and has caused hundreds of students to rethink what they were taught about evolution. Most importantly he shows love consideration to the students, something rare to find in Chinese public schools.
As a family we also help out on many ways like volunteering at orphanages and classrooms, and are now reaching out to other provinces besides Beijing by using medical to help those that cannot afford to go to the hospital, and teaching hygiene. Jennifer is our "nurse" that does check ups to discover any obvious health problems that could be serious, along with listening to heart rates and checking blood pressure.
When we first came to China we decided that we weren't going to force open any doors, but wait until God lead us in a direction. This gave us time to adjust to the new culture. Brandon took it upon himself to master Chinese. He is very gifted, and can now speak Chinese very fluently and can read most commonly used characters. His help has been invaluable to our family. Christina also speaks and reads fluent Chinese, but not because of study like Brandon. God has truly blessed her with the language and she now uses that gift to translate in many different situations as well as witnessing.
Five months later, in February, after filming a ministry video about ourselves to be shared on a Chinese Christian TV outreach, [link to video below] someone contacted us with an opportunity to care for an orphan baby who was abandoned at an old-folks home. The baby, whom we call Joshua, was not receiving proper care there and we took him in to our home. Due to some kind of trauma when he was very young, he has considerable brain damage: half his brain is water. Doctors told us the damage was so severe he wouldn't be able to use the left side of his body, express emotions, and he would have many seizures. Miraculously, he is learning to use his left leg and arm, even though he still favors his right. He is very intelligent, learning to communicate, and expresses emotions and desires very well! He is also very musically inclined and loves to jump up and down to the children's songs we play for him! All the doctors say he is a miracle child.
It is our desire and goal to adopt Joshua, but that presents us with a mountain range of difficulty. Between the fact that he still needs to be declared as a legal orphan, the financial burden, and China and Canada's very difficult adoption process, we need basically a miracle to be able to adopt him.
Family intro/singing video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0zjyf7wa4U
(Right to Left)
Brandon, Christina, Joseph, Joshua, Orlena (Mother), Stuart (Father), David, Jennifer, and Elizabeth
Back in 2013, after a season of prayer, Stuart was led to sell most of his belongings and lead his family from Canada to China. Around that time, Joseph Flemming, a good friend, decided to also come along.
Stuart was invited to teach at a public high school in Beijing and saw this as an opportunity to reach out to young impressionable minds. Amazingly, under approval by the principal, who is also the communist leader of the district we live in, Stuart has had a wide open door to teach the children all kinds of new concepts for them, like Christian holidays and culture, thought-provoking lessons on life's moral issues, and has caused hundreds of students to rethink what they were taught about evolution. Most importantly he shows love consideration to the students, something rare to find in Chinese public schools.
As a family we also help out on many ways like volunteering at orphanages and classrooms, and are now reaching out to other provinces besides Beijing by using medical to help those that cannot afford to go to the hospital, and teaching hygiene. Jennifer is our "nurse" that does check ups to discover any obvious health problems that could be serious, along with listening to heart rates and checking blood pressure.
When we first came to China we decided that we weren't going to force open any doors, but wait until God lead us in a direction. This gave us time to adjust to the new culture. Brandon took it upon himself to master Chinese. He is very gifted, and can now speak Chinese very fluently and can read most commonly used characters. His help has been invaluable to our family. Christina also speaks and reads fluent Chinese, but not because of study like Brandon. God has truly blessed her with the language and she now uses that gift to translate in many different situations as well as witnessing.
Five months later, in February, after filming a ministry video about ourselves to be shared on a Chinese Christian TV outreach, [link to video below] someone contacted us with an opportunity to care for an orphan baby who was abandoned at an old-folks home. The baby, whom we call Joshua, was not receiving proper care there and we took him in to our home. Due to some kind of trauma when he was very young, he has considerable brain damage: half his brain is water. Doctors told us the damage was so severe he wouldn't be able to use the left side of his body, express emotions, and he would have many seizures. Miraculously, he is learning to use his left leg and arm, even though he still favors his right. He is very intelligent, learning to communicate, and expresses emotions and desires very well! He is also very musically inclined and loves to jump up and down to the children's songs we play for him! All the doctors say he is a miracle child.
It is our desire and goal to adopt Joshua, but that presents us with a mountain range of difficulty. Between the fact that he still needs to be declared as a legal orphan, the financial burden, and China and Canada's very difficult adoption process, we need basically a miracle to be able to adopt him.
Family intro/singing video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0zjyf7wa4U